How To Combat Harmful Technology: Should Ads Be Banned?

[Paulsian]

39 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

I think it is inevitable that ads will become more sophisticated, and trying to avoid them will become more difficult.  Chat bots are slowly advancing, and can be convincing if you do not suspect they are a bot to begin with.

I remember years ago probably 25-30 when yahoo chat introduced chat bots to their chat rooms and you could have full conversations with them. After I'm guessing they completed their objective, yahoo chat no longer existed.  

[Paulsian]

45 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

I've been told that I am a bot in the past, which I thought was pretty funny and in an odd way complimentary. 

You come across as friendly, earth needs more like you. Strange story: In the past two weeks I have been visited by beings at night after sleep. The first time 5 beings were around my bed observing me sleep, I woke to see them. I can't remember anything after that. A few nights later one was beside my bed I woke up and tried to alert my dog I was able to reach one hand up and tried to reach the other up to clap because I could not move and I was witnessing this with my arm froze in the air I felt a rectangle shaped object on the right side of my brain electrify. When it was done I was afraid. 

[Persephone Emerald]

2 minutes ago, Paulsian said:

You come across as friendly, earth needs more like you. Strange story: In the past two weeks I have been visited by beings at night after sleep. The first time 5 beings were around my bed observing me sleep, I woke to see them. I can't remember anything after that. A few nights later one was beside my bed I woke up and tried to alert my dog I was able to reach one hand up and tried to reach the other up to clap because I could not move and I was witnessing this with my arm froze in the air I felt a rectangle shaped object on the right side of my brain electrify. When it was done I was afraid. 

The most likely explanation for what you describe is normal sleep paralysis while in a dream state. You might open your eyes a little, which makes your environment seem very real, yet the creatures around your bed and the rectangular object are actually part of a dream.

I'll entertain another option as being a visitation by aliens, but I don't personally believe this is what was happening.

Probably even less likely than Aliens would be something like demons or "shadow people". 

The human mind can do alot of weird stuff all on it's own, so there doesn't have to be anything outside of your own mind creating this experience.  If you think it could be caused by something outside of yourself though, it wouldn't hurt to do some kind of protective ritual before you go to sleep, possibly something as simple as saying a prayer for protection. If this experience is caused by you feeling stressed, then a protective prayer or ritual will probably make you feel calmer and will likely help, even if it isn't needed on a metaphysical level.

[Istelathis]

@PaulsianThat sounds scary, I sometimes experience sleep paralysis although it has been a while since my last episode.  The scariest one was a lady garbed in a tattered dress with a gray complexion, was slowly walking toward me, with the most dreadful look on her face and I felt that her intention was to kill me.  It definitely was not a fun experience to say the least, and despite how hard I tried to move I could not budge so much as an inch. 

Most of the time I have experienced it though, I would just wake up from a slumber, unable to move. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Istelathis

[Paulsian]

2 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

That sounds scary

I was scared. I'm not scared now, I guess I would be if they try to electroshock me again. I think they have what they need from me, hopefully. I was full awake. I do have vivid dream of building 3D objects so complex I could not even describe them with justice, I can only remember that I was very satisfied with the end product. I have not had any recent special 3D building dream projects. I have not told anyone else about it. 

[Paulsian]

Guess can't really combat that sort of technology just have to live with it, to what end? Unknown. 

[Rowan Amore]

[CaithLynnSayes]

2 hours ago, Paulsian said:

You come across as friendly, earth needs more like you.

"Earth"... That's something an alien would say. You an alien!?

[Paulsian]

nope

 

[StarlanderGoods]

9 hours ago, Istelathis said:

There are people who believe bots on social media are making posts to influence the outcome of our elections, as well as people farms that try to cause chaos in various countries.  I'm prone to think there is some truth in what they have said, but haven't experienced it myself that I am aware of.  I've been told that I am a bot in the past, which I thought was pretty funny and in an odd way complimentary. 

I think it is inevitable that ads will become more sophisticated, and trying to avoid them will become more difficult.  Chat bots are slowly advancing, and can be convincing if you do not suspect they are a bot to begin with.  Perhaps we will soon be getting advertising in form of text, on forums and social media, that interacts with us on a limited capacity.  You can even spot advertising being spread as news now,  this is especially true on yahoo but at least they notify you it is an ad.  

