back to article Adblock Plus blocks Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook ads

Those hoping for a quick resolution to the cat-and-mouse game between Facebook and Adblock Plus will be disappointed to know that the back-and-forth battle shows no signs of letting up. On Tuesday, Facebook changed its desktop website so that visitors would see ads on pages even if they are running an ad-blocking plugin. It …

  1. Sinick

    BLOCK WARS

    THE EMPIRE BLOCKS BACK

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: BLOCK WARS

      "Help me, Addywan Begonni, you are my only hope!"

      1. GrapeBunch

        Re: BLOCK WARS

        "Help me, Addywan Begonni, you are my only hope!"

        I'll have to take that to the AddyWan Ker Chief.

    2. Howard Hanek
      Headmaster

      Re: BLOCK WARS

      We're perilously close to an extinction event where we inadvertently rip a hole in the space/time contiuum.... AdiBan Iwannabee

    3. Oh Homer
      Headmaster

      "ad blocking companies are punishing people"

      This is like claiming that shoe manufacturers are responsible for all those people who'd rather walk away than talk to you.

  2. John Munyard

    Since Facebook are so bloody smart, perhaps they could take the trouble to create "preferences" that actually stop unwanted posts when you do actually elect not to see them.

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      At various times, I've wanted to be able to write some decent filters for Facebook posts:

      -Timehop -"David Bowie" -Farage -photoofmylunch -Brexit

      I'll pay Facebook money if they let me do that.

      1. aBloke FromEarth

        There's a browser add-on for that at fbpurity.com

        It lets you filter out words and makes the interface cleaner too. I've used it for years.

      2. DropBear
        Trollface

        "-Timehop -"David Bowie" -Farage -photoofmylunch -Brexit"

        Seems to me this and most of your future filters could be proactively implemented as the meta-filter "-trending". Not that I don't agree with the sentiment, mind you...

  3. Novex

    I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

    ...is to not use Farcebook.

    * for the occasional time when I view a page when someone sends me a link to one, I block Javascript with NoScript so that I don't see the adverts most if not all of the time.

    1. cd

      Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

      Noscript, uBlock, and Disconnect, plus Facebook blocked by Little Snitch until I have to see something (vanishingly rare). I'd like a plugin that would block any photo or likeness of Zuck as well.

    2. Charles 9

      Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

      "...is to not use Farcebook."

      And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important (like a member of your family) is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail or a reliable telephone?

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        If they've got FaecesBook, they've got email. And they've also got Google+ which is far tamer and can't afford to treat users like shit.

        And yes, if they insist on FB, then I just don't need to hear from them. Life's too short to be pissed on by a very condescending ad company.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        "And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important ... is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail...?"

        Turn that round.

        And what if the only point of contact someone has with you is through e-mail because you don't have Facebook?

        1. P. Lee

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          >And what if the only point of contact someone has with you is through e-mail because you don't have Facebook?

          If you have a mail client - software under your control, then you'll be an advert-free happy camper.

          If you run a web-browser to someone-else's mail server, you'll get adverts.

          These days, spam is pretty obvious. You could count it as an adverts, but it is relatively innocuous in that downloads aren't generally concurrent with display and they are fairly easy to filter. A decent mail client will filter out html and will also filter the remote content in html.

      3. Shane 4

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        Makes no sense, If they have an internet connection then they will have an email and phone of some sort.

        Haven't checked as I don't use Facebook site but for most services such as Facebook, You probably need an email address to sign up in the first place!

        Only reason for me having a Facebook account is so I can sign in to forum posts on other sites instead of creating accounts on every damn one of them with more passwords to try remember.

        1. Novex

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          Only reason for me having a Facebook account is so I can sign in to forum posts on other sites instead of creating accounts on every damn one of them with more passwords to try remember.

          I prefer to use a password manager, in my case KeyPass. It can generate the random-like passwords so that each is different, and it keeps all of those passwords away from the cloud (the database may be encrypted, but even I'm aware that one day that encryption might be hacked in some way, however unlikely that might appear, so off the cloud they stay).

        2. dajames

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          Only reason for me having a Facebook account is so I can sign in to forum posts on other sites instead of creating accounts on every damn one of them with more passwords to try remember.

          I concede the convenience factor, but if you do that you're telling Farcebook that you use those sites, and letting them see what you post there.

          I prefer to keep as much information as possible away from the Zuckerborg.

      4. John Tserkezis

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        "And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important (like a member of your family) is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail or a reliable telephone?"

        Then I tell them, if they want to get in touch with me, they can either by 7 different email addresses, or, three regular phone numbers, or, two SIP voip addresses, or, two Skype addresses, or they can leave me alone - there is only so far I'll go, and Facebook is NOT anywhere I'm going.

        Deal with it.

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        I would hope that someone who can actually run a computer or a smartphone would also have a dialable number to go with their app runny thing or a way to confirm/verify their FB account on creation. OK maybe someone with merely a tablet may have neither but then we go to Phase 2, where the real questions are about how important is it to get hold of this person, really-- and how much of their modern isolation YOU can be expected to work around.

