I use Adguard on iOS and Mac. Brilliant (REAL) adblocker which also blocks frames, I have been using this for five years or so.
Don't listen to the people in here spreading ancient out of date anti-Apple BS as usual.
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Kotaku mobile allows for a whole 3 lines of copy per page to make room for ads
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Don't listen to the people in here spreading ancient out of date anti-Apple BS as usual.
Then also blame people using ad blocking by saying it's their fault that these types of ads exist. I understand that many sites rely on ad revenue to continue running, but obtrusive ads that are literally harmful to your computer have been a problem for decades and are the biggest reason there's such a stigma against ads on the Internet within our society.
Yeah you can add ad blockers on iOS. It's more a iOS level extension than something specific to Safari, but it works perfectly.
You should check out Brave browser too.
It's basically Chrome with built in adblocker.
It's called "Safari content blocker". Does not work system wide, only in Safari (and webviews). You have to use some sort of VPN solution for the rest. AdGuard offers that, too
but it's really easy on android too though. i know chrome doesn't allow it but it's so simple to set up on Firefox.
also bonus points to uBlock Origin which lets you get rid of those damn annoying cookie notifications on every site (for people in EU at least). don't know if Safari blocker does that. probably not.
The entire Kotaku desktop webpage redesign is a fucking awful mess.
I much preferred the old one to the point where I barely visit it these days due to how it's been changed.
I much preferred the old one to the point where I barely visit it these days due to how it's been changed.
Looks like the amount of users with ad blockers forces Kotaku to try new ad solutions. Q4 is coming with with a lot of content and a lot of $, so itĀ“s the time to test new formats.
You do not support "journalism" by not using an adblocker. You support multi-billion-dollar companies, data brokers, and bloated publishers. Everyone who puts in more than 10 seconds of effort will find a decent way that is NOT adding adsense/g-add boxes to their web layout with no control and automated fullscreen adds infested with malware.
The mobile versions of most "news" sites are a travesty. It's a minefield of ads or UI elements that activate other links/videos/ads that fill up your screen. Media groups are taking advantage of the fact that mobile traffic is high and adblockers not as prominent as their desktop counterparts. Thankfully you have official browser "reader modes" that mitigate the effect.
Yep. It's become awful. Ad text that runs seamlessly and without any style change vs normal copy, also. Borderline unreadable. I guess monetising content has become really difficult, even 'big' outlets are reduced to awful clickbait distractions and embeds.
I wanted to get one for a while now. Does it matter which Pi I buy for PiHole?
The only funny thing is how incredibly mad everyone is about me being wrong about adblockers on their favourite rectangle. Can't believe I'm still getting getting notifications about it.
Chill guys, Apple isn't hurt
Ads is always a very sketchy subject because the end user almost always dislikes them. It's hard to find the right balance between making enough ad revneue to not go under and not making the user experience miserable. I do think Kotaku can do MUCH better but as someone who runs a site that gets roughly 6-7 million views a month, it's a terrifying nightmare most of the time.
Ads absolutely suck but for most cases they are needed. This is why things like automatic ad blockers scare me. Most people will leave it on and never see how sites are incorporating their ads. I've had plenty of user emails asking me to fix X or Y ads and I try to accommodate them every single time to the best of my ability because I know how god damn annoying they can be (fandom wiki ones are my least favorite).
It sucks that there isn't good alternatives to keeps site afloat like this. I've tired Patreon and Donations but they equalled about 5% of what I would get from ads. I have to pay hosting costs for my dedicated server, cloudflare costs, google cloud storage costs and then pay my writers so for me they are a necessary evil to keep things going.
Sorry for the bit of a rant but these situations are always really tricky to manage. However I do agree that these Kotaku ones are going waaaaay overboard. I try not to use in-article ads on my site because they personally drive me nuts.
I feel like this completely hand waves the issue for a huge amount of smaller sites who rely on ads to keep things running. Patron does not work for us. Donations do not work for us. I'm really not sure how else we are supposed to generate revenue to keep the site up and keep my writers paid. However I do agree that malware infested ads/auto fullscreen prompts/every 2 line ads are extremely harmful and should be revised.
I should note however that no ad providing company want malware through to them but it does happen. It's happened on my site and I've had to urgently get them to investigate and block the ads. They do apologize and I suppose it's probably a difficult task to monitor millions of ads coming through. I hate that it happens but it does happen. I don't think there is any ad providing company in the world that is clear of it. Some are definitely WAAAAAAY worse than others though. I've been approached by plenty that I would avoid like the plague.
Ads absolutely suck but for most cases they are needed. This is why things like automatic ad blockers scare me. Most people will leave it on and never see how sites are incorporating their ads. I've had plenty of user emails asking me to fix X or Y ads and I try to accommodate them every single time to the best of my ability because I know how god damn annoying they can be (fandom wiki ones are my least favorite).
It sucks that there isn't good alternatives to keeps site afloat like this. I've tired Patreon and Donations but they equalled about 5% of what I would get from ads. I have to pay hosting costs for my dedicated server, cloudflare costs, google cloud storage costs and then pay my writers so for me they are a necessary evil to keep things going.
Sorry for the bit of a rant but these situations are always really tricky to manage. However I do agree that these Kotaku ones are going waaaaay overboard. I try not to use in-article ads on my site because they personally drive me nuts.
