I’ve been seeing a lot of posts & comments ranting about how long YouTube ads are [Edit: specifically, ON LEMMY], how tiny the little X is to close popups, etc and I don’t get it. It’s less effort to install blockers than it is to keep complaining about ads.
Browser: uBlock Origin on Firefox, works on both Android and Desktop (Windows/Linux)
Most Android apps: RethinkDNS to block third-party ads
YouTube: NewPipe or ReVanced Manager
Reddit: ReVanced Manager
I can hold a shield up while still complaining about someone shooting arrows at me. The complaints aren’t suddenly negated simply because I got my hands on a shield.
Also, companies are actively and constantly finding ways around those blockers, and there are psychological and UX reasons as to why companies use tiny X buttons, or X buttons that are often very hard to see. Take a look at dark patterns.
I’d say it’s more like complaining about the neighbors running their heater too high and you having to crack a window to compensate. Once the blockers are installed, ads are something you only rarely even become aware of. If you were holding up a shield, it would be a constant effort. That’d be more like if you had to reinstall ad blockers every time you watched a video.
There are websites detecting adblockers that instruct you to disable them in order to view the website. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse between ad companies and adblockers.
And I would like to not watch and hear 3 x 10 seconds unskippable ads when one of my parents wants to show me some 30 seconds funny cat fails clip on their phone.