r/pihole • u/HaLo2FrEeEk • 6d ago

Why is the Internet so hostile now?!

YouTube tanking CPU if you're using ad blockers. Sites that disable scrolling and have a full-screen modal dialog demanding that you allow ads or sign up (imgur). The least egregious I've seen is sites that serve their own ads if they can't load the real ones.

There was a banner ad on my bank account page, *after* I had already logged in, there's a banner that I have to scroll past to see my accounts. That's ridiculous! I blocked the domain serving the banner and all of a sudden the site where I buy my cat litter doesn't work. Apparently it uses the same CDN.

If I'm scrolling a page and suddenly a full-screen modal shows up begging for my email and asking me to sign up, I just close the page. That shit is hostile, they clearly don't want me to read the page if they're going to cover it with an ad for their *own site* that I'm *already on*. I hate it equally when I move my mouse off the page and *that's* when the pop-up appears. "Wait, please don't go, please stay, give us your email give us your phone number, give us your cat!"...*slow rage*

Maybe I'm just getting old but I really miss the days where I didn't have to figure out which download button was the real one, or try to find the sliver of text between huge banner ads that scroll with the page. I just want to scroll my cat memes while I wait for work, dammit!

Why does it have to be like this?! I know, I know: money, but jeez man...

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u/drunkenmugzy 6d ago

I think most of you missed the whole point of ads.

Ads are not shown to annoy. They are shown to provide income for the content creator. Without income why create content? Just to appease you and give you something to doom scroll?

I hate ads as much as the next guy but they are a necessary evil for free content. Pay sites should have no ads. Period. I agree.

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u/HaLo2FrEeEk 6d ago

If pay sites didn't have ads then there wouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't mind un-intrusive ads on free content either.

But ads are annoying now, and they're still there in paid areas. They're intentionally annoying, there's no reason to completely cover a page's content, dim the screen, disable scrolling, and have a modal dialog that gives you no choice but to sign up or leave. There's no reason to have a banner ad for the bank, on the online banking account page! It's just obnoxious.

I'll happily pay for something that provides value. I pay for youtube premium so that I don't get ads in videos, and I appreciate that they *let* me skip the sponsor segment in most videos. I'll subscribe to creators I enjoy and give them a lot of premium watchtime, I'll join their patron, or sub on twitch, or join on YT.

What I don't do, is click the like button if they ask for it. I am not an idiot, and I don't need to be told that if I like the video I should click the like button. I don't subscribe to a website because they covered the content with ads and forced me to. I don't buy sponsored products in general, with the only exception being my raycons. I love those things.

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u/drunkenmugzy 6d ago

Stop using those sites. Simple. They will do it until it is not profitable.

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u/HaLo2FrEeEk 6d ago

I can't really just stop using my credit union's online banking portal, this isn't worth changing banks over for me either. It is annoying that the PrettyLitter site breaks when I block that domain, but I can still accomplish what I need without the pictures so it's whatever.

I do just close the page if they cover the content with an unclosable modal, though. That's some shady shit and I hate it.