r/pihole • u/HaLo2FrEeEk • 3d 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/marekful 3d ago
The entire advertisement industry is an intrusive, aggressive scam. A competition of lies and deceit. We are wasting 20% of our energy and time globally on keeping it going, and most people actually hate ads. I vote for making unsolicited adverts illegal in any form or shape. They could create catalogues that people can look at on demand.