Lady Kathleen said:
Back in the days of TV, we expected to get quality programming for free, but we understood that we got it in exchange for watching advertising. The ads supported the shows, and the people who worked the shows on them got paid decent salaries.
I don't remember that. The only programming I've ever got "free" was broadcast, and even then you had to pay if you didn't want to use rabbit ears or (like us) lived in an area where the reception sucked like a Hoover in a wind tunnel.
But okay, that actually benefits your point, probably. I grew up on a "no such thing as a free meal" mentality. I had to pay just to get "free" TV like most people.
But here's the thing about ads on TV. They've always been there. Not so much for "free" entertainment on the web. Yeah, people actually did quality content without asking for money, requiring a subscription, or themselves relying on ads. Naturally, when you lose a level of freedom (even if perceived), there will be problems.
But that's not my problem with ads.
It's also not my problem with what you said.
It's a tangent.
So here's me. I've complained for years when the players on this site broke. Nothing's happened. In fact, I think the newer iterations of the player her have gotten worse. Other people have complained. Nothing.
So I ask, in earnest: Do you expect me to believe that watching ads will cause things to "work themselves out?" If the medium for delivering the content and the ads doesn't, what would lead me to believe the ads will?
Further, isn't watching ads that are almost as long as the content literally sending the message that it doesn't need to work itself out? That I, the viewer, will watch an ad almost as long as the video I'm getting for "free?" How does this resolve itself if we continue the status quo?
Beyond the intellectual, beyond the rationale, here's my biggest problem.
Ads on this site and others screw up my browser, and sometimes lock my freaking computer. Granted, only on my laptop, but that's where I spend most of my time, both at work and at play. Dealing with broken content and ads that might as well be adware turns me off as a consumer, and reduces my chances 1. That I will watch further content and 2. That I will pass these along to friends. Since you guys get a lot of your revenue through the shared videos (That other people watch, ostensibly with ads), your system harms both of us as well.
I could join the Pub Club, but I refuse to pay for something and reward the administrators for broken content. Paying to not watch ads as long as the videos is just as bad, because I'm now supporting that broken system in the same way. None of this is new, either. I and others have complained before.
I'd honestly rather just watch the videos than pay for a service, but when you make a system difficult, cumbersome or frustrating, there's also the tendency to "none of the above."
Content on shows like ENN is getting shorter, and thanks to stupid programming or whatever, I often have to watch the same ad multiple times just to get to it. the system isn't working itself out, and that makes me increasingly likely to just not click on next week's video with each passing tacit "screw you" to the contract being alluded to here. If you want to treat it as as a contract, or a business relationship between producer and consumer, then
you're doing it wrong.
If Television operated like this, it would have died in the fifties. And rightfully so. If you want to keep us "customers," then you're doing it wrong. Telling us to hang on while "it works itself out" is a bad business model, and while it's eventually harmful to us to use ad blockers, it's also harmful to the business model in general.
Not to mention, those of us who do watch the ads are getting punished right now, and will get punished if ad blockers cause content to go premium. I'm already punished for doing the right thing; I have trouble seeing the downside to doing the wrong thing, or blaming people for doing it. Especially since any contract is supposed to go both ways.
Next up: Why we must not use Spyware detectors, because they hurt us in the end. A good number of the ads function like malware to begin with, so why not?