        TL;DR: Sounds like an extremely rare and contrived sort of scenario.

        NB: I actually created an FB acct once so I could send a message to someone who had no obvious public email, immediately after which I deleted it. I still have had one too many FB accts for way too damn many minutes of my life for probably no good reason whatsoever

      6. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        I'm trying to give you credit but am failing miserably because I can think of no way for someone to have facebook without an internet conenction that would support a multitude of other ways to be contactable.

        So, your argument is null and void.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          "I'm trying to give you credit but am failing miserably because I can think of no way for someone to have facebook without an internet conenction that would support a multitude of other ways to be contactable."

          The Zuck is trying hard to get "free" facebook-only internet into India, so it's something which *may* come to pass one day. And I don't know if Google have ever specified exactly what 'net access they planning to allow via their Project Loon.

        2. notowenwilson

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          "So, your argument is null and void."

          Right, I need to find John Smith, no search results for him that include his contact details so I'm just going to spam every variation of John Smith on every email provider I can think of and hope that one of them is correct.

          Not sure about the rest of the world but around here mobile phone numbers aren't listed unless you specifically ask them to. Which very few people do.

          Or just search John Smith on facebook, check his photo to make sure it's the right person, send him a message.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

            Facebook as a tool for finding people is pretty good but there's no reason to keep feeding the machine by not swapping phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, Skype details etc.

            There truly is very little reason to use Facebook as a sole means of communication, expecially if the communication is 'private' and not on the timeline other than laziness.

            And the other advantage of Facebook is that you can cure cancer, defeat terrorism, stop child abuse etc. just by giving it a thumbs up.

      7. Mark Simon

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        “And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important …”

        Someone important only has FarceBook? Which institution do they come from?

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          I find that if I want to leave a forum comment, but have to have a Facebook login to leave one, then what I wanted to say was probably 1) not worth saying 2) to the wrong audience.

          1. Kubla Cant

            Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

            I find that if I want to leave a forum comment, but have to have a Facebook login to leave one, then what I wanted to say was probably 1) not worth saying 2) to the wrong audience.

            A site that uses Oauth to have logins processed by other sites such as Farcebook isn't necessarily endorsing Farcebook or subscribing to Farcebook's standards. It's not uncommon to offer several proxy authentication routes.

            Having said that, I dislike Oauth because it's such a pain to code with, and I'm suspicious of the way it provides a single point of security failure.

        2. Charles 9

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          "Someone important only has FarceBook? Which institution do they come from?"

          Countries where Facebook is free and loaded on to feature phones there while the Internet (including e-mail and all that) is at a premium. Yes, it really exists; try going to some of the less opulent places in southeast Asia.

          As for cutting them off, that's kinda harsh for a member of your immediate family (not to mention culturally improper over there).

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

            "some of the less opulent places in southeast Asia."

            So maybe not prime advertising targets.

          2. Updraft102

            Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

            "Countries where Facebook is free and loaded on to feature phones there while the Internet (including e-mail and all that) is at a premium."

            The answer is in the excerpt.... feature phone.

            1. Charles 9

              Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

              "The answer is in the excerpt.... feature phone."

              You didn't read the whole thing. I mentioned shoddy reception. At least Facebook is a lot like SMS: it works opportunistically (and BTW, SMS costs more than Facebook over there). And compared to back home, we get off light with advertising. Ads over there are everywhere: printed on tarps, plastered on any wall where there's space, legal or not.

        3. This post has been deleted by its author

      8. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        "And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important (like a member of your family) is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail or a reliable telephone?"

        if your family member has no e-mail, sign him up for gmail maybe? you need intarwebs for faceb[itch|ook] and so ANYTHING would work.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          Being an old fogy (at least, that's my excuse for not using FB), anyone who wants to contact me is "forced" to use txt or email or heaven forbid, the phone.

          It's cruel to the "FaceBook Generation", I know, but hey ho...

          1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

            Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

            Being an old fogy (at least, that's my excuse for not using FB), anyone who wants to contact me is "forced" to use txt or email or heaven forbid, the phone.

            Fair enough. And somebody else can say, "The only way you can communicate with me is via Facebook" leaving you with the choice of either using Facebook or not communicating. Given that situation, some of us may value a relationship enough to communicate.

      9. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Z's smirk

        His smirk is just like that of George Osborne.

      10. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        If FB is the only way for me to contact you, then I have no contact with you.

        If you want to get in touch with me, get a phone, pay a visit, send an owl, send an email. I see no need to enrich someone else with my personal data just to allow another communications channel.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          "If you want to get in touch with me, get a phone, pay a visit, send an owl, send an email. I see no need to enrich someone else with my personal data just to allow another communications channel."

          Bad reception, can't afford it, can't afford it. And he's practically my only immediate family, so while YOU may be willing to disown your family over demographics, I'm not. Family comes first.

      11. e^iπ+1=0

        Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

        "And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important (like a member of your family) is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail or a reliable telephone?"

        Just. Say. No!

        Offer an alternative if you choose to.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

          ""And what if the only point of contact you have with someone important (like a member of your family) is through Farcebook because they don't have e-mail or a reliable telephone?"

