New Reddit controls let you block your most hated advertisers for a year
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Best option is to of course run uBlock Origin on Firefox.
Another alternative is Lemmy. It's a lot smaller than reddit (55K MAU), but it's been seeing solid growth in the past few months. There is room for improvement in UI/UX, but solid progress takes time as the platform is donation only (hopefully as more people join the pace of development will increase).
Voyager is good mobile client for Lemmy on both Android and iOS.
Another alternative is Lemmy. It's a lot smaller than reddit (55K MAU), but it's been seeing solid growth in the past few months. There is room for improvement in UI/UX, but solid progress takes time as the platform is donation only (hopefully as more people join the pace of development will increase).
Voyager is good mobile client for Lemmy on both Android and iOS.
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I think my favorite terrible reddit advertisement was some bot that was spamming an ad that said something like "Low Libido? Our therapy sessions can cure you!" or something like that... in the middle of the asexual sub reddit. Ooooh people were mocking that one for weeks on end.
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Do you have a good solution for passkeys and TouchID biometrics not playing nice with firefox?
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I'm on Digg's mailing just to see what their big reveal is and get an invite when they drop. With Reddit flagging and blocking people for merely upvoting things related to Luigi Mangione, it's clear Reddit needs to die in a fire.
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Ads as they exist today are less than useless; they are actively harmful. Creates no actual value in and of themselves, drives consumerism, and incentivizes engagement above all else for media businesses.
Whether or not they are working as intended by the organizations buying them… I’m not sure, maybe.
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True. Most apps are just crappy browsers with adblock disabled and tracking turned up to maximum. If I have to install an app to do business with you, I'll just look elsewhere.
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uBlock Origin on Desktop or AdGuard on mobile works for me. Always browse via old.reddit.com.
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After many years of being basically addicted to reddit, posting on there almost daily and scrolling r/all every day, I quit using the site after election day last fall. In 4 months, I've only posted twice, both times on two smaller subreddits, and the only things I go back to are the r/internetisbeautiful sub and some recent movie discussion posts. I don't know what r/all has been like and I don't care.
What I've learned over the years is the more I limit my reddit use, the happier I tend to be. Its a miserable fucking place for the most part (It didn't used to be, but thats the way the entire internet has gone over time, or maybe I just got older), and the last thing that redeems it are all the smaller communities full of genuinely helpful and insightful posters that you won't really see anywhere else online.
What I've learned over the years is the more I limit my reddit use, the happier I tend to be. Its a miserable fucking place for the most part (It didn't used to be, but thats the way the entire internet has gone over time, or maybe I just got older), and the last thing that redeems it are all the smaller communities full of genuinely helpful and insightful posters that you won't really see anywhere else online.
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I recently had to appeal a Reddit ban for calling JD Vance a couch f**ker.
(a) That's a literal description that's been used of him in US media.
(b) If you can't take a criticism, don't become a public figure
(c) I'm not a US citizen so they can stick their laws around that up there arse.
The amount of straight up and/or subtle censorship going on on US based platforms should be concerning everyone.
Taking over the means of communication is another tool used by fascists to prevent people organising against them.
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As an American, I'm delighted to know that the most valuable things we have created in the last 25 years are corporate surveillance and automated advertising. What a future it's going to be.
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Personally, I don't find that the solution to the corporate profit driven social media rot is yet another corporate, profit driven social media platform. I hope they prove my cynicism wrong, but considering Alexis and Kevin are both VC tech-bros, I'm not optimistic.
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Use Lemmy instead. Federation makes it resistant to the usual shittification of platforms.
I know it has fewer users. But sometimes doing the right thing isn't all peaches and ice cream. Everyone who switches makes it a little easier.
Here's another instance to consider https://slrpnk.net/
Click "all" instead of "local" to see content from other instances.
I know it has fewer users. But sometimes doing the right thing isn't all peaches and ice cream. Everyone who switches makes it a little easier.
Here's another instance to consider https://slrpnk.net/
Click "all" instead of "local" to see content from other instances.
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How long before someone creates a script to block all/most ads? Doing it just to mess with reddit or to allow people to have free add-free app experiences (if blocking it on the site blocks it in the app).
Also, i bet blocking unilever france won't block unilever germany or unilever international or unilever skadoo or whatever
Also, i bet blocking unilever france won't block unilever germany or unilever international or unilever skadoo or whatever
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I mean, it's r/all, the whole point is to take a sample of everything. It just happens that most of the popular subs are attention seeking garbage and battlegrounds for bots. Block the big, fake "confession" and "tell me I'm right for doing this asshole thing" subs. Block the toxic positivity trash. And for the love of god, the medical gore and financial (read: gambling) stuff that floats to the top.
You'll still be left with 500 gaming subs where users are in so deep they only speak in impenetrable shorthand, creepy thirst images (typically in an thematically inappropriate anime style) and indecipherable (yet tired) memes. But between all that is occasionally interesting stuff.
In the age of enshitification, you gotta wade through filth to find what you need. In a way, it's a circle back to the beginnings of the internet.
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Thanks for the update! I just checked using my browser and I was able to stop several categories, but most importantly, those stupid He Gets Us ads. No more religion/spirituality ads for me!
Anyone have any thoughts on how not to pay reddit but to block all their ads on mobile?
Anyone have any thoughts on how not to pay reddit but to block all their ads on mobile?
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That's the point.
