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by forca 4248 days ago
There is something also mean-spirited about tracking users. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it's all anonymous, but I've been in the IT industry for a very long time, and I know for a fact they can identify the users with enough time. Because all of this is bought and sold behind the scenes.

I would be OK with ads that went straight to the site selling an item with no tracking other than click-thru stats but not using the IP address, not fingerprinting the browsers, etc.

It's sick that sites show one price to mobile users and another to desktop users. I've seen this by testing it myself. It's a sham. It's the seedy side of capitalism. Everyone should get the same price. Another reason to block ads, since allowing them means you're buying into the way they do business.

Nothing mean-spirited about blocking a very strong vector for malware, which we all know ad networks have become. I have a moral imperative to protect machines under my control, so we block all ads, disallow all tracking, use Disconnect, Ad Block Plus, and HTTPS Everywhere, along with other in-place tools to allow users a clean Internet experience. Let's not even mention how much bandwidth is saved by adblocking... That alone makes it worth it.

3 comments

You are painting with a broad brush. My sites would be negatively affected by this plugin even though we sell our own ads (no network) and don't target them by fingerprint or IP.

It's also just kind of mean. By design it only messes with the sites that you yourself think are worth visiting.

> It's the seedy side of capitalism. Everyone should get the same price

This rant against price discrimination seems like a tangent. The behavior you're describing is something e-commerce sites sometimes do. It doesn't have much to do with ads and blocking ads won't make hotels.com show everyone the same price.

> It's sick that sites show one price to mobile users and another to desktop users.

Out of curiosity, which is cheaper?

Desktop generally. Also iPhone users frequently are quoted higher prices than Android users. I've seen this with my own eyes.
And car dealers sell the same car to two different people for two different prices. And Proctor & Gamble puts the same shampoo in an expensive bottle and a cheap bottle and sells them side by side.

I understand why you think this is unfair, but it just doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.

It's a big deal because it's disingenuous.
<Offtopic for others, but imp for forca - pls don't downvote> Hi forca: With respect to your comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8304139) where you stated you needed some surgery and sought help with figuring out your options? I replied to it (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8334691) which you missed. I can help since I'm launching this very service.

As you don't have any contact on your profile so there was no way for me to reach you. I even contacted YC admin and they confirmed you haven't left an email in your profile :( Since then I've been tracking your comments page to maybe catch you live.

So let's talk? I can answer any/all of your queries and the ones I don't know the answer to I can figure out. Think of me as no-obligation, friendly discussion to clarify all your doubts. I hope you see this message.

Auto-clicking bots will punish the people who run sites, not the people who run ads. They'll get shut down for fraudulent use.

Meanwhile, unless this has something like >50% adoption, ad networks won't even notice.

Edit: When I say "people who run ads", I mean the ad networks, ad suppliers, etc.

>> Auto-clicking bots will punish the people who run sites, not the people who run ads.

If you've got ads on your site, you're someone that runs ads... Not that I disagree with your point.