Let's get this thread to a million pages!

[Different]

That's why smart TVs are so cheap compared to TVs in the past, these companies are harvesting and selling our data to push this targeted advertising onto us. If you own a smart TV or a Roku device (or something similar), they already know where you live.

Exactly. If your antivirus is smart, then they'll tell you that whomever is selling your data on the dark web. The government is already trying to sell the internet over to China. Just imagine how horrendous that's going to be. We'd be better off living off the grid one day, bro.

[Adulock77]

I'd rather support content creators directly through donations than get targeted advertising, ads for a store that's only located in the vicinity of my residence. It freaks me out. Why is it so difficult to achieve privacy in the modern world?

I get you... If I could I would donate to the creators that I like since that is arguably way more effective than ad revenue but since I can't... I just like the videos and watch the ads since that helps them a ton too.

And unfortunately... privacy doesn't really exist anymore xD with so many technological advances happening what seems to be every other week, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an app out there that allows someone to find the exact address of somebody. It is pretty creepy.

Like have you seen those public websites where people hack security webcams from random homes? that serves... the purpose of stalking basically? now that sounds like something out of the dark web but NOPE! totally surface web and very easy to find.

[Different]

@Master Raiden This is what I was talking about earlier. They give you 3 chances before they completely ruin your video.

[Master Raiden]

@Master Raiden This is what I was talking about earlier. They give you 3 chances before they completely ruin your video.

And then after 3 videos, you will get that popup that I posted before with no button to close it.
But you can still close it by fullscreening the video.

[Adulock77]

I've gotten some weird things promoted to me through ridiculously long ads before, as well. Some of the ads were helpful, and some of them were not. It had just gotten to the point where I was exhausted when dealing with more ads. Some were highly inappropriate.

The only time they really helped me was with Full Sail, when I was listening to a song online and they promoted their ad for getting a music and audio degree at Full Sail. This was back when ads weren't so bad about 7 years ago.

That's weird. I don't know what to call it but maybe it is a weird geographic thing because here where I live, I rarely have had long and/or weird ads. 

Most of the ads I get all around the internet (not just YouTube) are just new merchandise or food or whatever O_o
and maybe every once in a while a random popular music track that came out a few days ago and such.

[Mia]

Did you hear about the pop star who got found by an obsessed fan because of the reflection in her eye? He also confirmed her location based on tracing details from pictures she had posted from her smartphone. It's actually terrifying. Anonymity truly is one of the most valuable assets.

[Different]

Did you hear about the pop star who got found by an obsessed fan because of the reflection in her eye? He also confirmed her location based on tracing details from pictures she had posted from her smartphone. It's actually terrifying. Anonymity truly is one of the most valuable assets.

Yooo, that's like a whole new level of creepiness. Reflections?? You see, this is why I remain anonymous on social media platforms, and refuse to post pictures of myself online because some people have uncontrollable obsessions with others that cause them to do things like this. I think one of the best, potential ways to avoid harassment (if you're going to post online), is to just photoshop yourself out of IRL locations.

[Different]

The world is getting more intimidating by the minute, and these people are beginning to come up with more advanced ways to figure out where you live. You've got too much time on your hands when you go through every video and picture that someone has posted on instagram. There's probably one too many, anyways. These clowns are rapists and pedophiles for sure.

[Mia]

Yooo, that's like a whole new level of creepiness. Reflections?? You see, this is why I remain anonymous on social media platforms, and refuse to post pictures of myself online because some people have uncontrollable obsessions with others that cause them to do things like this. I think one of the best, potential ways to avoid harassment (if you're going to post online), is to just photoshop yourself out of IRL locations.

People reach an obsessive level of creepiness now that there's geo tracking and ip tracing. This is why so many streamers are switching to VTubing, because people are creeps. If I ever streamed, I'd either be a VTuber or wouldn't use a camera at all.

[Mia]

I'm not currently folding for anyone, now my PC gets a rest until Different posts his Suika thread.

[Mia]

I kinda wanted to make a folding challenge in this thread. Like, the top poster from post #13520-#15000 gets 8 tokens on PR2

[Mia]

We gotta motivate people to post in here, or this thread will never reach its goal

[Mia]

I kinda wanted to make a folding challenge in this thread. Like, the top poster from post #13520-#15000 gets 8 tokens on PR2

But the catch is if I win, I don't have to fold anyone

[Mia]

And it's called Outspam the Spammer

[Mia]

This thread already reached its goal

[Mia]

Remember when I typed the word "page" into this thread a million times? It reached a million pages

[David]

I enjoy supporting content creators I watch, so I have never installed an ad-blocker.

I'd recommend using an adblocker in general still, there are malicious ads out there so everyone should definitely be using one (@Adulock77 I also saw you say you don't use one). I recommend using uBlock Origin, it'll also block trackers and malicious websites and has some other features (I assume some other adblockers do as well but uBlock Origin is regarded as the best adblocker from what I've seen)

You can whitelist the websites you want to support so that ads are shown on those sites, I whitelisted YouTube because it stopped allowing me to watch videos same as @Different. I can work around it from what I've heard but at the end of the day YouTube can't exist if they don't make money, and I also want to support content creators I watch. In the future I'll get YouTube Premium, it also has some nice bonuses like background play (great for listening to music)

For any ads you do see (if you whitelist sites for example, or if they slip through) I recommend never clicking any in case they are malicious, and for privacy reasons. If you see an ad for something you're interested in I'd search it up on your preferred search engine and find it that way. And if you ever aren't sure if a site is trustworthy, this site is a useful tool to help determine if a site is safe https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/url (just copy and paste the link there, ideally before clicking the link). I've been using it a lot recently and will continue to do so. There may be a past scan that shows up so reanalyze it (unless it was very recent but I'd do it anyway, and it's worth paying attention to past scans as well). Still take precautions though, sites that show up clean there aren't guaranteed to be safe but it's a good start (a suspicious or malicious rating isn't guaranteed to be a bad site either, there are false positives, but obviously a ton of malicious and suspicious ratings is a red flag but don't just ignore one or two bad ratings, do more research if theres a few)

[Different]

You can whitelist the websites you want to support so that ads are shown on those sites, I whitelisted YouTube because it stopped allowing me to watch videos same as @Different. I can work around it from what I've heard but at the end of the day YouTube can't exist if they don't make money, and I also want to support content creators I watch. In the future I'll get YouTube Premium, it also has some nice bonuses like background play (great for listening to music)

How did you go about whitelisting websites and YouTube? Tbh, I don't think I've ever whitelisted anything before, so I'm curious. When YouTube became a nuisance with Adblock detectors, I just started to browse and watch videos, privately. Works every time. YouTube Premium is ok, but I don't think they should force people to turn off their Adblockers by constantly shoving it in our faces every time. All it does is ruin the video and make people migrate to other streaming platforms.

I've heard many people growing exhausted of YouTube ads so much that they don't even want to consider using Premium. I think eventually they'll consider other streaming platforms as well... ones like Rumble, I bet.

[Different]

I'm not currently folding for anyone, now my PC gets a rest until Different posts his Suika thread.

I'm still working on the videos. I'll try to finish up today, so that I can post the thread either today or tomorrow.

[Mia]

Yeah, I won't be whitelisting YouTube. Not after getting an ad for a store a block away from my apartment. Creepy as heck.