          Just. Say. No!

          Offer an alternative if you choose to."

          WHAT alternative? SMS is expensive for him, he has no-email, and the Facebook comes with his feature phone (meaning it can't be expanded). He lives in an area with poor standards and shoddy reception, and he's about the only family I have left. Plus Far East traditions demand you keep tabs on your family (Death Before Dishonor). He has no option BUT Facebook, and turning my back on him over that is taboo.

    3. Aynon Yuser

      Re: I find the best way to avoid adverts on Farcebook...

      I think you are on to something. I deleted my Faecebarf and now I see no ads. Very curious.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

    Adblock should stop blocking adverts on Mark Zuckerbergs website! Its his website, he created it with no help from anyone else! Stop ruining his creation! He's the greatest human being that has ever lived, EVER! Facebook is the greatest website in the world! Adverts are great! Without adverts we are nothing! I want more adverts on Facebook! Adblock is evil in its purest form! Zuckerberg for President!

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

      Can not down vote you but can up vote for sarcasm.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

        Earlier we were talking about Kornbluth novels like "The Space Merchants".....

        ZUCKER ZUCK ZUCK ZUCKER ZUCK!!

        1. Mage Silver badge

          Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

          I'm also always reminded of the guy in Fifth Element.

          I have Space Merchants here too.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

      Trying too hard. No votes.

    3. Richard Jones 1
      Joke

      Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

      Trying to out do Trump are we?

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

        Top Trump.

    4. Aynon Yuser

      Re: Going for the 'DownVoted' World Record!

      Zucks sucks.

  5. William 3 Bronze badge

    A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

    But hey, my Facebook account is scheduled for deletion in less than 14 days. I know I'm just one solitary guy saying Fuck You Zuckerberg, but even the mightiest of dams can be brought down from a thousand tiny cracks. If Facebook believes themselves immune to this by saying "fuck you little cracks, were bigger than you", good for them, it will be hubris if they do. And that's what will bring them down. The little cracks become bigger cracks, and then rocks start falling out, and then whole weight of inertia of people leaving just brings the whole fucking damn down around them and they get to feel what's it's like to be powerless for a change.

    Well, that, and because my news feed contained more spam than my e-mail spam folder, and it was just a really shit waste of my time from people that I really didn't care about in any way whatsoever.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

      There's been a lot before FB... Bebo (I think that's how it was spelled), MySpace, Orkut, and others forgotten by the winds of time. But Zuck thinks he's smarter than those others. We'll see.......

      1. Stoneshop
        Mushroom

        Re: A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

        There's been a lot before FB... Bebo (I think that's how it was spelled), MySpace, Orkut, and others forgotten by the winds of time.

        Oh, Bebo will be remembered. Briefly, but intensely. In the interval between the destroyer fleet from Gliese 581c being detected, and the earth being obliterated.

        That they will have to deal with the Vogons afterwards will be cold comfort.

    2. Wibble
      Windows

      Re: A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

      Hubris driven by Narcissism.

      There's little doubt that there *is* a use for FB; it's an amazing platform for arranging events and selling things (e.g. like eBay without the fees). However, the cost of using FB is way way too high which overrides the benefits.

      Costs include the constant vapid drivel; the endless tracking; hours spent looking at cat videos; and the knowledge that you'll never get this time back. Says he commenting on El Reg...

      And they're lying bastards. "We need to know your real details to protect your "friends"". Why don't you pay *me* for reading your shite.

      I feel like I went into the opium den and had a lucky escape. Life without FB is good.

      1. Oengus

        Life without FB...

        Life without FB is good.

        Life without FB is life.

    3. Andy Non Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: A lonely voice pissing in the wind.

      You are not entirely alone. I've used FB for a couple of years for some specialist interest groups. I used a fake name and never posted any personal information, but since FB have started blocking Adblock, my feed is too spam laden for my taste. They aren't even very well targeted ads. I never play any online games and don't gamble... so I'm getting spam for online gambling sites! Life's too short, so I've closed my FB account. It was too much of a time waster anyway.

  6. andrewj

    Fortunately the ultimate ad blocker is the sophisticated neural network connected to my eyeballs. So Zuck you Farcebook.

  7. Magani
    FAIL

    "The social network reasons that by giving users tighter control over what ads they see and what information is handed to advertisers, it can eliminate the motivation users have to run ad-blockers."

    What part of *NO ADS* and *NO INFO TO ADVERTISERS* does this company not get?

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      The part that says 'but then we'd have no money, and Zuckerberg would have to eat bread and jam like the rest of us."

      Somehow, the advertisers have brainwashed huge chunks of the internet industry into the weird idea that the only way to fund anything is through advertising. They manage to peddle this bizarre concept *even though* what they are selling is end users who, on the whole, actually make things, and sell them. Y'know, for cash.

      The argument might be made that people won't pay for services - to which the response is: the service is either not good enough, or too expensive.

      Isn't it curious that the vast majority of adverts come from clickbait sites? You don't see adverts on the retailer's sites (apart from 'people who bought this also bought); they're up front and they want to sell you *stuff* - their stuff. Not random tat...

