
The web is becoming unusable - byron_fast
I am having more and more trouble visiting sites I read because of advertising-related browser problems.  Many sites simply kill my computer; I can barely close a browser to escape.  Is this a good business strategy?
======
http-teapot
I'd recommend Ghostery; with it you can remove all kind of scripts that do not
necessarily add value to the user experience.

You quickly realize how much useless scripts are loaded in the page. You'll
also realize that these scripts sometimes add other scripts to that page.

For example, gizmodo.com filtered by Ghostery blocks 12 trackers. When it's
disabled it detects 17 trackers.

[https://www.ghostery.com/](https://www.ghostery.com/)

------
AnimalMuppet
Try it not in the passive voice.

"Badly-done advertising is making the web unusable." That's better, but it
still makes it sound like inanimate things are causing it.

"Advertisers are making the web unusable by trying ever-more-intrusive things
to try to get us to pay attention."

But even that is only half the story, because people want to get paid for the
stuff that they put on the web. You know, the parts that you're actually going
there to try to find. So either someone needs to figure out how to get more
money out of ads, without the ads ruining the experience (and with users
desperately trying to ignore the ads, because it's not what they came for), or
the model needs to change. This will probably less top-quality free content on
the web.

~~~
eevilspock
Advertising underwrites the web. But who underwrites the underwriters? Us of
course:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961761)

If it is ad-supported it is not free:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773)

Advertising as a way to get paid for whatever it is you are offering people
isn't very honest, a way around your product not being valuable enough that
people will pay for it. If you make it _feel_ like it is free, people will go
"But if it is free, what the hell, why not?" What they do not know is you are
taking more from them than if you charged them straight up.

~~~
threesixandnine
How is it not honest publishing well researched sociology articles for example
and splashing an ad or two (Adsense) somewhere on the page. Just an example.

These articles get picked up by teachers and professors for students to study
via search engines.

How is it not honest?

These articles have no chance of being commercialized in current world. No one
would buy them and person behind them has no means to market...no money, no
knowledge in marketing...maybe that person is not interested in
commercialization of his/her product and just wants to earn a buck or two for
coffee on each article...

How is it not honest?

Please don't generalize and project your view onto others.

~~~
byron_fast
That sounds great, if they don't grind my computer to a halt. But if you host
a site that lets bad actors chuck evil spew into the web stream, it doesn't
matter what your content is. You are bad by association.

~~~
threesixandnine
Can you please give me an example of a web site that will grind computer to a
halt. I am yet to encounter such web site with this old and weak computer of
mine. I would really like to see it.

~~~
byron_fast
This site: [http://www.washingtontimes.com/](http://www.washingtontimes.com/)
seems pretty bad. Though any place reached via "clickbait" will suffice.

~~~
threesixandnine
Apart from annoying pop-up the site itself works perfectly fine on my ancient
Thinkpad.

------
mangeletti
If you're a Firefox user, [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
us/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
us/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/)

If you're not a Firefox user,
[https://www.mozilla.org/firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/firefox)

uBlock Origin exists for Chrome as well, but Google gets your lucky charms
when you use Chrome, no matter what you configure to try to prevent it.

~~~
byron_fast
Tell your grandma to install that. Then report back! Youtube Gold.

~~~
byron_fast
Sorry to downvoters: tell your "nona". This is who users are.

~~~
byron_fast
Why is this being downvoted.

~~~
MaysonL
Probably because it seems to be a snarky comment attached to a
meaningful/useful comment, and adds little to the conversation. (Plus it isn't
really very funny).

~~~
byron_fast
It's not snarky, I'm trying to get the average HN to acknowledge reality:
grandma is the average user, not you. You haven't got a clue how she sees the
web, and sneering at her and downvoting her idiocy won't help.

------
i336_
I've heard good things about uBlock Origin, but I don't use it myself; I
instead use the MVPS Hosts File.

Info page:
[http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm)

Raw file:
[http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt)

ZIP:
[http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip)

It's periodically updated with the hostnames of all servers currently known to
serve ads (almost all ad companies are locked to using hostnames, they for
some/whatever reason don't use IPs).

I see no ads. When I do, I redownload the file, and I'm all set again. It's
great.

This also blocks things like Google Analytics, which I personally appreciate
too. If you want to track me, your web server has an access log somewhere, and
if you want a second-by-second breakdown of my activity, distill a set of
functions into your site's existing (hopefully well-optimized) JS codebase.

Remember, there are things ad servers _cannot_ do because they're pushing a
product designed to serve millions of customers, not integrate with every
single site architecture.

I just thought of this, too - keep in mind that these are _advertising_
companies we're talking about here. Their job is to sell product, and their
second-layer job above that is to sell their own viability. I fear that our
gullibility to being sold acid rainbows has started to go too far.

------
bonobo3000
Adblock/uBlock works great. If you want to experience the web as it is, then
yeah I agree, it sucks. No one has really figured out how to monetize content
without ads yet because people won't pay for it, so thats where we are.