Alternatives to reddit primarily discuss mainstream, popular (low-brow) topics, because those are the topics with enough popularity that you can start a community on a niche alternative website.
To get that niche site big enough that you can form niche communities around niche interests, you need to use the niche website until it becomes mainstream.
Its the story of several dozen websites that went big early, and the story of the dozens of websites that replaced them, and its the story of tiktok, which smashed its way into the maintream on the back of discontent with existing social media.
If the general populace chooses to never visit alternatives because they are too small, than the one big site they use will remain dominant. When you say alternatives exist "only if you want to dicuss the "very mainstream, low-brow stuff", you'll never build an alternative that can discuss niche topics, because that comes with the network effects of the website becoming mainstream.
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DuckDuckGo browser allows playing of YouTube vids without ads.
I dont use it full time, but I find even copying/pasting YouTube URLs from the default browser to DuckDuckGo is less cumbersome than the ‘stare at the skip button space’ method. You have to tune out the audio, too. And it’s time consuming.
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gregraygun
Smack-Fu Master, in training
I had to take a second, ads? Oh, ya, that's a thing, I just haven't seen any in a year.
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Just in case anyone wasn't aware, you can still get 3rd party reddit apps to work with a minimal amount of jiggery-pokery. I've still been using RIF; the instructions to get it working again seem reasonably straightforward, even for me:
https://github.com/revanced/revanced-manager/tree/main/docs
https://github.com/revanced/revanced-manager/tree/main/docs
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shirley there will be no way the advertisers can find a way to get around being blocked.
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None of that means any existing non-mainstream communities would migrate over. Maybe new niche communities might form there, but any existing ones are more likely to see too much inertia for them to move over.
I've literally never seen a single commenter mention Lemmy even just once in any of the subs I frequent. No one has shown any interest because, well, Reddit serves the communities' needs just fine.
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I have seen users get banned from subreddits, or even from reddit entirely, after mentioning Lemmy. I can't speak to the frequency of this occurring, but it does happen.
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I'm sure it can happen in some subs, but I don't hang out in those kinds of toxic subs.
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Um, that’s incorrect about the mobile app situation. There are still other mobile apps from third parties that are available today.
I use Narwhal on iOS (there’s a required monthly fee that goes to Reddit) and it’s a very nice app with no ads whatsoever.
And there are multiple apps for Reddit on Android as well.
Just FYI.
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I might just need to test that theory, you know, for science..
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I said I hoped SS 8 blew up.. and I was banned for 3 days for "threatening violence".
Amerikkkan oligarchs looking out for each other..
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I'd be a bit more cautious before I confidently said this isn't user hostile. You don't know what Reddit is using the data of your blocks for. For all you know, blocking one ad for $thing gets you immediately prioritized for ads from five of $thing's closest market competitors.
Which might be fine if you're mad about Tesla ads and would prefer to see ads from GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Mazda... but might not help you one damn bit at all if, for example, you're a person who was recently pregnant and does not want to see an onslaught of baby product ads.
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People were never going to migrate away from yahoo, myspace, dig, et al. Inertia is a funny thing. you push and push and push and get no where. But Then suddenly you get movement. And once the movement starts, it takes even more energy to get it to stop.
I have no allegence or loyalty to a specific alternative. I was merely explaining the logical train of thought in responce to a request. Your request. Network effects keep Reddit in position, much as they continue to prop up Twitter's failing business.
If reddit continues to meet your needs, yeah, stick with it. Don't care. The article drew the attention of those whose needs aren't being fulfilled by reddit, because its topic is about attempts by reddit to address the reputation it has for toxic advertisers. I imagine its more likely than there not being a market is that those who most need alternatives, and would be the most vocal about the desire, have already left.
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Seriously... I was fixing my grandfather's computer the other day, and he doesn't run any adblockers.
I was SHOCKED by the sound of the roaring fans and all the screen real estate lost to ads. It's like 75/25 ads vs what you are actually looking for.
It's just unusable.
My arsenal is:
- AudioContext Scrambler
- CanvasBlocker
- Chameleon
- Consent-O-Matic
- Cookie auto decline
- Dark reader (For my OLED)
- DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
- Port Authority (always beeps on ebay)
- Privacy Badger
- uBlock Origin
Plus all the shenanigans from pfsense - snort and pfblockerng.
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If by "we" you mean those who are on Chrome, then your last statement is pretty accurate.
Firefox, and it's more secure incarnation LibreWolf (built on the same iteration cycle as Firefox) are options if you don't want MS integration and a repeat of the stupid shit from 25 years ago.
Assuming Chrome isn't stripped from Google's clutches (Which I'd not want to bet on, when before it looked like a slam-dunk loss for Google.)
Now, that outcome depends entirely on how much payola the judges sitting on the antitrust court bench demand for a favorable ruling for Google and whether the parties in favor of tossing that case will cough it up - which they likely will.
There's no doubt in my mind that regardless of the ruling, the people are going to get the short end of the stick. Look at Microsoft, and how it's integrating AI's creating an OS that will replace browsers, while still allowed to have it's own.
IMHO, those who create OS's should NOT be allowed to create web browsers. And an operating system shouldn't include any program that can scan, download or read data outside of the LAN.
Call it a wall of separation between companies, and devices.
Now, I know that's fantasy, and yes, I'm smoking something. Fair. But if one could wish for a better world, it would have that as immutable business law.
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