    2. VinceH

      "What part of *NO ADS* and *NO INFO TO ADVERTISERS* does this company not get?"

      With you on the no information to advertisers - but ads I'm fine with provided they meet certain criteria:

      * No bloody Flash. Plain text or simple JPEG or PNG banners, please.

      * Not served up with Javascript - or if they are, those scripts must be running on the server of the site I am visiting.

      * Not served up from another domain/server.

      * Not going to slow my browsing session to a crawl - which is usually either because the remote server is slow (see the above point) or the Javascript is a convulted, inefficient, buggy mess (see the point above the above point).

      * The size of the file is kept as small as possible (I sometimes browse on my computer using my mobile phone to provide an internet connection - so I have a monthly 'un'limit to consider).

      * Keep them unobtrusive; no obscuring the page content, or other such shenanigans.

      * Keep them relevant - and that shouldn't be based on what you think I like because you've tracked me (no info to advertisers, remember); it should be relevant to the page I am reading.

      Most of those points are pretty much covered by adhering to the first three - and adverts that do that will mostly appear on my set up >now without me taking any steps to allow them.

      1. Clockworkseer

        Also: no ads masquerading as something else. No ads under the guise of "Sponsored posts" "Suggested posts" things my friends have apparently liked, or articles.

        If it's an ad, it should obviously be such.

      2. fung0
        Holmes

        The Way Forward

        VinceH: "With you on the no information to advertisers - but ads I'm fine with provided they meet certain criteria..."

        Funny thing: if FB were willing to commit to a few of those criteria, AdBlock would whitelist them and the whole battle would just go away. In fact, most users wouldn't be turning to ad-blockers at all, if the ad ecosystem hadn't been allowed to become a polluted mess.

        Guys like Zuck like to call AdBlock "extortion," but AdBlock whitelists are first and foremost based on "Acceptable Ad" criteria. Whether Eyeo (the publishers of AdBlock) would demand some extra payment from a behemoth like FaceBook once it had met the Acceptable Ad criteria is something we may never know, since those (entirely reasonable) criteria have never been met, and likely never will be. FB may verbally disparage obnoxious ads, but they won't willingly give up the option of profiting from them.

        That unrestrained greed is the root of their problem.

        Much smarter, for FB and other services, would have been to embrace AdBlock, and realize that this company was offering to provide them with a valuable service. The quickest way to clean up the ad sewer would be to work with a third party like AdBlock (or others, given that the filters themselves are in an open format). Ultimately, someone will have to take on the task of vetting the ad stream. Users can never trust FB (or its ilk) to do it - there's just too much of a built-in conflict of self-interest.

        My prediction: it will happen.

        We'll first see major sites embracing some sort of Code of Standards, which will in essence be the AdBlock whitelist, but under their control. This will fail to deliver, and users will continue to subscribe to third-party whitelists. Then, finally, the big Internet players will realize that they need an impartial watchdog even more than their users do.

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      @Magani - the important and most telling part of the quote you cite is: "it [FB] can eliminate the motivation users have to run ad-blockers."

      What this is telling us is that FB see's itself as being the ONLY site its users visit via their browsers; the fact that users also browse third-party sites just doesn't occur to FB !

      Because of this corporate blindness, rather than do as many other sites do and politely request their users to disable the use of ad-blocker/content filters on their website (and in so doing effectively getting their users to say they are willing to pay for FB), they have decided to wage war both on the venders of tools that FB's users voluntarily install on their systems themselves so as to enable the discarding of unwanted content and on their users who have decided for whatever reasons to block certain types of content.

    4. notowenwilson

      "What part of *NO ADS* and *NO INFO TO ADVERTISERS* does this company not get?"

      The bit where you assume that they will provide the service for free with no way for them to make money off it. Would you be willing to pay a subscription fee for facebook if it meant no ads, no info to advertisers?

      1. Martin Kirk

        "The bit where you assume that they will provide the service for free with no way for them to make money off it. Would you be willing to pay a subscription fee for facebook if it meant no ads, no info to advertisers?"

        If it was something I actually wanted to use, then yes.

  8. ckdizz

    This is an awesome war over the minds of cretins who use Facebook.

    1. lorisarvendu

      "This is an awesome war over the minds of cretins who use Facebook."

      Insulting people who use a site for social contact by posting on a forum which is also used for social contact. The irony of the human race.

      1. art guerrilla

        hardly the same thing at all, but, you know, computers ! ! !

        further, OF COURSE nekkid apes judge people by the company they keep: it is NOT the same thing to say i hang out with the league of woman voters registering citizens to vote, and: i hang out with an outlawed biker gang at a burned-out shack where moonshine and meth are sold and they bugger chickens...

        i mean, they are both 'social contact' organizations, aren't they ? ? ?

        same thing, right ? ? ?

        equally laudable, correct ? ? ?

      2. fung0

        Social Contact

        lorisarvendu: "Insulting people who use a site for social contact by posting on a forum which is also used for social contact. The irony of the human race."

        The real problem here is that an essential service - "social contact" - has been privatized and monopolized. As Max Schremm has pointed out, it's as if the telephone were controlled by a single global monopoly.

