I'm gladly going to remove all my ads on my page if you promise to give me money through GitHub Sponsors or something lol
Money matters. Not everyone is rich to not care about that. In my case, what I make is still below what makes a difference in my life, but if I can multiply by 10 times it's going to make a lot of difference.
They might not be visually intrusive but they are indeed very intrusive. If you went to the mall would you find it intrusive if Macy’s put a little beacon on your shoulder every time you walked in the door so they could follow you around and track your movement for the next few days? The beacon is small and unassuming and tasteful - you’ll hardly even notice it! Who cares? A stalker is a stalker no matter how nicely it blends with the aesthetic.
If you're this worried about being tracked, you can always choose to turn off cookies, JavaScript, and maybe try the ToR browser. No problem with this either!
If I placed a magnetic beacon holder in my arm, I sure wouldn't bother. That is the case with most browser users, unfortunately. If they aren't happy with that, they might consider switching browser vendors to ones that protect more their privacy.
Awful as they might be, ads are part of society and a source of revenue (and information!) for many.
I do take steps to prevent internet stalking but I don’t find the “stalkers are part of society and need to earn a living, too” argument all that persuasive.
Then it’s a good thing I haven’t put forth such an argument! Advertisements aren’t what I take issue with - it’s the tracking that comes along with them that I find repugnant.
> I'm gladly going to remove all my ads on my page if you promise to give me money through GitHub Sponsors or something lol
OP's product doesn't rely on goodwill of individuals though. You get the app for $9. Full stop. Not "please donate $9 but you don't have to if you don't feel like it".
That's right. Then when someone mentions they'd rather have a product that can be bought because ads and trackers are the devil, OP suggests they'll remove ads if they pinky promise to to sponsor. Buying a product is different from being a sponsor.
If you are going to call ads a "dark pattern", you might as well call capitalism a dark pattern. That's not say either are positive, but I think your terminology is extreme.
Many ads fit that description. Many don't. Characterizing ads in general as a dark pattern dilutes your message about the problematic ones, in my opinion.
Some of them are just telling me about, say, a TV show or movie that is coming out. Nothing deceptive, nothing bothersome about it. I think it is quite a stretch to consider that the term "dark pattern" applies to that.
I understand that ads that are targeted are bothersome to many due to privacy issues, but I personally don't mind that Amazon and Ebay regularly show me ads for skateboard/roller sport equipment, music keyboards and other midi controllers, shoes of styles I like, and so on. But you seem to be simply saying ALL ads, even untargeted, non deceptive ads such as for a movie or car or something are "dark patterns." I don't get that.
It doesn't matter how unintrusive _your_ ads are - the shysters that make up most of the industry have poisoned the well, making _any_ ads unacceptable.
If you provide a service I want, sure. I’m more than happy to pay for software and moderately happy to pay for subscriptions, but with it I expect ironclad guarantees about data being local, and absolutely no tracking.
No, because I have a commercially licensed version of Proxie available, which is more flexible since it doesn’t require code modification, and (in my opinion) produces prettier output.
Additionally, there is no incentive to buy httpretty since it is distributed under a permissive license - by using it, I would likely never see an ad (though I would, of course, carefully audit the code before adopting it to ensure it does not do anything underhand).
Systemic issues prevent individual devs from finding alternative means of revenue. Its easy for someone to say stop using ads, but most people here work for companies that advertise online, and thus their livelihood is interlinked with ads in some fashion or another. We can acknowledge this reality and simultaneously work towards changing it.
Do not place any ads on your page.