AdBlock, NoScript & Ghostery – The Trifecta Of Evil

Those should be mandatory add-ons for all users.

Excellent post and S&F is well deserved and awarded.

Nothing really to add to this thread except I did learn that I better brush up on the script thing for sure.

Your opening post is pure logic and I will be surprised if anyone here chooses to argue with your extremely valid points.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by autowrench

Originally posted by DaTroof
I agree as well, and I also don't use Ghostery, but it's because it makes Firefox run like molasses. HUGE resource hog. It makes browsing nigh impossible.

Not true. Where did you get that? I have ran Ghostery for several years now without a single problem. Type "about:config" in the url bar without the quote tags. Set the following:

network.http.pipelining false to true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
network.http.max-connections 30 to 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true
network.prefetch true to false

Your Firefox will run a lot faster.

Thanks for the tips, i have set them in place, and yes, browsing is definitely quicker, i appreciate the help, if anyone is a little concerned about doing this, it hasn't broken anything or disturbed my browsing experience, it has made it a slightly faster experience, pages load snappier.

You can also try this link for more handy about:config

maybe someone can start a little investigative thread.

google is nearly worthless now, since most searches direct you to amazon, nextag, ebay, etc.

if i look up ford mustang, instead of getting the history of the car, articles about the car and so on, i get 50 hit pages trying to sell me one.

from dealers, to ebay to private traders.

no information until 5 to 6 pages later. which is what the web is supposed to be, information, not an electronic flea market.

google has categories you can click on to filter it, such as news only, or images. it should implement a commercial tab, or an info tab only.

My bad image of ads and the internet came from the time when they were all practically virus ridden, flashy and caused my computer to slow up.
But i recently turned of adblock on the site i patron the most, ATS and was surprised. Not the ads i was expecting.
If i go to the home page i see 1 ad as the banner and 2 on the side. No popups.

I have no problem supporting the sites that deploy this type of technique.


Honestly though if everyone used adblock how else is a big forum like ATS going to afford the hosting and what not?
I guess donations??

S & F! Great to bring such resources to the attention of everyone. I too use ghostery and wrote an article on it a while back HERE

Also would like to add another handy utility for peoples arsenal.

Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can then choose to allow or deny this connection, or define a rule how to handle similar, future connection attempts. This reliably prevents private data from being sent out without your knowledge. Little Snitch runs inconspicuously in the background and it can also detect network related activity of viruses, trojans and other malware.

LINK

Unless you are a PC user in which case I would google PeerGuardian

Also is it not against the T&Cs to use stuff like adblock?

Lucky the mods aren't nazis

Originally posted by randomname
maybe someone can start a little investigative thread.

google is nearly worthless now, since most searches direct you to amazon, nextag, ebay, etc.

if i look up ford mustang, instead of getting the history of the car, articles about the car and so on, i get 50 hit pages trying to sell me one.

from dealers, to ebay to private traders.

no information until 5 to 6 pages later. which is what the web is supposed to be, information, not an electronic flea market.

google has categories you can click on to filter it, such as news only, or images. it should implement a commercial tab, or an info tab only.

You need to search better and also understand how google works.

Opps

Originally posted by Klassified
Ads you have to study to find the frackin X.

There are even more evil pop up ads, those where the X actually doesn't close the pop up but opens another tab leading to the advertisers homepage. To close the add you have to press button next to it, which has a square. I bet thousands of people instinctivly click on X than are led to some website - where god knows what happen to your computer.

I can live with advertisements, although i would never put any on my website (which is the case and the server costs actually don't kill me), as long as they're small, don't flash, don't make sound, don't pop up. Some websites with all the flashing and sounds look like a #ing carnival.

AdBlock Plus is just the answer to that insanity. Would the advertiser use ads that don't annoy, everything would be fine.

Besides: Don't advertisers and people who rely on ads always cry? I mean back when VHS/Beta came, TV stations cried about it saying it would doom them, advertisers said it would destroy their business because people would just skip the ads. Yet, they are still here.
Some website owners just can't get enough money, it's not about paying the server bills, it's about getting rich.

i wouldn't mind turning off adblock to help owners of sites that gain their revenue through ads, as long as the ads aren't placed in annoying areas like for instance in the webplayer...i've been to a few sites that you have to turn off adblock to use the videoplayer and once i do i get 5 ads on the videoplayer and it's hard to click them off, or an ad that makes sound...i just can't stand it.

or ads that try to scam you....no ty plz i'll keep using adblock til they address these problems.

And another one...

Ultimately you need to remember that if everyone cheated the system like AdBlock users do, the Internet would only exist behind paywalls.

Not so.
Those of us who were on the internet back in the 1990's before advertising became known at all, know that the internet functioned perfectly fine.
I for one would have no problem going back to the early days where the content was king, and those websites whos sole and only function was to create advertising revenue, did not exist.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


This is a very selfish view. Even though you realize the site administrators run ads to cover costs so that you can access their servers for free (and maybe make a little something on the side [read: motivation to keep it going]) you refuse to whitelist the site in ad blocker? Why??

I really cannot understand the motivation for this stance...you mention wanting the freedom to change the HTML once delivered, but that is an entirely different topic. Ad blocker blocks the request to the ad server in the first place so the site does not get credit for your visit... no one cares what you do with the HTML from the ad server or the site you are visiting; only that your browser makes the request.

