Thoughts on ad blocking software

[Captain Cook]

I am one of the many firefox users who has Adblock Plus installed. Some time ago, I used it so I wouldn't have to look at any advertisements.

Then I made blogs such as the one on my profile and registered for programs like Google Adsense. Then the thought came to me: is it fair to block a webmaster's ads? I thought of two things:
1. It was hypocritical to block every ad while using ads, and
2. I was seeing the webmaster's side of things.

I came to a conclusion: in many ways, using ad blocking software is like a legalized form of piracy. It keeps the users from seeing the ads, but webmasters are hurt by the loss of profit like video game developers are hurt from illegal ROM distribution. Because of this (and the hypocrisy bit), I stopped blocking ads.

Nowadays, I'll only turn ABP on for testing purposes or for sites which have way too many or too annoying ads.

And then, there are Anti-Adblock Scripts which vary from generating pop-up messages to outright forbidding entry to the site. In my opinion, completely banning them from the site might repel readers. What I would prefer is a script that simply put text in the webpage before the content (or where ads are) asking users to show the ads.

So what are your thoughts on ad blocking and anti-ad blocking? (This is not a poll because I thought the question was too complex.)

 

[BonsaiK]

I don't use adblockers. I WANT to know which snaky companies are paying sponsorship money to a website. It helps me decide if I want to visit that website in future or not.

 

[Drundy]

Most of the ads are viruses so yes i hate them.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I don't use adblockers. I WANT to know which snaky companies are paying sponsorship money to a website. It helps me decide if I want to visit that website in future or not.

This isn't how it works all the time though. Sometimes it goes like...

1-Company A gives ad and money to Company B.
2-Company B takes many ads and releases an ad package to websites

It's very possible that the webmaster doesn't even know what all ads run on their site. That said, nothing gets through to my computer. No ads, no scripts, nothing unless I ask for it.

 

[SturmDolch]

I never used it because there were too many bugs with it. But I also started a website. While I agree it is slightly unfair to the website creator, this really is the user's choice. Much like PVR systems are decreasing the amount of people that watch ads on TV, the difference isn't THAT significant and the shows/websites can still make a profit.

EDIT: Hey, I like your blog. The evony one made me laugh, especially because I get those ads on my blog as well.

 

[reg42]

Adverts are stupid, and I don't buy into them anyway. On the subject of it bring hypocritical to use ads while blocking other ads; that's kind of how businesses work, it isn't fair. Don't worry about it so much.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Ad are only on a site to take of my viewing space and add time to me watching my silly videos.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

So, let's say I disable my ad-blocking software.
Will that change crap? Umh, no.
I'm not interested in bying things through the Internet. Fair is fair, if I don't need it, I have every right to ignore it.
Is changing the channel during ads a form of piracy?

 

[Tharwen]

Sometimes they are too annoying to leave room for a logical or moral opinion. Try browsing for half an hour on a site such as [a href="http://www.turtlefinder.com/"]this one[/a] and you'll see what I mean. I've managed to crash school computers before because they don't have enough memory for the enormous number of windows this site opened.

 

[SturmDolch]

Sometimes they are too annoying to leave room for a logical or moral opinion. Try browsing for half an hour on a site such as [a href="http://www.turtlefinder.com/"]this one[/a] and you'll see what I mean. I've managed to crash school computers before because they don't have enough memory for the enormous number of windows this site opened.

Wow, "Firefox prevented 3 pop-up windows from opening." I think sites like these are what drive people to block advertising. If more websites practised common sense in choosing how to advertise, like the Escapist for example or Captain Cook's, there might not be a need for this.

 

[MetalDooley]

Well considering an awful lot of ads on the net are dodgy I'm all in favour of ad-blocking software

 

[Umberphoenix]

Ads make a page take longer to load, and anything with videos are lagged out because of ads. I don't mind ads that don't move on the top of pages or something, but when you've got all those moving ads ALONG with pop-up ads on your video or web page, AdBlock is basically saying "screw you, making money off of my loading time". Until ads stop being annoying and laggy, I'll keep using AdBlock.

So, let's say I disable my ad-blocking software.
Will that change crap? Umh, no.
I'm not interested in bying things through the Internet. Fair is fair, if I don't need it, I have every right to ignore it.
Is changing the channel during ads a form of piracy?

Websites get money for each time someone sees an ad on there. So if I saw an ad for BioShock on the Escapist, they would get money for that. However, using AdBlock, they would get no money from me visiting their site. It's how places like The Escapist allow people to use services for free: ads.

 

[Ioncannon]

Not only do ads increase your loading times, but a big portion of them use flash, so if you don't use FlashBlock or something like that, your processor starts working for the ads instead of you. I think that it shouldn't be necessary to have a quad core processor just so that you can open more than 10 browser tabs, and so I am all for ad blocking software.

 

[BonsaiK]

I don't use adblockers. I WANT to know which snaky companies are paying sponsorship money to a website. It helps me decide if I want to visit that website in future or not.

This isn't how it works all the time though. Sometimes it goes like...

1-Company A gives ad and money to Company B.
2-Company B takes many ads and releases an ad package to websites

It's very possible that the webmaster doesn't even know what all ads run on their site. That said, nothing gets through to my computer. No ads, no scripts, nothing unless I ask for it.

I don't care though. I will still judge a site by the ads they run. A company can't just wash their hands of responsibility by saying "oh, we bought an ad package, we don't know what they're advertising on it", that's like saying that you're innocent of drug trafficking because you didn't check inside the suitcase.

 

[oppp7]

Before I get into the subject of ad-blocking, let me state for the record that I don't get web advertising...

What I don't get is why companies are willing to pay money to put something out there that is either A) totally ignored by the viewer, or B) annoys them enough that they intentionally won't purchase the advertised product/service or from the company advertising. Just thinking back to my years of internet use, I cannot think of a single product I have purchased because of web advertising. Not from ad banners, flash embeds, redirect scripts, or even those stupid "others who have bought X item also liked these..." listings.

On the topic of the ad-blocking, yes, I block. Not all across the board, but some ad services are more invasive, annoying, or offensive than others, and I have no quams in blocking them. While I'll generally just ignore an ad that's harmless and not overly in-your-face, I'm not going to put my system or sanity at risk.

Actually I found out about the LFG webcomic through ads, so they work sometimes.

The OP makes a good point, but I'm not sure having ad blocker on won't count towards the site's traffic. Either way, I don't use ad blockers, although I delete spam mail.

 

[e2density]

I have this magical ad blocking game called "Click the little red X as fast as you can...or want."

 

[Slayer_2]

Screw the ads. I don't feel a bit sorry for blocking them. I was amazed when my friend showed me ABP, I said something along the lines of "What. The. Fuck... THIS IS AWESOME!".

I have advertising, it infiltrates every corner of our lives: sports, the net, TV, even our own damn DVD's, which we paid 20 bucks for. Sometimes even video-games, which we usually pay 50+ dollars for. Sure it helps pay for free stuff, but it's really the most irritating shit ever, and it usually makes me want to never buy the product in question.

 

[Daniel Cygnus]

AdBlock Plus is the best thing to ever happen to the 'tubes in recent memory. I honestly wouldn't want to hang out on the web without it.