Checking the news online is annoying because of ads

[Strat]

Do you check the news online? I swear I'm getting close to going back to the newspaper and vowing never to check online again unless they change their ways.

It's all the ads. I check the news daily and usually end up clicking on about 3 separate stories. Each time I'll have to wait for the god forsaken screen to resize several times and I'll have to close at least 1 video ad.

In the past, my local news station would require videos to play. They stopped doing this though, I assume enough folks complained or maybe their ratings dropped.

In the past I played around with TOR (common web browser used to access dark web) and I used that to check the news. I did this solely cause it wasnt compatible with any of the ads or videos. So the only thing that would load is text and images.

So minor rant, but I am curious how you folks check the news.

[Richard S.]

One word: ADBLOCK

I know what you mean, I wouldn't surf the news without Adblock...

[Pam]

One word: ADBLOCK

I know what you mean, I wouldn't surf the news without Adblock...

ADBLOCK is great but I find many news sites won't allow you to read their content unless you buy a subscription or unblock that site. I have also recently noticed ads being cleverly inserted under the guise of being something other than ads.

[Intranuclear]

I hate ADs in any way, shape or form, but how is any news site supposed to survive?
I of course use an AD-blocker and as stated, most sites these days (increasingly so) detect it and either force you to subscribe or disable the AD-blocker.
What is the business model?
How can any journalist get paid for their work?
Clearly no one has figured it out yet, right?
Previously news was subsidized by the networks' other programming which of course was AD sponsored, but now a subscription model outside of ADs is the only option.
People have gotten used to "free" and that cannot possibly be a sustainable model.
In a way Avalon is very much a news source but it is leaching from other web content in a way and of course without some donations it would put a heavy burden on Bill and our Admins.

NPR once upon a time was almost entirely donation based, but these days they have tons of ADs too since they obviously could not maintain the semi-yearly donation drives.
I guess information has a price and great information is what, priceless?

[Strat]

I hate ADs in any way, shape or form, but how is any news site supposed to survive?
I of course use an AD-blocker and as stated, most sites these days (increasingly so) detect it and either force you to subscribe or disable the AD-blocker.
What is the business model?
How can any journalist get paid for their work?
Clearly no one has figured it out yet, right?
Previously news was subsidized by the networks' other programming which of course was AD sponsored, but now a subscription model outside of ADs is the only option.
People have gotten used to "free" and that cannot possibly be a sustainable model.
In a way Avalon is very much a news source but it is leaching from other web content in a way and of course without some donations it would put a heavy burden on Bill and our Admins.

NPR once upon a time was almost entirely donation based, but these days they have tons of ADs too since they obviously could not maintain the semi-yearly donation drives.
I guess information has a price and great information is what, priceless?

Like all things there's a spectrum. Some news sources use more ads than others (sometimes taking up 1/3 of the screen in addition to video ads and others that pop up as you scroll) and it's why I won't go to them. I doubt it's necessary, I bet it's them maximizing profit. I understand it but **** that I'm not putting up with it.

[DaveToo]

There definitely is an undercurrent at play that is becoming more and more noticeable as each day/week/month passes.

Years ago my adblock software did its job and I never received any comments/complaints from sites.

Now more and more sites are requesting that I disable my adblock software and/or allow cookies.

Either more people are becoming savvy to this type of software or the websites are becoming less tolerant
to those of us who have been using the adblock software all along (or perhaps a little of both).

Another peeve of mine are the news sites that cater to the illiterates, ie. those who can't read news articles.
Most MSM news sites I visit are almost exclusively video-based for news info.

A new annoyance surfaced just yesterday for me. Google is clamping down more and more on people who want to download Youtube videos.
As I was scrambling around to find a way to download a video Google took over my computer and popped up this message:

"Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

IP address: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Time: 2019-05-02T02:19:37Z "

The robot part was just filler. It was basically a scare-tactic message, replete with my IP address for good measure.

Which shortly after that led me to wonder more about the Google search engine.
For a time I was using Duck to Go as a search engine, but it still has a way to go before it can compete with Google in its comprehensiveness.

I don't subscribe to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram but I do regularly still use Google's search engine.
The CIA/FBI/NSA et al. must have a huge database on my search activity over the years. :(

[raregem]

Is it greed? Is it to get rid of the thinkers? These days I feel like I reside in a youtube bottleneck.

[TomKat]

I don't subscribe to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram but I do regularly still use Google's search engine.
The CIA/FBI/NSA et al. must have a huge database on my search activity over the years. :(

I use a VPN and have Firefox delete all cookies on exit. Seems to take care of Google data collection.

[dim]

uBlock Origin Chrome (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en)
uBlock Origin Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/)

Make sure you hit options and select your filters there. I usually apply them all. You'll never see an ad again.

[Inaiá]

One word: ADBLOCK

I know what you mean, I wouldn't surf the news without Adblock...

Yes. And yes.

There is life before and after ADBLOCK. Give it a try.

[PurpleLama]

Online ADs? What's that?

I use Brave browser, so I have no clue what you're talking about. Check it out.