I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas. Since I don’t pump my own gas regularly - only when I’m out of state - I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but all gas pumps seem to play ads now while the pump runs. At least the states adjacent to mine. Like can I not even pump gas in peace? Stop trying to manipulate my purchasing decisions 24/7.
Edit: ok I get it, there’s a mute button. I appreciate the tip, but people are already reporting that it only sometimes works. Knowing there a mute button that sometimes functions doesn’t make me less infuriated
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There’s one near my house, and it has no mute button whatsoever. No buttons at all, in fact. You tap your card to the reader, then lift the pump of whichever variety you need, and that moment the ads start. With sound on full blast as well.
I’ve left a negative google review and make sure to update it monthly so that it stays on top, and drive to another station quite a bit further off just to avoid this crapshoot.
Do me a favor, when you’ve got a minute, go by a Wawa and grab an Italian hoagie and enjoy it for me? I miss them every day, man. Gas pump ads, shitty gas station hoagies, it’s rough movin across the Sheetz/Wawa line
I will buy 2 and pour one out for you
<3 u a real one
They have even been removing the mute where I’m at
I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas.
New Jersey or Oregon?
Oregon can pump their own gas now. it’s the worst and i hate it.
I’d say this is a point for electric cars, but it’s only a matter of time until those start playing ads… And you’re gonna be there for 10-30 minutes…
Is this a euphemism for farting?
Grab a screwdriver and stab the shit out of the speaker, that shuts them up fairly reliably.
But in all seriousness I refuse to go to a gas station with ads on the pumps because fuck that shit. Old gas stations are the way to go (for now).
The 2nd button down on the right side of the screen mutes it. I always hit it when pumping gas.
This doesn’t always work. Every gas station I’ve been to in North Carolina appears to have this feature disabled.
NC here and I haven’t found one this didn’t work on. Maybe the button is broken from people rage pushing it? :D
We shouldn’t have to OPT OUT of being assaulted. I’m bringing matches.
I’ve seen a couple where someone had torn out the speaker with a pen, car key, etc
A well placed sticker does the trick.
One of the unlabeled buttons on the side of the screen should mute it. Whenever I find it, I’ll take a pen or sharpie and mark which one is the mute button for future people who don’t want to be subjected to that shit.
They will just disable the mute buttons. It happens around here all the time, marking them accelerates it.
I now avoid any gas station with immutable ads. But if I am in a pinch. The longest sharpest key on your key ring can slide right in and puncture the speaker, thus solving the issue more permanently.
Almost two decades ago, I worked at a network service provider who had as a customer a company that provided the technology for serving those gas pump ads.
At each gas station they had a VSAT, a router and of course the digital signage boxes on each pump.
They fed the ads to thousands of pumps via a single T1 to HughesNet in Atlanta. They’d multicast the ads, and have a local cache at each pump that would receive the stream, cache it and serve it.
It was one of the most elegant setups I’ve ever seen, and should serve as a case study in multicast for efficient bandwidth utilization across an expensive data transmission medium.
Lol, imagine thinking you’re allowed a momentary reprieve from advertising in this hellscape of a world we’ve built.
I never see ads when pumping gas because all the gas stations that have ads that play on their pumps have been
vandalizedimproved so the screens don’t work lolI’m from Washington and occasionally drive in Oregon, which is one of those states.
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welcome to like ten years ago?
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yes it’s awful. Everything is awful.
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you can mute them or turn down their volumes. The buttons are there so you can press them.
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if it’s not on the pump: yeah that’s truly evil.
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late stage capitalism, in some cases, is still capitalism. You could tell the station worker or owner you don’t like that and it’s bad. But good luck with them not spitting in your face in return.
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do you live under a rock? Are you so isolated somehow that the GAS STATION is your only exposure to this bullshit? Tell me your secrets, I need that level of peace in my life.
I kinda set a no ads tolerance policy for myself. I pay for some services (e.g. $5/month for Nebula, I donate monthly to Lemmy, etc). YouTube is the main area where ads tend to creep in since iOS doesn’t have an ad blocker for YT. My goal was to totally ditch YouTube for Nebula, but they are missing some creators I like.
You’re going to hate this response, but if you’re already paying to avoid ads, you could get YouTube premium. I got grandfathered into it from Google Music and honestly I feel it’s absolutely worth it. It’s about the same cost as Spotify and comes with YouTube Music that works just as well. So I look at it like paying for Spotify with the added bonus of no ads on YouTube and being able to play videos in the background. I also tend to watch a ton of YouTube videos and often use them to fall asleep to.
At this point, it’s the only subscription service I still pay for. I’ve ditched all the others, but that one has stayed. Anytime I see someone watching YouTube without it, or without a good quality ad blocker, I’m horrified. So. Many. Ads. I don’t get how anyone can watch anything like that.
But I get it; most people would rather drag their ass through a mile of broken glass than pay YouTube a dime, and I totally respect that. Just sharing my experience.
I still don’t get any ads on YouTube using ad blockers on Firefox and greyjay on mobile.
I never got hit by Google’s anti Firefox bollocks. Maybe cos I’m not in the US, dunno.
The problem is I also have a deep deep distrust of Google. So much so, I think I would rather pay a little extra for a subscription that I feel more directly benefits creators and doesn’t support a company who’s business model is selling spyware and tech addiction. For example, in addition to Nebula I’d consider Dropout TV, Floatplane, Curiosity Stream.
There’s a certain level of cognitive dissonance on my part since I use Apple products. So I’m trying to slowly self host more things and migrate away from big tech.
Protip: moving to a place where it takes effort to understand the language turns ads into a dadaist experience.
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Get an EV. Charge at home. Watch YouTube ads while you wait.
Used electric cars are some of the cheapest you can buy with the lowest total cost of ownership. If you have to drive, at least spare yourself the awful experience, cost, and pollution of gas stations.
What are YouTube ads?
Signed, an AndroidUser
What’s youtube? Signed, a Nebula user.
ps. Ik ik tell me I should use PeerTube.
What’s a computer?
The entire US is a lesson on the consequences of barely-regulated rampant capitalism.
Weirdly enough the PNW just has normal gas pumps that don’t have screens or sound
I’ve def seen them in Seattle
Circle K here in Burien just outside of Seattle,WA has them.