I do use ad blocker. I think it is vital. I have children. I cannot have porn popping up from a misclicked Google search. But when I regularly visit a site that asks me to turn it off then I will.

reply to post by randomname

google is nearly worthless now, since most searches direct you to amazon, nextag, ebay, etc.

Try using dogpile search, it searches for results from 4 or 5 different engines.
Dogpile

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


I'm a website builder and have experience in many different money generating ways via websites. At the end of the day, when you provide a service, money needs to be generated.

How should we generate this money? Well it honestly depends on your topic. I've made a few free movie streaming websites (that I now no longer operate and nor would I), and the way I generated money was via ads and surveys. It did make money as the service I provided was worth filling out a survey which made me $1+ each. I generated 1-10,000 traffic per day.

Other ways I have made money online are;

1. Clickbank
Clickbank is an affiliate network whereby a huge list of products are listed in which you can sell for commission. Now the commission can be small, but with items where you can make $30, there is money to be made. Please note that these products are simply that... products. It's down to you to sell them whether it is an independent website or on your existing website. The key with this form of advertising is that it is non-invading in the fact it doesn't HAVE to pop up and it can fit within text, image or video.

2. Games
I don't want to say the name of this advertiser because I hate them, but they always paid me on time. There are many game affiliates where you get paid per signup. This again, is non-invading in the terms users voluntarily put their details in.

3. Sell Your Own s**t
Not hard. Only yesterday I saw a box of nappies on eBay for £40 which were 2 for £20 in Tesco and they had sold 38 boxes?!!!! Naughty way to make money but if people are dumb enough to pay, why not?

4. eBay
As with the above, eBay is your playground to make money. Supermarket/high street offers are yours to take advantage of. I know someone who makes thousands by buying stock from the £/$ shop and selling them for up to £10 on eBay

5. Popups/Popunders
Please god do not do it!! It is my golden rule not to do this as you lose too many hits (hits being website visitors)

6. AdSense
Works very well... text ads relevant to your website topic.. perfect.. Problem is if people have beef with you they can have you banned by repeatedly clicking your ads. This happened to me and I liaised with Google and they gave me the IP address of which I consequently banned from the website. The image ads make money too. Both are usually around 2-8c per click so it's on the law of statistics... more traffic = more clicks

7. Sell Ad Space
Only works if you're driving large traffic to your website but you can charge anything from $50-500 per month per link

I take those programs off for the sites I like and don't mind supporting, but for the majority of the web, they stay on.

Originally posted by g0dhims3lf
S & F! Great to bring such resources to the attention of everyone. I too use ghostery and wrote an article on it a while back HERE

Also would like to add another handy utility for peoples arsenal.

Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can then choose to allow or deny this connection, or define a rule how to handle similar, future connection attempts. This reliably prevents private data from being sent out without your knowledge. Little Snitch runs inconspicuously in the background and it can also detect network related activity of viruses, trojans and other malware.

LINK

Unless you are a PC user in which case I would google PeerGuardian

edit on 13-7-2012 by g0dhims3lf because: (no reason given)

Maybe some one can help me with this, i use peerguardian, and have done for years, it is a great program, i also use wireshark from time to time to see what is happening.
Something on my pC is making DNS requests to 1.0.0.127, all the research i have done says this is a test done by apples "Bonjour" service, over the last few months i have noticed this, first 1.0.0.127 resolved to an isp in japan, i blocked the server at open DNS on my blocklist, then it resolved to an ISP in thailand a month or so later, blocked it again, it now resolves to australia and i cannot get the isp or other information to effectively block it.
I do not have apples bonjour service installed, i have no apple software on my pc., i cannot nail down what program it is that is making the requests, i do know it cannot be any of the related answers i have found doing searches on this address and what triggers it.
Does anyone else see this happening, or, do they know what it potentially is?.

Any help would be appreciated, or, does anyone know of a program that will allow me to filter what DNS requests make it off my pc and onto the web?.

reply to post by scottlpool2003

I'm a website builder and have experience in many different money generating ways via websites. At the end of the day, when you provide a service, money needs to be generated.

Heres my take on this. Nobody asked you to create a website. You did it on your own, for whatever reason.
In ATS's case (for example) it has been said that it was created to bring people that had interests in "conspiracies" together. Its when these sites start getting very popular that the owners of them start getting greedy, like making adblockers a violation of their terms. I dont like being forced to fund a site by having to put up with annoying ads, Id prefer a membership/donation based idea, with no ads.

btw, I was just using "you" and ATS as examples.

I see both sides, but are we expected to tolerate something just because someone is trying to make a living? If it was just a few adds maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but they are exploiting every single sq inch of screen. Hell now the FB, twitter, blah blah icon follows as we scroll, keeping it directly in our range of sight. I feel that is intrusive and it tees me off a bit.

Man Adblock is my media salvation, and once I discovered them, my whole cyber experience was less daunting.
Our subconscious is already inundated with logs, trademarks and advertisements. Just count how many ads/logos you see from the moment you wake up and throughout the day. It is crazy!

If they want get some sympathy, they can start with getting rid of the worst add of all time:
CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE WON that sometimes comes up when the volume is loud and startles me!

reply to post by daynight42

I'd like to take every executive in advertising and put them through a few days of "ad torture" similar to what they did in Clockwork Orange (I believe it was). Hold their eyes open, have someone paid (minimum wage) to put drops in their eyes, and force them to look at nothing but ads for 72 hours straight. That ought to show them how much a f'in nuisance they are.