        What we need to do - urgently - is to declare 'social media' to be an 'essential service,' and therefore subject to open standards. Then, say, Google, could offer it's own FacePalm site, which would differ from Google+ in that it could freely exchange posts with FaceBook (or any other 'social media' service). Users would then have a proper choice. They might pick a paid service, for instance, and see no ads.

        Until that happens, consumers turn to companies that can only partially compete - like AdBlock, which offers to take over security and usability, on which FB is clearly failing. Fortunately, the same legal freedom that created the FaceBook monopoly in the first place now protects those new companies' ability to nibble away at it.

        1. Martin Kirk

          Re: Social Contact

          "The real problem here is that an essential service - "social contact" - has been privatized and monopolized."

          Essential service? Really? Come on.

      3. notowenwilson

        "Insulting people who use a site for social contact by posting on a forum which is also used for social contact. The irony of the human race."

        Yes, but surely you realise that El Reg is different... It provides a news feed about things that I'm interested in presented in a way that I find appealing, and it provides views that largely agree with my preconceived ideas of the world and rejects those that don't, like Worstall.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Over their heads...

      "This is an awesome war over the minds of cretins who use Facebook."

      Over the eyes, actually.

      Kind of a "Ha, Ha Made You Look" business model.

  9. Number6

    Is Zuck going to provide a watertight guarantee to compensate people for damage done by malware from ads on FB? If he's sure that all the ads are safe (and they might well be if it's all in-house scripting around them) then he can do that and take away one of the biggest arguments in favour of ad blockers - the security one is hard for the ad-slingers to argue against.

    1. PNGuinn
      Joke

      If he's sure that all the ads are safe ...

      I suppose you can hope ....

    2. PickledAardvark

      It's the time of year when malware slingers have opportunity. When the educated or critical ad sales people are on summer holiday, malware slingers dip in at big ad buyers. Malware people -- the ones with money -- pay for ads while nobody is looking at the content or credibility of the buyers..

      If you look after desktop PCs, you should expect August and post-Christmas as times for drive-by attacks.

  10. CCCP

    Good vs Poor users = FB fighting the tide

    As any fule now, a "better" audience is more valuable to advertisers. "Better" can mean more targeted, or more willing to spend, or both. Conversely, if a media outlet's audience quality declines, they have a big problem.

    As el Reg commentards are leaving FB in droves, well, small heaps, it indicates FB's audience quality is getting worse. (Pat on the back for commentards).

    So, FB is left with friends and family, a very hard bunch to earn money from ("monetize" for merkins).

    So they force-feed ads anyway they can, foie gras-style. (BTW it won't be long before we see this from LI. Microsoft?)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The social network reasons that by giving users tighter control over what ads they see

    How about the default being NO ads and people being allowed to then select if they want ads and if so what ones.

    1. cosymart
      Headmaster

      "which" ones.

  12. Criminny Rickets

    Ad free day

    I run uBlock Origin and Noscript. On Facebook today, I have not seen any sponsored ads. It did use to offer my most played games on the right hand side of the screen, which were also missing today. The games are not a big deal though, as they still show up in the left hand side listings.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: Ad free day

      "I run uBlock Origin and Noscript."

      apparently your whitelist is too leniant (farce-bitch still works). All I ever see is a re-direct page with a blocked script icon, if I get sent to an FB page by 'whatever'. which is fine. I don't want their persistent cookies nor 3rd party embedded ad scripts on other web sites [including that damnable 'F' icon image] feeding my browsing info back to "mother Zucker"

    2. Updraft102

      Re: Ad free day

      uBlock Origin has all of the functional ability of NoScript, if you'd like to reduce your addon load by one. You can block all local and third-party scripts by default and whitelist the ones you want from the main dialog.

  13. Colin Ritchie
    Windows

    Don't know what all the fuss is about.

    With Firefox lined in uBlock, NoScript and Bluhell Firewall, I haven't seen an ad on a Facebook page for about 2 years (or on the Reg for that matter). The more they fight to feed this rubbish to my screen, the more I will ensure it is blocked.

    A simple message for all the ad mongers to understand, they should be getting it by now surely....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't know what all the fuss is about.

      I've never seen an ad on FB as I've never used it, I've never seen the need and I've never had anyone convince me of its use case.

      El Reg on the other hand I like, but I block all ads and deny El Reg any revenue via that route.

      If Vulture Central were to offer a subscription model I would probably cough up the wonga, why not give it a go?

      HTTPS would be a bonus if you could get round to it please...

    2. Michael Souris

      Re: Don't know what all the fuss is about.

      The Register has adverts?

      (Switches off Adblock Plus)

      Blimey!

      (Switches on Adblock Plus)

  14. Haku
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You would not let it lie!

      1. Chika

        You would not let it lie!

        But I would have let it lie...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          But I would have let it lie...

          But you wouldn't let me let it lie.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            I would have let you let it lie...

            but you wouldn't let me let you let it lie.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Zuck season! FIRE!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Zuckshooting

        Invite him on a shoot with the (appropriately named) Dick Cheney.

