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Comment by jyu | Hacker News Reader

Have you run into the IRL pop up ads? People walking in front of you, interrupting your UX for a quick "5 min conversation" about their chosen cause? These pesky ads get through my blockers no matter how often I update my filters.

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Actually yes. There are these "tea promoters" on the main street in my city. They would get in your way, and sometimes even literally grab you, to "ask a question", which is inevitably "do you drink tea?". This is a scam scheme where the next step is to take you to their store nearby, offer you a sample of their tea, and then it surprisingly turns out that this needs to be paid for and costs an exorbitant amount. Of course, this breaks every consumer protection law possible, but way too many people are amenable to guilt-tripping.

I either ignore them and walk around them, or loudly tell them to fuck off. If only the police would act on this as vehemently as on anything even remotely related to opposition politics...

The local cable co. has set up shop in random places throughout the closest grocery store to me for a number of months recently. I can't stand it; it's like walking onto a used car lot to buy groceries.

An effective way of revenge could be to pretend (actually, if they're a cable company pretending may not be necessary) to have a bad experience with them and ask about your money back or why you've been overcharged/etc, especially if their colleagues are pitching to another mark within earshot.

Bring your cable box and remote and ask them how to tune in to your favorite show Firefly.

Sounds like a typical stroll down Market Street. Never a shortage of people trying to get you to sign up and donate money to some cause, and they won’t take “no thanks” for an answer.

I actually find those pretty easy to block, by just not engaging with them at all. Being polite is only for gentlefolk, riff-raff have no requirement for it.

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