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Original poster

To say it's impossible to read online news articles anymore because of the adverts?

38 replies

Superlambaanana · 12/05/2024 13:55

It's getting almost impossible to read an online news article these days.

Click on a link and first you'll be bombarded with cookie consents and requests to register or download the app. Then when you X out of those, ads appear top and bottom of the page, strategically placed to make accidentally clicking on them almost unavoidable.

Then when you've finally managed to clear all of that, the article itself is loaded with ads throughout and then all the clickbait stories about 'wait till you see what X celeb looks like now' and 'one thing every woman needs to know'.

Does anyone EVER intentionally click on any of these ads??

Does anyone EVER go on to purchase anything from the webpages they lead to??

How can the newspapers be making money from this stuff??

Add this to the fact that most articles seem to be written by an AI, using primary school level vocabulary, with pointlessly long introductions before getting to the (usually pretty scant) key information and repeating points over and over again.

The energy required to maintain the servers for the internet is crazy anyway, when it's mostly populated by this trash surely it's reached an indefensible level of Black Mirror proportions?

OP posts:
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BrigadierEtienneGerard · 25/07/2024 18:20

I've given up on local news websites because of this. OK adverts are necessary to pay for the site and its content, I get that, but they are presented in such an intrusive way, I don't bother anymore.

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 25/07/2024 17:43

To be honest I’d probably just walk away from any site that made it impossible to use it without paying. Im not wedded to any site I couldn’t walk away from.

lightand · 25/07/2024 17:34

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 12/05/2024 19:23

I downloaded an Adblocker and I don’t really see the ads now. There are some sites that won’t let you read with an Adblocker so I just click out of them. No site is that important to me that I will endure pop ups and ads dominating the page.

I was doing this. But today two online sites I regularly go on, say either accept cookies, for there 1200 "partners" or however many, or pay a subscription to them.

I will look into adblock plus and pocket

EnglishBluebell · 12/05/2024 23:34

YellowPolkaDotBikini1980 · 12/05/2024 14:43

I use pocket. It strips the articles of advertising

Pocket? Care to elaborate at all? Sounds too good to be true

BigMandsTattooPortfolio · 12/05/2024 19:26

Adblock plus is your friend, OP.

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 12/05/2024 19:23

I downloaded an Adblocker and I don’t really see the ads now. There are some sites that won’t let you read with an Adblocker so I just click out of them. No site is that important to me that I will endure pop ups and ads dominating the page.

Topofthemountain · 12/05/2024 18:55

And why can't we just agree (or not agree) ONE time to Cookies, not every single time you open a new page, FFS.

Gov.uk is the worst for this, every single time.

Original poster
Superlambaanana · 12/05/2024 18:53

I'm heartened to see how many of you agree with me.

This obviously isn't being reported on (by the media who are the culprits) or tackled by anyone but it is an issue and it is getting worse.

And it's not just a failure to pay for journalism anymore. I wouldn't mind some adverts, if they were placed on a page in such a way as to be sensible and not block the primary content I've come to read.

It's also the fact that many of these 'adverts' are not actually adverts for legitimate goods and services but actually clickbate or links to scams. That's unethical and contributing to the creeping decline in the quality of just about bloody everything these days.

I know we are all partly to blame for shit politicians and sweat shop driven fast fashion and the internet being full of porn and gossip and shite content, but ffs, when do we all collectively say ENOUGH!! It has to reach a tipping point soon!

OP posts:
Original poster
Superlambaanana · 12/05/2024 18:46

aramox1 · 12/05/2024 16:02

So pay for a quality paper. How else are journalists (what's left of them) going to get paid?

I do actually. I have a subscriptions to a number of sites. But I also read blogs and MN and often end up clicking links which posters share to evidence points or highlight obscure news stories or shed further light on something. We should be able to get news and information from a range of sources without having to endure pointless adverts.

OP posts:
Tomatina · 12/05/2024 18:46

Many newspaper sites have made themselves totally unusable and illegible with wall to wall adverts, flashing adverts, advert videos etc. So the sites lose readers, and the adverts are seen by nobody. Idiotic.
As a reader, you need to install adblockers. There's Adblock plus and many others. I'm currently using Brave - very good so far.

newnamethanks · 12/05/2024 18:06

The advertisers are paying, you aren't. Don't bother with them.

useitorlose · 12/05/2024 17:41

Adblock Plus is very effective on websites and apps. I use their browser on YouTube as well and it eradicates all the ads - genius!

longdistanceclaraclara · 12/05/2024 17:33

It's annoying but they can't exist for free.

AgentJohnson · 12/05/2024 17:07

Why do you expect journalism to be free? Register and or donate or stop whining about adverts.

AnCùDubh · 12/05/2024 17:07

People want quality news but don't want to pay for it. It's as simple as that.

News costs money to make and (in the case of live news) curate so it has to be paid for somehow.

Otherwise all you'd get is page after page of shite sent to outlets by PR teams.

Jc2001 · 12/05/2024 17:03

Pay a subscription for a decent online newspaper.

(Or put up with the ads)

WhereYouLeftIt · 12/05/2024 16:57

I can bear the adverts, as long as they're still. The flashing ones I despise, and when they try to load a video and my whole session slows down, I leave the site and try to find an article on another site covering the story.

G123456789 · 12/05/2024 16:46

ladybirdsanchez · 12/05/2024 14:32

Adblock Plus. It's free. It will save your sanity Grin

Sorry I'm technically useless, what is this and what's it do?

're op oh god yes, so frustrating. The BBC news website keeps loading, then jumps and reloads then asks me to sign up...no fuck off

RafaistheKingofClay · 12/05/2024 16:17

The Mirror Group local ones Xlive or whatever are the absolute worst. Completely unusable. Almost certainly so they can make you pay for their ad free subscription.

aramox1 · 12/05/2024 16:02

So pay for a quality paper. How else are journalists (what's left of them) going to get paid?

qpid5tunt · 12/05/2024 15:45

Install Brave. Brilliant ad blocker and it's free. I installed it on my phone 3 months ago and so far it's blocked 91k ads and trackers and saved me wasting 2.8g of data.

stuckdownahole · 12/05/2024 15:15

LookAtMyTinyGameBoy · 12/05/2024 14:13

Of the old names that still carry some leftover prestige, IMO the Independent is the worst.

And has been for some time. It's strange because I presume they have a paid-for option that they want to lure people into.

Londonnight · 12/05/2024 14:53

Yes, drives me nuts!

TiredCatLady · 12/05/2024 14:52

Yes. Thank goodness it’s not just me thinking this.

Bristol Post is horrendous and their ‘journalists’ are borderline illiterate.

drusth · 12/05/2024 14:48

Yep, same with recipe sites.

They write so much repetitive waffle before getting to the recipe just so they can intersperse lots of ads.

And you can’t even easily scroll to the bottom because all the HTML or whatever it is means it takes ages for the page to load.