    3. Velv
      Childcatcher

      Brought to you through the provision of advertising.

      D'oh!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        granted, but-

        -ad time was optional, usually seen as a good time to channel surf

        -the ads were somewhat lucidly matched to the audience, not by genuine robots

        -the ads didn't leave any lasting impression on (i.e. damage) your television

        tbh, I second the D'oh because we have no basis for comparison, no way to know what it would be like to grow up in a world that wasn't hooked on entertainment whose delivery was all but entirely financed by friendly spam. Well there's the 3rd world but we can't go be 5-yr-olds there and now, can we...

  15. raving angry loony

    Fuck the advert mongers with a rusty chainsaw

    Here's a hint to the sites that depend on ad revenue. You want people to see ads on your website? Stop using the fucking ad-mongers as your providers. Stop using ad services whose SOLE goal is to track people across multiple sites, and invade people's privacy just to sell them shit.

    Just post your ads locally. Manage your own ads. Most ad blockers won't block local images or ads. They mostly only block the centrally managed, downright unethical ad tracking agencies that so many of you seem to be keen to use. Know what? I have nothing against tasteful ads. But the instant you gave up control over what ads show on your sites, and allowed tracking, privacy invading asshats to display any kind of garbage, then you lost any claim to calling us "freeloaders".

    You want me to see your ads? Then make sure they're YOUR ads. Not inappropriate garbage created by 3rd parties that have nothing to do with your site, or your audience.

    As for Facebook, I haven't seen an ad on their platform so long as I use my blocking quartet of uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Ghostery, and NoScript.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Fuck the advert mongers with a rusty chainsaw

      You want me to see your ads? Then make sure they're YOUR ads. Not inappropriate garbage created by 3rd parties that have nothing to do with your site, or your audience.

      I find that NoScript + Ghostery alone does exactly what you describe 99% of the time. No adblockers required. Interestingly, I very very rarely see any adverts so very very few site ever bother to run "local", unscripted ads.

      1. raving angry loony

        Re: Fuck the advert mongers with a rusty chainsaw

        Actually I mainly credit NoScript. Which is why I refuse to use a browser that doesn't have similar functionality. Not the broken version that Chrome perpetrates, for instance. Understandably, seeing as it's created by one of the worst advertising/tracking monsters out there, so why would they make it easier to block their profitable privacy destroying tools?

        But the others have their uses, as I've found.

  16. Dead Parrot

    I'm grabbing some popcorn

    You guys want some?

    1. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

      Re: I'm grabbing some popcorn

      Was that an advert?

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: I'm grabbing some popcorn

        "Was that an advert?"

        Cue the intermission riff, or maybe dancing cups singing "Let's all go to the lobby..."

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Lets Go Out To The Lobby

          First date with my wife at the movies.

          That little promo plays, and in the cartoon a hot dog bun opens itself up and the hot dog jumps in.

          My wife starts laughing hysterically, after a pause the rest of the audience joins in.

          I guess none of us had realized what a filthy little advert that was until then.

  17. Black Rat
    Devil

    When subjects have accepted the conditioning and believe the road to happiness is paved with 'stuff' then adverts are not considered detrimental to their website experience but essential. Information dense & tailor made portals to improve the quality of their lifestyle.

    Gotta go I'm the 1,000,000th visitor to a friends blog and I've won a games console :)

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You will not believe this one weird trick Mark Zuckerberg wants banned

    Click here to discover the secret billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg want banned

    https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been using the Internet for 20+ years

    I've never had any reason to go near Facebook.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Been using the Internet for 20+ years

      OP here.

      I haven't, honest!

      It's odd, being down-voted for a factual situation?

  20. DavCrav

    "We're disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook, as these new attempts don't just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages,"

    Hold on, isn't this like a hostage taker shooting someone and then saying that the police really did it by not giving him what he wanted?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Surely its more like a burglar justifying the use of skeleton keys by complaining that lock manufacturers are punishing people who have fitted locks because their friends (and anyone passing) can not simply let themselves in.

  21. David Roberts
    Windows

    Back to reality for a moment........

    The vast majority of Facebook users just don't give a shit about the adverts.

    Facebook succeeds because it provides something that the majority value - the ability to post rich content once and have it visible from then on to friends, family and anyone else who might or might not need it. The down sides don't impinge on their consciousness.

    The can also snoop on others to their hearts' content.

    They also like it because it is (in direct monetary terms) free.

    Facebook are well aware of this, and also well aware of the problems involved in putting the content behind a paywall - a long and mainly fruitless battle fought by the newspapers.

    However powerful now, all it needs is a small change in the market place and a new "free" system will gain traction.

    With the greatest respect to the Commentards posting here, if we all stopped (or didn't even start) using Facebook the effect would be much the same as a gnat bite on the Matterhorn.

    Using ad blockers is a direct attack on the current funding model for the Internet and is having enough impact to provoke advertising funded sites to try and kick back. Interesting times.

    However beware the law of unintended consequences. If all advertising on all sites is permanently blocked, how will the Internet be funded?

    Dedicated Commentards may well pay a subscription to El Reg; I would.