I participate in a political forum, and certain topics attract a lot of day 1 accounts with strong pro easter european feelings, do they come from one of those troll farms? I cant tell, because they are not bots.  The bots I encountered are always trying to sell di*k pills and online casinos.

[Alwin Alcott]

28 minutes ago, StarlanderGoods said:

 pro [any] feelings, do they come from one of those troll farms? I cant tell, because they are not bots.

true, but it can still be troll farms, who btw are active for all camps

[Phil Deakins]

I don't really understand why people seem to be so against ads, especially when the ads are tailored for the person. I'd rather have ads that interest me than ads that don't. And, as long as the ads don't interfere with the pages I'm looking at, I don't mind them at all. Newspaper websites are horrendous for being interfered with by ads, making them hard to read, but, apart from stuff like that, ads are fine with me.

I don't have an ad blocker because, apart from newspaper websites, which I look at extremely rarely, ads are not intrusive. If I buy a magazine, I expect some ads to be in it, and I don't object to them. I don't see any reason to think any differently when I look at websites.

I can understand people not wanting companies to gather information about them but, as has been said, it's the way life is now, and it's best to get use to it, or stay off the web altogether.

I disagree that ads are there to keep things free to use. They are there to make money for the website owners. That's not the same as keeping things free to use. I did it myself many years ago. My websites existed specifically to earn affiliate money - mainly from Google and a hotel booking system. The cost of running a website is so small that it never needs to pay for itself. Affiliate ads can be put on to pay for the small cost, of course, and maybe make a bit extra, but that's not the same as websites needing them in order to keep running and provide stuff for free.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Phil Deakins

[Nick0678]

2 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I don't really understand why people seem to be so against ads, especially when the ads are tailored for the person. I'd rather have ads the interest me than ads that don't.

I can't speak about the rest but for me 99.9% of those ads are... irrelevant and totally useless.

Living in a totally different country on the other side of the planet in Europe, means that "Progressive Insurance" or "Upstart Personal Loans" or "Fruity Pebbles Cereal" or "Joe's Pickup Trucks Salvage" or "put_whatever_here" ads while browsing... are for a different target group.

So I will either use Ublock/Adblock plugin or even better set up an AdBLock DNS (for example 51.158.99.7) and all of them are gone for good. Some are correctly based on the region but most are not interesting and i don't need to see an ad of Coca-Cola, already have some in my fridge. (*when it comes to new games ads, i don't play other games apart from SL so not much to care about.)

Edited February 13, 2022 by Nick0678

[Paulsian]

I almost forgot about all the casino ads, I don't gamble. And the male enhancement ads I had to mentally block those out. I don't believe drugs are the solution to every problem and should not be force fed to children every 2 minutes. Or the is your male part crooked we can fix that...

While you're watching the ads for the medications we could take for depression, male enhancement, and the dozens of other medical issues, have a drink of hard whiskey with this brand, and after that swing by our online casino where you can get free money to play, and remember don't forget to vote for this political party...

I have not seen a cereal commercial in a long time. It looks like big pharm, big alcohol, big gaming, and big political is dominating web advertising spaces. 

I'm all for animals being protected and when I see on tv and web the 5 minute ASPECA ad/commercials asking for monthly donations to help animals and they only show videos of animals being harmed playing sad music in the background and no images of the animals they helped and offering to send "free" merch for donating. Would think they could take all the ad and merch funds they seem to have and help the animals with it instead. Alot of people on medication to loosen up their pocketbooks see ads like that and call right away. I think the elderly generation is their target market. We need more help we need 30,000 more donations before the end of the month... really. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Paulsian
after thought

[Paulsian]

7 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

I don't have an ad blocker because, apart from newspaper websites, which I look at extremely rarely, ads are not intrusive. If I buy a magazine, I expect some ads to be in it, and I don't object to them. I don't see any reason to think any differently when I look at websites.

When I used to bodybuild I would purchase all the body building magazines and I would say 90% of the magazines were advertisements for supplements. Rollingstone, Time, & National Geographic are mostly political. National Geographic first page ad for cat food. 4th page ad for POM, 6th page ad for device for live streaming, few pages of content then ad for cough meds.. just goes on and on. RollingStone: first page ad for tobacco, page 5 ad for cat food, page 6 ad for cat food, page 7 ad for RollingStone merch, page 10 as for food, few pages later a RollingStone magazine ad. I have the magazine why do I need an ad for the magazine I'm reading.. and then after that a 5 page political ad, bunch of pages of content with little to do with music, 1 of those little cards to mail in for a subscription, considering I already had subscription might as well have one of those..in the middle of a political conflict story..

