@empireOfLove2 I don’t get it, how can they use the internet without an ad blocker? The first thing that I do is download Firefox + uBlock Origin on any device before of using it.

@Melonpoly You can use ADB for that, there’s even a GUI for that called Universal Android Debloater

@N3M Then, the link option does not sound that bad. My problem is that is not actually something part of the protocol, instead is the client job to render the link as a post. As you say, I don’t know how this will break stuff, a decentralized network is harder than a centralized.

@LinkOpensChest_wav I recommend to use De-Arrow is from the same creator of sponsorblock if you want to change the thumbnails and titles, it is crowdsourced.

No channel is monetized if you are using an AdBlock. Hahahaha

@LinkOpensChest_wav That is actually why. I’ve heard creators talk about how YouTube is rolling this new feature now, it gives you the options to add different thumbnails with different colors to target different audience, and see which one performs the best.

@PlasticPigeon I agree with you, and understand what you are trying to say, you are right. The projects could work in a better integration with one another, but this is hard, and not every project is willing to do so, specially when they are different format of content. The #fediverse works thanks to the collaboration, and free work from many volunteers, so is not that easy. Obviously, I would love if mastodon supported long formatted posts from #kbin and #lemmy, and not just a link to the post, better format from groups/communities/magazines, and I would love to see lemmy supporting following users.

And then there are those that defederate from their own kind / federated social network, splintering the Fediverse even further apart.

Because the #fediverse (or the #socialweb as some folks call it) is open, everyone can create a server, block users they don’t want to interact with, and block servers they don’t want to interact nor have a copy of their content. Each server has their own rules, you can even create your own, but don’t be surprised if other servers block your server, you are still free to say what you want there, and they are free to block you.

This is what makes the Fediverse so frustrating.

For me, this is incredible, this comment was send from #kbin replying to another comment made from #lemmy, and said comment is replying to a post send from #mastodon to a lemmy community. This is mind blowing, you can even comment to some websites out there.

I follow: communities from lemmy, magazines from kbin, mastodon users, pixelfed users, flipboard accounts, firefish users, and users from friendica.

Could it be better? Absolutely, we could learn from other alternatives out there, and upgrading the protocol for better features.

@Zaderade

@eya searxng is great, I use it as my primary search (meta) engine, but if you don’t want any connection with brave (which I understand, I don’t like them either), searxng itself allows you to pull results off of brave if you enable it. I would not be surprise if kagi does something like this.

@Zaderade The internet is flooded with AI generated ads, it is crazy, I was using my sister’s phone for a moment and inside an app an ad pops up, it was a obviously AI generated image of a singer with the lyrics of the song, nothing compared to a scam, but still. Another example is my mother, she was using youtube shorts and her feed was flooded with AI generated videos, the “person”, voice, background, everything.

Then they ask why people are using ad blocking and alternative clients to consume content.

P.S: I have installed alternative clients, adblocks and all to their phones, I have told them and teach them how to avoid all of this crap, they don’t see to care, they love ads and all this crap. (It’s more of an habit thing I would say, but yeah)

@Rodeo I’ve been using #piped as my alternative front-end to #youtube for like a year, and it’s working fine. I don’t use the official instance though; however, I did notice that the API was down for a couple of days (at least the subscription feed).

You can choose one from their instance list. Obviously, you are putting your trust to the instance owner.

I’m totally in favor with your post, but not everyone is willing to self-host or is capable of doing it. So I recommendation would be and one that I’m currently using, is when uploading a file to these cloud services encrypt your files. I’m using #cryptomator, but I’m sure there are other alternatives, like #rclone. There is also #veracrypt, but to my understanding, is not great for cloud sync.

Cryptomator official website
Quick youtube video in how to use cryptomator (3:51)

Cryptomator is open source and free, but only on desktop. To use the mobile version, you will have to pay. Here is a list of alternatives to cryptomator, if you are familiar with one, please share your knowledge.

@McDropout

How to block #ads on #Android

Block ads on the web: Firefox + uBlock Origin.

A must have, if you want to browse the web without ads, trackers, malware and more. There are other browsers you could use, but with #firefox, you can install add-ons to help you mitigate all the tracking and ads. You can even install desktop only add-ons now, and supporting a engine which is not #chromium (controlled by Google) like every other major browser.

There are multiple forks available on the F-droid if you don’t want to use plain firefox. This works on desktop too, I recommend #LibreWolf.

Block ads on any app with: #TrackerControl.

My favorite way of blocking ads, you have control over which domain the app can connect. It works like a VPN, but it does not make any outgoing connection. The bad thing is, if you want to use an actual #VPN, you can’t have both at the same time and you need to disable your custom DNS.

I recommend to enable in settings > advanced options > block system apps, and individual domains too. When you open the app for the first time, it asks you if you want to block essential request for the apps to work, I recommend to enable this if you don’t want apps breaking.

You android vendor may be killing the app, for this reason is necessary to add the app in the list of apps not be optimized by the system. If this issue keeps happening follow the guide from dontkillmyapp.com (advanced)

Official website: TrackerControl.org

Set a custom #DNS in the settings.

A DNS works like a translator, computers are good with numbers, but we are not good at memorizing long numbers. Computers communicate with each other using the Internet Protocol (IP), which are pure numbers. For example, your instance #IP is 104.26.8.209 but is easier to us just type lemmy.world.

A DNS is like a table where it has a relationship between keys pointing lemmy.world to 104.26.8.209, so your computer knows where is the computer is trying to connect.

Let’s imagine an app is trying to connect to “https://ads-from.company.com”, if you are using a DNS which blocks known domain ads it will redirect that request to “0.0.0.0” which is like sending it to a black hole. There are multiple DNS available, which different purposes, for ads, malware, porn, gambling, etc.

#Mullvand VPN has a guide in how to use their DNS for multiple devices.

Alternative front-ends.

Have in mind that these are not full bulletproof protections, one may work better than the other, and can break from time to time. With popular services with ads, like social media, you could use alternative front-ends to their official client or website.

Here is a list of alternative front-ends and an add-on to automatically redirect to them, you have to use it with a browser and you can add as a shortcut to the home screen, better if it works like a #PWA https://libredirect.github.io

Alternative apps

1. YouTube: NewPipe, LibreTube, NewPipe x SponsorBlock
2. Twitter: Squawker
3. YouTube Music: Harmony Music
4. Twitch: Xtra, Twire

@mypasswordis1234 I mean, what is the point in defederating while being in a Lemmy instance? You cannot interact with microblog while using #Lemmy. The only thing that comes to my mind is that threads users will not be able to comment on a lemmy post or comment, but let’s be honest, the way communities will probably federate to #threads (the same way it is today with mastodon*) is not good, thus reducing the amount of attraction a lemmy post can get over there.

• For some weird reason in the implementation of the AP protocol, lemmy posts are seems as just a link on mastodon, the replies are complete though. If someone understand this better and wants to explain, feel free to do it.

People have this misunderstanding, if they add ads, it will be for users of #threads, other servers will not see the ad. What about if they inject an ad to every post? That would make no sense, their income come from ads, but personalized ads, you probably hate them, but tons of people find them useful, besides they won’t be able to have metrics for a wall of text or image at the bottom of every post for others in the #fediverse.

Not yet, they plan to do it by the course of 2024.

When I found out about this app, I was blown away about how cool the concept is. Sadly it was already dead, at that moment it made me wonder why other services weren’t build like that. I don’t think it will be easy to create a service like that and probably have too many downsides I’m not aware.