This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://teksyndicate.com/videos/adblock-killer-interactive-video-marketing-iot-shoes-robot-fish-viva-technology-2016
I noticed in the YouTube comments some pretty snarky marks about being told to disable Ad-block... Its kind of sad. Just to put my piece into all this, I am perfectly fine with off ad block on sites I support such as TekSyndicate Overclock.net. I do not mind having ads as long as its a clean simple experience. I also do not mind sitting through 30ish seconds of an ad to support the content I love. Its when there are ads hijacking the entire page, Playing obnoxious sounds, 1+ min videos, and even malicious is when I leave adblock on.
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Yeah, I think it is perfectly fine to ask people to turn off adblock. It's the ones that scream and cry about adblock and says you're a bad person etc for using it. That is not okay, and never should be. Telling your users they suck is just plain stupid.
Of course I have no problem supporting stuff I like. I try to do that as much as possible, who wouldn't?
I like the robotic fish, i wonder how they would go in mineral oil?
I went for the longest time without adblock. All I ran was a script blocker and Privacy badger. However, YouTube didn't play nice with that setup - it still played ads, which I was fine with, but every single ad was unskippable, including those 3-5 minute ones. After years of not having adblock, I finally installed it again, just for YouTube. I wish there was a blacklist function where it would only run on sites with that list.
Where is the video from CERN???
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Problem with ad-block detection scripts is that they get triggered just for having and adblocker installed, some sites still won't let you view content if you disable on that site. So now you have to add scripts to your browser to block anti-adblock ones.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo
or
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/
+
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/735-anti-adblock-killer-reek
seems to fix the problem, now just need to wait for the anti-adblocking detection to kick in. someone will have to make a new anti-anti-adblocking script.
When anti-adblocking tools are used, it's only a matter of time until someone comes up with a way to circumvent those. I's going to be yet another cat and mouse game.
You will initially see a rise in revenue, but it's not going to last. You will be pissing off a whole lot of people in the process though.
Advertising companies are generally too lazy to properly check the ads for malicious code.
That's why I run an adblocker all the time. I would only put a site on my whitelist is if they manually go over every single ad that could appear on the site.
Tek Syndicate uses Google Adsense, OpenX and Quantcast. Malware has been known to spread via the first two of those ad platforms and the third one is known to be one of the main promotors of the so-called "Zombie cookies", so your chance of ever being on my whitelist is somewhere between 0% and nonexistant.
I'd consider Tek Support, but something about entering my personal details as well as full credit card info on small sites (like TS) rings all my alarms.
Similar story with Patreon, who to my knowledge still haven't released the findings of the security audit they had done after their database breach last year. Secrecy about whether or not you actually resolved your security issues doesn't generate trust.
If this Adback thing gets implemented here, I guess I'll have to become Tek Support using an anonymous prepaid credit card and false personal details. Or find a way to do it without actually paying at all. Shouldn't be too hard.
I just want to say a heartfelt fuck AdBack.
I have outlined why I dislike ads before, particularly in reference to YouTube ads, in short I don't need that additional mental trauma for something I did not do, like drink driving and murdering a family in the resultant crash, especially on days when I am busy feeling about as shitty as a person can get without permenantly removing myself from the genepool.
On top of that, out side YouTube disabling ads is nothing more than basic safety. There have been ads that need no interaction and set about infecting the visiting PC immediately, and before you say don't visit dodgy websites, ON THE FUCKING NEW YORK TIMES SITE! https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/16/major-sites-new-york-times-bbc-ransomware-malvertising
So yeah never gonna stop blocking ads for that alone, never mind the never ending guilt trip of vehicular murder.
So now some fucking asshat company is trying to circumvent adblockers through java script. Great. Time to disable JavaScript till adblockers can counter this new wave of shitbaggery.
I would say as direct advice to @logan and co. If you do enable this cuntfest of a service on here to the very minimum and cross reference all previous and current TekSupport/Patreone members and have the AdDick software not apply to them.
I cannot believe in one of the most tinfoil hat and cautious places I visit that you are seriously thinking this is a good idea. Stop, think for a second about what sort of new insecurities this could lead to and then don't fucking do it. Yet another layer you have no control over, open to more exploits, that can run text that will in all likelihood be used it's self as an attack vector, trying to reinstate ads that are all ready an attack vector into a place where dues have been paid, people care for the quality of their experience and security of their PC.
What a pile of bollocks.
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Tek Syndicate Ican't believe you said good things will come of them tracking our info. I thought you were all against this sort of thing? Are you selling out now?
Oh & as for ad blocking I don't do it so you get paid. Don't point the finger at me for you losing any revenue by me blocking ads in relation to your videos and whatever.
As for the robotic fish that was cool.
PS: Die commerce die.
Problem is that the content creators are caught between a rock and a hard place. The users do not want ads taking over the screen, and playing stupidly high noices(the current strategy) but sadly that is the ad companies current strategy. I give Software like Adblock killer a very short lively hood until someone just invents some software which injects random info to the app. Ads are and should go die in their current state, It is a battle ad companies cannot win, nor should. Im all for sponsored content, but in the current state my experience of the content is totally overshined by the adds for products im never going to buy anyways.
On ads:
I don't mind ads if I am on a website that I am not paying a subscription on. Content creators have to make money somehow and it's only fair that they either get direct cash via subscriptions or indirect support through ad views. I do, however, have some particular issues with many ads, and here is the list.