I feel like this completely hand waves the issue for a huge amount of smaller sites who rely on ads to keep things running. Patron does not work for us. Donations do not work for us. I'm really not sure how else we are supposed to generate revenue to keep the site up and keep my writers paid. However I do agree that malware infested ads/auto fullscreen prompts/every 2 line ads are extremely harmful and should be revised.
I should note however that no ad providing company want malware through to them but it does happen. It's happened on my site and I've had to urgently get them to investigate and block the ads. They do apologize and I suppose it's probably a difficult task to monitor millions of ads coming through. I hate that it happens but it does happen. I don't think there is any ad providing company in the world that is clear of it. Some are definitely WAAAAAAY worse than others though. I've been approached by plenty that I would avoid like the plague.
Good time to let you know that Firerox for Android has extension support, including uBlock Origin :)
This is the most useful thing I've ever read on this forum. I was using Chrome and the adverts were terrible for browsing and also slowing down input when replying to things on this forum through mobile. I've just spent a bit of time migrating to Firefox on mobile. Thanks for the info.
The experience of making this post is such an instant upgrade.
No problem! Having the best desktop adblocker on mobile is so satisfying.
For the record, that's not supposed to be happening. If you see a full page ad it's slipping through the filters. Please use the ad reporting thread to help track those down and get rid of them. https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-ad-reporting-thread.60928/
Exactly, they made their fucking bed.
Use ad blockers.
And I think AdGuard sold out to a company that now whitelists a certain type of their own ads, so use something else.
uBlock Origin because it's open source on desktop and 1Blocker for iOS devices works well.
There are a MILLION ad blockers for iOS, I have no idea what this guy is talking about.
Wow, people sure get mad when you're wrong about anything Apple related. Still getting notifications about this? How
It really sucks that major websites like this provide such a poor experience for users because it pushes people towards adblockers, and for sites like ours where we try to be more considerate it means we lose out on important revenue.
I'm not really mad, just confused as to why you would so confidently such a wrong answer without doing a basic google search.
Just checked it out on desktop, the ads seem really unintrusive. I like how you laid it out.
I've seen some shockers. Back on GAF at one point I was getting full screen ads, and in the thread of complaints about it when I admitted I used a blocker, I received a 3 day ban.
Luckily Era hasn't had that for me (yet)
Luckily Era hasn't had that for me (yet)
*Posts something wrong*
*Gets calmly corrected 4 or 5 times*
*Responds to every single correction*
"I DONT CARE! WHY IS EVERYONE SO MAD?"
Lmao. Weirdest posts.
Seriously this. Setup a pi-hole with VPN so you can also use it on your mobile devices anywhere.
Yup, there's tons of adblockers on the App Store for Safari š
I can't deal with Kotaku anymore. I mostly just come to era or listen to podcasts for news & opinion these days. If Kotaku breaks a headline, the info will get out there.
And to my knowledge, since Schreier left they haven't produced any long form exposƩ pieces that require you to go to the site for the full story.
And to my knowledge, since Schreier left they haven't produced any long form exposƩ pieces that require you to go to the site for the full story.
Was it not AdBlock Plus that sold out like that? I can't find anything about AdGuard doing similar. They shouldn't need to as they're subscription based.
I'm not familiar with your site, but does it offer subscriptions? That may be one way to gain extra revenue. I subscribe to a few sites where I find the journalism worth reading. The main one, and the best implementation of a subscription in my opinion, is Ars Technica. They have two different subscription levels, and both turn off all ads (obviously) but also all trackers site wide. The higher tier also offers a "clean reading" view which reformats articles for better readability. I've been happily paying for that for years now as it's the only site I've found that covers the breadth of topics it does (processors, IT news, tech, mobile, health, cars, space) with the depth that their articles have.
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Kotaku has been unreadable on mobile for a while. I'll check out a Kotaku article if I happen to be on my PC but I mostly read news on my phone so I generally just skip Kotaku nowadays.
What about sites not owned by billion doller companies that can't have other ways of finances and only run a couple of small ads? Should they still be adblocked
I see you in basically every adblock related thread.
Most people in this forum will agree with you that it's good to whitelist sites that you want to support and that don't have obtrusive ads. You're arguing with people that would already whitelist you, and you won't convince anyone to quit using adblockers period, so I don't think you're going to accomplish much here, to be honest. It's people outside this forum that you probably need to convince to whitelist sites like yours.
Also, I really think you should have a subscription model in your site that gets rid of ads. Call it a donation that happens to disable ads for a set period of time. Sure, it's a volatile thing (i've read your tweets about this), and you can't depend on it, but it's extra revenue from some of the people that just refuses to see any ads. It's not like adding extra revenue will make you stop getting ad revenue.
Depends on how they are managed. If they use the common approach of non curated add spaces to maximize "income" without any thought - I block them. Especially if the adds start to affect the ability to access the content.
Now if they use a little more sense and rather go for the occasional brand deal, the occasional (clearly marked) advertorial, affiliate links, a merch shop, and a few small and curated adds? - I may take them off the list if there is no other way to show support.
Still sucks that 95% of what these adds generate will go to the corporations and not the content creators. I will always prefer a more direct way of support.
Same here. Between that and the mobile mess, I just stopped visiting.
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