~~~
byron_fast
I'm sure Adblock works great. I'm interested in how the web works for people
who don't care about technology, and it's a nightmare. Ad-supported software
or web apps are a descending staircase of user-hate.

People _will_ pay for content - but that content needs to be worth paying for.

~~~
eevilspock
Byron and anyone else who agrees the web is kinda fucked: I'm working on
spinning up a group or website where we can figure out where the web is
broken, propose principles for a healthy web, and promote solutions by anyone
or any company that adheres to those principles.

Email me if you'd like to participate.

~~~
timdavila
Have you seen Maciej's "Six Fixes"?

[http://idlewords.com/six_fixes.htm](http://idlewords.com/six_fixes.htm)
[http://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you....](http://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you.htm)

------
njorth
I follow a simple rule online: If a site's content doesn't load for me, then
the site probably isn't worth visiting.

My Firefox profile uses uMatrix, NoScript (scripts globally allowed), HTTPS
Everywhere, and a good hosts file.

Kills 99.9% of germs.

~~~
byron_fast
Again: what about grandma? The whole point of these shitty sites is to
parasitize the non-technical. Their web experience is like you taking your car
to an evil garage: "There's silver flakes in your fluid. You need a new
transmission."

~~~
njorth
It's moot. My family bought her an iPad before I could intervene.

~~~
byron_fast
I'd love to hear about an _actual_ experience of granny using an iPad.

~~~
ZeroFries
My grandma usually calls me to find out how to send me an email.

------
jakeogh
Serious suggestion: disable JS. I use surf/tabbed (suckless.org) and it makes
the web great again. If I really need JS for a tab, I hit CTRL-SHIFT-s. Also,
consider local dns caching/filtering:
[https://github.com/jakeogh/dnsgate](https://github.com/jakeogh/dnsgate)

I bet there are firefox extensions to make a hotkey to enable JS.

------
rw2
I think this is easily solved by adblock, have you tried it?

~~~
byron_fast
No, because I like to experience the web as it _is_ , which is what most users
experience. Yes, it sucks, but that's why I use Windows, too. You can't
identify with users if you don't visit their neighborhoods.

~~~
lazyjones
> _No, because I like to experience the web as it is, which is what most users
> experience._

Many users experience similar problems, so they are switching to ad blockers.
Several sites reported 50%+ ad blocker usage, so if you're trying to view the
web like other users, using ad blockers is probably fine now.

~~~
byron_fast
But what's the % for users who "Like" cat memes on Facebook? Less than 50.

~~~
beagle3
Why do you care?

~~~
byron_fast
Because this is who users _are_. They will not ever visit Hacker News, and if
they did, it might as well be in a foreign language. They will not install ad
blockers. When the (insert your most hated Slavic/Asian country) mafia takes
over their comp via a Facebook meme, they buy a new computer if they can
afford it.

~~~
beagle3
Let me rephrase yet.

Are you a representative of the people in some way that requires you to make
this great sacrifice?

Do you give up your income because most of the users don't earn as much
income? Do you give up your food because some people don't have as much food?
Do you refuse to study because most people know less about subject matter X
than you could know if you studied it?

------
byron_fast
Just trying to read a news story at many sites feels like visiting a porn site
in the '90s. Is that a good business strategy?

------
threesixandnine
Clean up your computer today.

I run Thinkpad T61 (old, old) + Debian 7 and have 20+ tabs open in Firefox and
rarely I see issues you are describing.

I have no adblocks or any other sh!t installed. I like to see ads and support
people who are writing content. I know those ads are the only way they get
compensated.

~~~
byron_fast
I click ads to help out! But I wish the second fan in my computer wouldn't
start up while viewing their site.

~~~
threesixandnine
Don't click ads just to help. Click them when you're ready to buy or if ads
give you more info on the subject.

Just to get more information. Can you tell me which sites are firing up your
second fan?

~~~
byron_fast
I'd love to tell you - but that would reveal what I like, right? And I don't
want you to judge me based on that. I do know that it's ad-network related;
bad scripts have nothing to do with the sites that host them. They just don't
do the due diligence - a 24/7 job - to prevent the problems.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Upvoted for displaying perfectly reasonable paranoia.

------
probablypat
I can recommend Redmorph. It bundles everything that is in adblock/ublock and
donottrack into one extension. Also comes with paid for proxy and VPN services
if you're into that.

[https://redmorph.com/](https://redmorph.com/)

------
jack9
> Many sites simply kill my computer;

I can't even remember the last time a site did that, regularly or
unintentionally with or without an adblock.

------
buserror
it's not just advertising anyway. What makes me close the tab is the popup
with 'subscribe to our newsletter' (on my first visit) or other shit that is
supposed to force me to click it, so that they can validate that I'm a human
and not a bot.

------
hehs
it is time to change the paradigm of web and bring something completely new.

