Midnight Pub

Please, websites, I only want to read the news

~drmollytov

About a month ago, I deleted all my Big Tech accounts and switched to using Firefox and Brave with plenty of blocking offered. But at work, I don't have browser options; it's Chrome, Edge, or nothing. I also can't install extensions on them without IT approval.

I'm working on a project this morning that requires me to read a lot of local news websites - with nothing between me and the ads, the pop-up random videos, and everything else. It's uncomfortable!

No, it's worse than uncomfortable. It's *offensive*. It feels like an onslaught to my senses.

I know the saying is "if you're not the customer, you're the product," but these days it seems like even customers are products to a lot of websites. Even news services *we pay for* have offensively ad-cluttered, distracting, invasive interfaces.

I'm going to ask IT if adblock extensions wouldn't be the best thing for everyone around here.


starbreaker

WTF? Your workplace's IT department makes you raw-dog commercial websites instead of letting you install uBlock Origin? Damn.

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theoddballphilosopher

At this point you're better off buying a newspaper.

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softwarepagan

I wish my local news had a good RSS feed. It doesn't, unfortunately :/

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violetsoup

I remember reading something a little while ago that said something along the lines of,

"If you were to take a fellow from 2005 and show him the sort of websites we have to-day, he'd think that the computer had a virus."

And I agree! The sort of things that we consider normal on the internet these days is just obscene. I don't have an office job, but if I ever do, and it requires the use of a computer, you bet I'll be begging for ad-blocking extensions.

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detritus

I used to ask IT to install plan9 on all the computers, I hope you have better luck :^)

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