joshchandra

Thanks for the reminder about PeerTube... I've gotta look into that, too.

Careful: that then enters the world of ad fraud, which randos like us doing the clicking isn't considered as.

Fascinating, thanks for sharing! What is the best, current Firefox fork of this one, if you know?

You incorrectly use the term ad fraud, which addresses advertisers themselves automating clicks on their own links to generate fake income. There is nothing wrong with people-with-no-corporate-interest who click.

Oops, lol, I forgot about the date. This has existed for years.

Totally, it's up to you. The idea for fake-clickers is the long game: the marketers think they're landing clicks over months or possibly even years, but ~~will~~ may slowly realize (gotta account for the stubborn ones) that it's ineffective and eventually pivot to different approaches, hopefully ones that involve less tracking (I can't imagine what any worse approach could be, at least).

this will cause problems for independent website operators.

https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-and-why-does-adnauseam-make-exceptions-for-non-tracking-ads

This may seem to be a legit criticism at first, but AdNauseam allows ethical ads so anyone using good, safe stuff should not get affected. There is an entire section in AN's documentation about not clicking on this specific ad group.

As for the vast majority of the rest who don't use ethical, non-tracking ads: let 'em have it! ⚔ AdNauseam users (and users of any similar tools; I don't know what else is out there) must first hold a fundamental view that the tracking world is extremely violating, of which ads are a subset. Long gone are the glory days when ads were funny, appealing, and well-made, and didn't track people; ad companies gather data on us and if they get hacked, that info flies out in the open: all without our knowledge or true consent. Is that something you're fine with? Additionally, more and more ads are proving to be entire scams, or otherwise shams that did not fully deliver, that have harmed consumers who legitimately click through.

The long-term goal is to teach those who use malicious ads that this is an unacceptable, unsustainable practice and that they need to market in better ways if they wanna keep doing this (again, going back to the pre-Internet glory days when Coca-Cola, etc. ran awesome TV ads and when there was no or nearly no account-tracking—or just any semblance of it).

Absolutely fascinating and promising. Thanks for sharing. Any downvoters clearly didn't read the article.

Incredible, I had no idea that this was a thing. Is there any tutorial out there that you recommend to figure this stuff out? Or may I ask you questions if need be? I wanna start doing this, too!

Come to think of it, is it possible for you to export settings if you wouldn't mind others (especially those who may not be as savvy) riding off of your work? Haha, that could be interesting.

there's often a lot of extra JavaScript that gets called, mostly for tracking

Do you mean that your tool (whatever you use) can selectively block some JS while admitting others on one website?

Dang it... I'm starting to feel the appeal now, lol! Hmm.

It's crazy that you're being downvoted. I guess they avoid The Atlantic, etc. as well, despite the helpful info in such articles.