LTT is starting to lose subscribers

https://lemmy.ml/post/3422294

LTT is starting to lose subscribers - Lemmy

I was one of those that unsubscribed. I feel like the show quality has been dropping for a while now and the excessive advertising always got under my skin a little bit. I almost unsubscribed about a year ago when Linus went on his Twitter rant about how “adblockers are technically piracy” because it’s sickening how many ads we have to look at every day and we have to sit though a sponsor segment every video and his plug to his own merch store.
But now after seeing his half-assed apology (that is also monetized and sponsored) AND seeing how terrible of an environment it is to work for him and the treatment Madison had to endure working under him was enough to push me over the edge. My views won’t be giving him another dime of revenue.
Ad-blockers are technically piracy. It doesn’t matter how unfair the ads are, they are what fund the creators (or the creators through YouTube). I don’t seem to recall him berating people for ad-blocking, he just said that people should accept that they are pirating the content. I guess people don’t like self-reflecting when they are labelled.

So me, using an ad blocker to prevent incorrectly vetted ads (that contain malware), stealing my information or compromising my computer, tracking my moves, outright spying on what I say/type/consume is piracy? Then call me fucking Jack Sparrow baby

Maybe you are young, or incredibly naive (I am not trying to be offensive), but the internet used to be RIDDLED with unsafe ads. There is absolutely no reason you should ever believe they are safe now. Companies do very little to ensure their ads are safe as long as the money rolls in. Skype straight up served malware in their ads for years and never gave 1 fuck. (source: onmsft.com/…/skypes-traditional-desktop-program-i…)

Going on the internet without an adblocker (I suggest multiple layers, DNS level [Pihole/adguard] as well as device level [Extensions/browsers]) is like having unprotected sex with random strangers. Yes, you may end up fine, but you also could get some very nasty viruses (with long term damage, such as your SSN being leaked) all because you dont see the value in protection

Source ads continue to be unsafe: -https://www.itpro.com/security/malware/369892/google-ads-malvertising-campaign-prompts-questions-around-search-security -https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intelligence/2022/07/google-ads-lead-to-major-malvertising-campaign -https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/google-ad-scam-warning/847823/

And these are sponsored search results so that they appear first. You might think google should give a fuck about vetting those…but nope

Skype's traditional desktop program is spreading malware through ads - OnMSFT.com

Skype has been found to be spreading malware through ads shown on its traditional desktop program. Microsoft deflects responsibility for the issue.

OnMSFT.com

the internet used to be RIDDLED with unsafe ads

I recently had to set up a new machine at home - so I briefly got to experience it without an adblocker. It’s worse now than before.