    However there is a limit to how much I am prepared to pay per month for Internet content.

    Still using an ad blocker, including El Reg (apart from the recent dodgy downloads reported, they also seem to be aiding the DRM Police) but I am aware that ultimately TANSTAAFL.

    Still as I said, intersting times.

    Popcorn at the ready.

    1. fung0

      Re: Back to reality for a moment........

      David Roberts: "Dedicated Commentards may well pay a subscription to El Reg; I would. However there is a limit to how much I am prepared to pay per month for Internet content."

      AdBlock guesstimates that a regular visitor (like a Reg reader) is worth about 1 Euro per month in ad revenue. The amount would be higher for services like FaceBook.

      Would I pay that much to the handful of sites I use heavily? You bet! (In fact, I've already sent contributions to a few.) The one caveat: it has to be easy. But there are schemes in place for this, like Flatter. The Reg could lead the way, run it as an experiment.

      The ad industry's greatest success has been in convincing us that ads are necessary, even inevitable. They're not. And business models do change. Cars threw blacksmiths out of work, and the Internet has shut down a lot of newspapers. Now it's the ad parasites' turn.

  22. Delbert Grady

    If it's a neccessary evil ..

    at the risk of teachin' Grandma to suck eggs, you may want to investigate a couple of options, first is the 'Element Hiding' helpers and such like in Adblock plus and Ublock, and probably a few more.. it can be a little bit of a pain to correctly hide the bits of the webpage you dont want to see, but it's generally successful, and slims page load times down too, so try it if you haven't, and a with little trial and error and you can stop much visual noise, on almost ANY website.

    Secondly there are userscripts, Userstyles.org and the Stylish extension for Firefox, Safari and Chrome, is a community which lets you customise sited in your browser, for example i hate white backgrounds and dark text, it all seems eye damaging to me, so i use Stylish and a script like the 'Midnight surfing' one to make all webpages light text on a dark background.. sheer bliss. however, for Facebag adverts there are advert and other panel removers and customisations aplenty ...

  23. Velv
    Gimp

    When will people learn...

    If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold.

    Perhaps this is the first step to a subscription Facebook, pay a premium not to be served adverts.

    1. fung0

      Re: When will people learn...

      ...and a higher premium to not be tracked?

  24. Franco

    Wow, didn't think I needed another reason not to have a Facebook account, but here we are anyway.

    Until the day that adverts on the internet are at least unobtrusive and guaranteed not to be malicious, I am continuing to use adblockers. Banner ads along the top or sides, such as El Reg uses, are OK to me, as I can tune them out and the site probably wouldn't be here without them.

    However, flash popups forcing me to look at them and stealing my mobile data allowance can fuck off. As can any ad man who accuses me of "stealing" by blocking his content. I did not give you consent to use the small allowance of data my mobile operator gives me. TV , radio and print advertising may be annoying, but at least I'm not going to get malware or worse from it.

    1. Charles 9

      "Until the day that adverts on the internet are at least unobtrusive and guaranteed not to be malicious, I am continuing to use adblockers. Banner ads along the top or sides, such as El Reg uses, are OK to me, as I can tune them out and the site probably wouldn't be here without them."

      Then you'll be doing it for the rest of your days, I'm afraid. The main reason ad slingers stopped using them is because people tended to ignore them. It's like with much else ad-based. Eventually, the common man is able to tune it out. Been known for over a century. So the ad people have no choice but to be more ostentatious in order to court a jaded audience.

  25. Efros

    They seem to be using page likes

    In the last 24 hours I'm seeing page likes from other friends featuring ads for various items. Dollar Shave Club being one of them. Never saw this before, either because of my blocking or because this is new behaviour.

  26. John Robson Silver badge

    Facebook breaking posts

    By pretending they are adverts

  27. JoeKrozac

    FACEBOOK .... bullocks!!

    I can sum all of this up with one irrefutable statement:

    Facebook is to the Internet, what genital herpes is to the human body.

    There is no getting rid of it, it's always lurking in the cells, waiting for an opportunity to infect it's victims with ugly, painful blisters.

  28. Camilla Smythe

    I do occasionaly visit Face Book.

    No account but other people occasionally link to drivel they have hosted there, usually Politicians. Can someone explain to me what the fascination is because I see little to no merit in what is being presented or the way it is being presented. At a personal level, assuming it is sooo good, I do not understand why someone has not already ripped it off and hosted it on Amazon.

    1. fung0

      Re: I do occasionaly visit Face Book.

      I've received numerous email invitations to FB pages from public-spirited organizations, including major environmental groups - and even some privacy-focused 'civil liberties' groups! (They also use commercial mailing services, coded tracking links, and every other dirty trick you can imagine.)

      I usually respond by pointing out that there's more than one fight going on. It's great that they want to clean up our Planet Earth ecosystem, but that's no reason they should be helping pollute the online ecosystem. I add that there are plenty of free, open and privacy-respecting alternatives.

      So far, not one group has agreed.

  29. Craig 31

    Anyone ramming adverts in your face and using your bandwidth to make money either needs to cough or just fuk right off.