1) "Smart" or "Targeted" ads. Just because I bought a power supply a week ago doesn't mean I need ads on power supplies ad nauseum. I already found and bought one, I don't need any more ads. I prefer it when the ads are relevant to the subject matter of whatever I'm viewing at the time as opposed to the history analytic-fueled ads that think they are showing you what you want to view based on search history. If I'm on a PSU web search, then maybe PSU ads are appropriate and may even clue me in on a sale or new item I've never considered before.
2) Unrelated content ads. I do not think I'm going to buy any dishwashing detergent because that ad randomly pops up on a PSU search. I only ask that content creators screen their ads as best they can and try to keep them borderline useful/appropriate as opposed to just ad spam. If your making content on housekeeping, sure drop that dishwashing ad on there. If I'm viewing a Linux forum - probably not going to interest me.
3) Video ads with high volume. I get it, screaming makes people pay attention. Long enough to be antagonized into hunting the "mute" button. This is particularly bad on video content ads where I'm watching at my comfortable volume level and then "BAM, HERE IS A REALLY LOUD AD THAT HURTS YOUR EARS" ... well if I have to change the volume during an ad its going to be muted outright, whereas I would have just let it play through - and maybe even listened - if it was volume balanced. Particularly if the content related to what I was watching.
4) Click anywhere ads. These always seem to load right in front of my cursor right as I'm clicking on something else, resulting, of course, in an immediate close out of the opened tab. Ads that say "click this button for more info" don't bother me nearly as much because it gives me the option of not clicking if I'm not interested and the odds of accidental clicks drops dramatically. I don't ask for much - just the opportunity to politely decline via a little "x" up top, or to express interest via clicking a tastefully sized "More info" button.
As for Tek Syndicate, @Logan you guys do a good job on screening ads, and I thank you for that. May want to go ahead and take down the LAN Syndicate ads though, wee bit outdated. I didn't mind them though, thought they were well done.
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I haven't watched any Tek Syndicate in a few months, and the first thing I see is Logan talking about selling out and installing an adblocker blocker? Happy Independence Day.
While I understand the problems associated with AdBlock, I doubt undermining the users' autonomy by neglecting their decision will do you any good in the long run
I'll take myself as an example:
I'm the kind of person, that has zero tolerance for ads. The whole concept of other people trying to tell me what to do with my time (=money) is more than just infuriating in my eyes.
There is no ads on any of my devices. I do not wish to be served content, that I have not chosen.
But, because I enjoy your content and respect your time, I chose to give some money every month via patreon.
If I am undermined in my decision of blocking ads but instead giving (more money than you'd make of me with ads), I feel screwed and might stop doing both.
Adkiller is JS -> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/
Everyone is freaking out like I'm going to start collecting personal data. No. Not ever happening. If we use a service like this it would just be looking at if the user has adblock enabled and what language/country they are in. I think we could develop a more minimal system to do this on our own, but we need to. Our ad revenue is about 1/8 of what it was before adblock.
I'm also seeing complaining that ads are bad and malicious.... do you really think we are evil enough to serve ads like tha?. I even try to curate our Google ads when we use them. These complaints are specific to companies who are obviously not careful or don't care about their users.
On to adblock... I am all for finding ways to get around it on our site. We can't do this for free. Patreon does help. It covers about 2 employees or the office and one employee. We created the store as well to help, so we aren't stupidly relying on ads... but having ads again would mean we can do more.
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One thing that would help massively in making up the difference between now and pre adblock says is knowing how much it was getting in then vs now and not in some round about 1/8th way.
1/8th of some unknown number is a smaller still unknown number.
I know Google does not legally allow people to say and I am not asking for you to break that. I am getting at a need for wide spread and full scale change in how advertising is run, supplied and targeted.
Personally if I was in control of the, for lack of btter term, genre of ads that was served to me I would enable them just about everywhere. No I don't want feminine hygiene products, I am a guy. Let me set up a few rules on the type and subject of the ads and I will let you advertise to me all day.
I know you curate a lot of the ads that appear here so that is less of an issue and indeed I do not block ads here, I do block ads on YouTube however for reasons stated above.
I have heard, of course anecdotally, on the PGP stream that a $10 donation is equivalent to several life times of that user viewing ads instead.
A short term solution right now to lack of ad cash seems to be live streaming every now and then, say 1 in 5 teks, and answering some user questions if they donate. As I said seems to be working out for the likes of PGP, Awesome Hardware and TechTalk from just the ones I watch. Not a perfect solution and I understand you dislike people doing things of that manner because you feel you need to give back as much, unfortunately it might be something you have to get over at least for now.
The short of it is, the ad system as it is now is broken and users are sick of it so you end up almost inevitably where we are now. It is an arms race that will not end until something drastically changes.
As for the malicious ads. My worry is not that you will knowingly serve them, I cannot imagine any even slightly moral person would do that, it is that you do not control the ad network and they can serve malicious ads with out them even knowing it and then everyone suffers. The feeling is like with cloud services that the users are not in control anymore and the blocking is the obvious rebelion against that.
The entire system is a black box and I want no part of that.
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Wanna sell ads bakem into the site and vet the code ? Use adback and watch who can break it the quickest :)
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Logan your next video didn't help you much. More talk of devices that can be used to spy and collect data. What the heck is going on with Tek Syndicate?!?!?
I would be fine with ad's if they where opt in. To many ad for things I find repulsive. Meat, Gambling and etc. The cognitive pollution is why I have not had a TV in 18 years. Sell me games, hardware, travel, books, movies.... anyways my 2c.
I usually have ad-blocker off for Tek but I can't unblock the youtube... those ads are..... Anyways I will keep paying my Patreon for your great content and buying gifts for my nerd friends from your store. (You keep selling out of tall and super obese people t-shirts when I need ones for my self)