Tag: adblocker

uBlock silently enables Acceptable Ads for everyone

kao

Few days ago I started seeing ads on ebay. Weird.. 😕 I blocked the ad manually and forgot about it. The next time I visited ebay, the ad was showing again. I blocked it again. Third time.. Yes, you guessed right, the ad was back. So, I started to investigate why my filter rule was not working.

Few minutes later, the culprit was found:

This rule disables all cosmetic filters for eBay. But where does it come from?

I went to examine my filter lists. And then I went into full WTF mode:

Why the fuck I have "Acceptable Ads" list enabled?
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I bought a software today…

kao

I never buy software. Not sure why is that, probably I just don't see a point in doing that. To me, most of the software seems ridiculously overpriced.

  • Paying 30 euros for a copy of WinRar? Are you kidding me?
  • Paying 70 euros for latest Need for Speed racing simulator I'm not even sure I'll like? I'm not a hardcore gamer, I'm just looking for a good fun for a rainy evening.

And subscription-based software is even worse:

Do I look like a f*ing Rockefeller to you?

Hello Adguard!

Imagine my surprise when yesterday I noticed that my beloved Adguard actually has very reasonable prices. And they are offering 40% discount for all licences until May 4th, 2016. Lifetime license for less than a cup of Chai Latte in Starbucks? I'll take that, thank you very much!

license purchased

Well, it's actually half-true. If you just open their main page in the browser and go to "Purchase", you'll probably see that a lifetime license costs $14.97. Not exactly a cup of Chai Latte.

Hacking Adguard pricing

To get those extra nice prices, you'll need to perform a little trick. Open the mobile version of the same page in your browser: m.adguard.com. Now go to purchase. And now switch to prices in Russian roubles. 179RUB for a lifetime license! 😀

According to Paypal, I just got my lifetime license for:

Payment: 179.40 RUB
Payment sent to: pr@adguard.com
From amount: $2.94 USD

Cheers!

Summary

If you're interested in a decent adblocker for Android device, I recommend that you give Adguard a chance. No root required! They also have adblockers for Windows and Mac but I haven't tested those.

Full disclosure: the link above is my affiliate link with Adguard. If 4 people will follow this link, install and use Adguard for 30 minutes, I will get a free 1-year license. In that case, I will donate this license to LCF-AT to help with ad-filtering issues.

If you hate affiliate links of any kind, please feel free to visit using a direct link: adguard.com - it's well worth it.

Have fun blocking the ads! 🙂

How to lose 20% of your readers in one day

kao

I was reading "How WIRED Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking" article and didn't know if I should laugh or cry. Here are some excerpts:

On an average day, more than 20 percent of the traffic to WIRED.com comes from a reader who is blocking our ads. We know that you come to our site primarily to read our content

Translation: we know that more than 20% of our users hate our irrelevant ads covering half the page. Fucking freeloaders, we can't make a penny out of them!

We know that there are many reasons for running an ad blocker, from simply wanting a faster, cleaner browsing experience to concerns about security and tracking software.

Translation: we know that ads can be obnoxious and sometimes distribute malware. Hell, big companies like Forbes distributed malware twice last year. We don't care, as long as we get paid.

So, in the coming weeks, we will restrict access to articles on WIRED.com if you are using an ad blocker. There will be two easy options to access that content.

Translation: WIRED just gave a middle finger to 20% of its users. What a great idea!

EDIT: lots of companies seem to be reacting to WIRED's move in one way or another. For comparison, here's the comment by Stack Overflow advertising managers. Now, that's an attitude that actually makes sense!