  30. Stephanie22
    Unhappy

    Still wondering why facebook did not BUY adblock? Should be like buying a bag of peanuts for Zuck!

  31. Pinballdave

    Facebook just don't get it.

    Facebook don't seem to understand that their value as a site is determined by the content generated by users, and not the amount of ads they show (which is just a side effect of the aforementioned content).

    So a user who doesn't personally view ads still generates value for facebook, as they generate content that others without ad-blockers view. Without the ad-block user, the content doesn't exist so facebook doesn't get paid for the adverts that would have been shown alongside it.

    It's the same with consumption only sites where the ad-blocking user doesn't directly add value to the site. They still read articles, and might mention something they read in conversations or share it on social media, which drives ad viewing users to the site to read it for themselves.

    It's like the bloke in the pub that never buys a round. The landlord doesn't mind him, as his (misguided) friends buy him drinks, and without him they might not have come to the pub. So the landlord is better off even though he doesn't receive a penny from the skinflint.

    This model works as long as there aren't too many ad-blockers, so it's helpful to the advertisers to keep the existence of ad-blocking quiet. So it's another complete fail for facebook to start a full on media circus war with ad-blockers, as now a whole load more people know about ad-blockers and may be convinced to install one, just so that they can observe the battle first hand.

  32. Unclezip

    Among other tools, I use Privacy Badger to block tracking. It shows 102 potential trackers on this page alone. Page loads are much faster, as well.

    1. Sporkinum

      It only shows 1 for me. I guess the other tools are doing their job.

  33. bo_derek69

    Popular Point Of View

    F#ck facebook right in the p#ssy.

    That is the general consensus. Any online website who has plans turn to itself into its own government(true story) deserve to bleed internally.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who still uses AB+??

    AB+ is the MYSPACE of ad blocking. Most people use uBlock Origins.

  35. scaat

    Facebook

    Do people still use FB? weird I thought it is now a "so last year" site.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Idea - Dump Facebook!!!

    Yes, it is very easy to solve these problems once and for all. Go to Settings and Delete Account. Enjoy watching all the other idiots in the world freak out about poor Facebooks advertisements being blocked. This said, I am heading to Ad Block and Site Block to donate some funding.

  37. David 138

    They should just block the user not the add blocker that would solve the issue pretty quickly.

  38. nijam Silver badge

    > ... disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook,

    Some mistake surely? Facebook is punishing people on Facebook.

  39. Big_Ted
    Devil

    Theres only one reason to have a facebook account

    So you can feel smug ignoring it . . . .

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    this one will do the job

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-adbuster/ccklckaaefalbkjdkgbefjalfcihnimp?hl=en-US

  41. robin mccain

    Ad Blocking is good security

    It is so easy for web sites to be compromised that it makes good sense to run an ad blocker as well as tools like no-script. Very few sites actively enforce a rapid patch policy to guard against new attacks. Most large scale hosting providers are months behind the bleeding edge of attack vectors. This also seems to apply to operating system vendors (but they are getting better).

    Facebook is to be commended for vigorously enforcing security measures to provide a safe space for users, but that ignores the fact that over 90% of the web sites that use anything beyond simple HTML are subject to attack via tools like SQL injection. To expect us to manually disable our ad blockers every time we use Facebook is silly. A word to the Facebook engineers: focus your efforts on taking down the script kiddies and work with the backbone providers to stop infected content at its origin. Facebook marketing: ads don't have to be intrusive to be effective.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Honest And Transparent

    ""We're disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook, as these new attempts don't just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages"

    How much chutzpah does it take to make a statement like that?

    Isn't it Facebook punishing people here?

    They're the ones sneaking in the ads posing as posts by other users.

  43. DrM
    Mushroom

    There are no whitelists

    One line bugs me:

    Facebook has accused the blocking tool developers of trying to make money by forcing it and other publishers into paying for inclusion on their "whitelists" of permitted ads.

    For the 25th time, ABP doesn’t have a whitelist. They just plain old don’t. They have this “non-intrusive” list that you can click on to chose to let them through – or you can tell it to block each and every ad, regardless of anything they pay to ABP.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: There are no whitelists

      "They have this “non-intrusive” list..."

      That which they call a rose by any other name...

      It's still a whitelist. If it allows sites through that would otherwise be blocked, then it's filtering to accept. By definition, that's a whitelist, end of.

  44. Medixstiff

    Maybe if Failbook stopped those stupid "a woman x miles from you" adverts. that quite frankly you can get enough of from p0rn sites, I just might give them the time of day.

    I only use the damn site to keep track of family in the UK.

    BTW Failbook, I live in Australia where we use kilometer's, if you're going to post this trite at least update the ads. for the location you are trying to target, you muppet's.

  45. jerryboam
    Devil

    We`re funded entirely by adverts. You may be running an adblocker. You can see where we are going here ...

    UK, Channel 4, you are banned for having an adblocker installed regardless of it being active ....

    Just d/l and content you want to see on BitLord or uTorrent or search the content online, someone will have it.

    Does Zuck own Channel 4? or El Reg? or the InterWeb?

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