 

[Persephone Emerald]

6 minutes ago, Paulsian said:

When I used to bodybuild I would purchase all the body building magazines and I would say 90% of the magazines were advertisements for supplements. Rollingstone, Time, & National Geographic are mostly political. National Geographic first page ad for cat food. 4th page ad for POM, 6th page ad for device for live streaming, few pages of content then ad for cough meds.. just goes on and on. RollingStone: first page ad for tobacco, page 5 ad for cat food, page 6 ad for cat food, page 7 ad for RollingStone merch, page 10 as for food, few pages later a RollingStone magazine ad. I have the magazine why do I need an ad for the magazine I'm reading.. and then after that a 5 page political ad, bunch of pages of content with little to do with music, 1 of those little cards to mail in for a subscription, considering I already had subscription might as well have one of those..in the middle of a political conflict story..

 

You can sometimes go through and rip out all the ads in a magazine that don't have an actual article on part of the page and end up with a magazine that's half its original size.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Paulsian]

3 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

You can sometimes go through and rip out all the ads in a magazine that don't have an actual article on part of the page and end up with a magazine that's half its original size.

pretty bad they need ad free additions, maybe sell the ones with ads at discounted price. Yah would be like 10 pages of content lol. People do not like ads. The corporations are like hmm these ads do not seem to be paying off, we should add more ads that will solve the problem. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Paulsian
after thought

[StarlanderGoods]

I think we need a conspiracy theories thread in this forum, has it been tried before?

[Istelathis]

8 minutes ago, StarlanderGoods said:

I think we need a conspiracy theories thread in this forum, has it been tried before?

I don't think it would last very long..

/me looks around nervously

 

They wouldn't let it last very long.

[Rowan Amore]

26 minutes ago, StarlanderGoods said:

I think we need a conspiracy theories thread in this forum, has it been tried before?

The OP of this one has started several.  With disastrous results and possible hand slaps and temp bans,.rumor has it.

[Paulsian]

40 minutes ago, StarlanderGoods said:

I think we need a conspiracy theories thread in this forum, has it been tried before?

I would not do it purposefully nor respond to people who try to get a reaction only to turn around and report it.

[Paulsian]

Speaking of mind control. History Channel just posted this:

 

[Phil Deakins]

We expect ads to be in the magazines that we buy, and we still buy them, so we can have no complaints whatsoever that the magazines contain ads. Unlike websites, magazines would close down if they didn't have ads. Also unlike websites, we can look in magazines before we buy them, so there are never any surprises. I don't know why they are in this discussion in such detail.

Ads in general are very good things. They inform us that stuff that we are often interested in is available. Without them, we would be blissfully ignorant of such things. Everyone benefits from ads. It could reasonably be argued that, to a significant extent, we rely on ads in our everyday lives.

I honestly cannot understand the anti-ad thinking that is often expressed on the web. It's almost like the matter-of-principle thinking that some people have, that everything in SL should be totally free. I.e. I want to visit any website I choose but I object to ads being put in front of my eyes when I visit them. Such thinking is beyond my comprehension.

My answer to the OP's original question is NO! Ads should not be banned. We need them.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Phil Deakins

[Nick0678]

19 minutes ago, Phil Deakins said:

We need them.

Nods, yes you do. (*Turn's on his Adblock.)

[Sid Nagy]

5 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

My answer to the OP's original question is NO! Ads should not be banned. We need them.

A lot of supermarket stuff I only buy when they are on special sale, like 1+1 free (and then I buy in bulk). Or 3 for 2 etc.
That way I have my coffee for half the normal prize and all washing soaps, toothpaste and a lot of other products. My freezer is full with special bargains too.

Dishwasher broken down? I look for one that has a special price at that moment.
etc.
How?  Newsletters and ads on tv, in papers, on websites.

If there were no ads , I would miss most of those offerings.
It easily saves me hundreds of Euro a year. Every year. No ad blockers for me, thank you.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Sid Nagy