Why you MUST not use an ad blocker - unless you want to pay for content

[zidine100]

and leave your computer vulnerable to attacks, when i say vulnerable i mean VERY likely... i don't think im going to take that risk to see something i dont want to see in the first place.

and even if on the of chance they arent some scams or start spaming the page with a loud booming voice or a annoying buzzing noise, they are mostly porn, im sorry but do i really look like i want to have a freaking porn pop up or add bar when im in front of my parents.

you starting to see the difference now, a tv add wont break your tv, wont spam a annoying noise all the way through your progam, tv doesnt have a bandwidth limit (unless your watching pay per view but come on here you see my point now), tv wont hijack your tv to change to a different channel, a tv add wont randomly post boobs on screen or start talking dirty to you (unless of course you are on those channels, but that defys my point here), ergo, if i have the opportunity to block them i will, why should i waste my bandwidth, the bandwidth ive already paid for, to see something i dont want to see and for it to annoy the hell out of me, embarrass me, sicken me and to brake my computer at the same time.

out of interest, from the posts ive seen here, do you mean all adds or justs adds on streaming videos? if the later you can probably just ignore my post, if the former well my post stands.

 

[SultanP]

I use an ad blocker, but I turn it off for sites I want to support, such as The Escapist. Still, if I didn't, this might have convinced me to. Still, good to post something like this for all of the people who don't understand these things.

 

[Wicky_42]

If advertisers didn't want me to block ads then they wouldn't make them obnoxious wastes of time and space. They wouldn't be noisy, they wouldn't last longer than 15-30 seconds, and they wouldn't be compulsory viewing before a video.

If I want to see a trailer, I'll go to Youtube and bloody look up the game! If I want to see some shitty acting or hear some annoying catch phrase or be lambasted by some over-bearing announcer then I'll... wait, I don't want any of that. Huh, go figure.

A decent article in a good publication, or recommendation from friends has more impact on me with regards to purchasing a product. Sure, revenue for websites is good n nice, and for people who enjoy having a product thrown in their face every couple of minutes that's great n all, but there are people who *don't* like that, who record TV just so that they can skip the ads or who leave the room during commercial breaks. I don't want to have to take a minute or so out every video - that detracts from the whole 'on demand' aspect of the internet, and I fundamentally oppose intrusive ads.

My problem's not so much with the ads, but with their interruption to what I'm trying to do. No-one would criticise someone using a pop-up blocker, or a pop-under blocker, so why a streaming ad blocker? I don't think the best form of internet ads has been found yet, but I'm damned if I know an alternative - I'm not a marketing type.

 

[GothmogII]

and leave your computer vulnerable to attacks, when i say vulnerable i mean VERY likely... i don't think im going to take that risk to see something i dont want to see in the first place.

and even if on the of chance they arent some scams or start spaming the page with a loud booming voice or a annoying buzzing noise, they are mostly porn, im sorry but do i really look like i want to have a freaking porn pop up or add bar when im in front of my parents.

you starting to see the difference now, a tv add wont break your tv, wont spam a annoying noise all the way through your progam, tv doesnt have a bandwidth limit (unless your watching pay per view but come on here you see my point now), tv wont hijack your tv to change to a different channel, a tv add wont randomly post boobs on screen or start talking dirty to you (unless of course you are on those channels, but that defys my point here).

Don't ad-blockers allow you to set the sites you want exempt from the block? That way you can choose only trustworthy sites to allow ads and block the spam and trojan downloaders.

 

[Sassafrass]

I personally don't mind the adverts going around the sites I visit, which is normally here, NationStates and xkcd, which I don't think I've actually seen any ads on when I visit.

I don't mind watching an ad or having a potentially annoying ad around the page as it is what's basically allowing me to surf the sites for free, mainly as online, they aren't as annoying as the ads we see on the TV. For example, that bloody GoComapre! advert which you can't ignore as it's so damn loud.

So, I'm quite happy to have ads around whilst I'm browsing the internet as that is what keeps us from having to pay for everything. Even if they are ones for Stella Artois that I've been seeing all bloody day and slowing my connection down at times.[footnote]My connection is extremely spartan. It's basically like an old man, limping around the nursing home, with nurses coming to check on him every once in a while.[/footnote]

 

[Kimarous]

and leave your computer vulnerable to attacks, when i say vulnerable i mean VERY likely... i don't think im going to take that risk to see something i dont want to see in the first place.

and even if on the of chance they arent some scams or start spaming the page with a loud booming voice or a annoying buzzing noise, they are mostly porn, im sorry but do i really look like i want to have a freaking porn pop up or add bar when im in front of my parents.

you starting to see the difference now, a tv add wont break your tv, wont spam a annoying noise all the way through your progam, tv doesnt have a bandwidth limit (unless your watching pay per view but come on here you see my point now), tv wont hijack your tv to change to a different channel, a tv add wont randomly post boobs on screen or start talking dirty to you (unless of course you are on those channels, but that defys my point here).

Pretty much this. I once had to completely reformat my computer after a spam of pop-up ads gave me a killer virus. Even if I have Webroot, Windows Security, and all that hulabaloo, I am well within my rights to protect my computer and block out the thousands of companies who DON'T deserve revenue.

I get what you are saying, Kathleen, but don't try to guilt-trip us into thinking that "we are the downfall of the internet". Some of us genuinely worry that the internet will be the downfall of ourselves and we are well within our rights to protect ourselves from such.

 

[Woodsey]

Everyone should just join the PubClub

It's cheaper to put up with the ads; personally I miss the ones advertising big boobs bras.

 

[RatRace123]

I don't block adds and occasionally I do watch them, a lot of the time I let them play while I don't pay attention. My laptop can handle them I guess.
I know Slim Jim wants me to pay attention to their product, but seeing that commercial with Edge way too many times, it gets a bit old.

We still need the internet to grow if we want to apply firm ways to make a viable profit. Ads are good for now, but it'll evolve soon.

 

[zidine100]

and leave your computer vulnerable to attacks, when i say vulnerable i mean VERY likely... i don't think im going to take that risk to see something i dont want to see in the first place.

and even if on the of chance they arent some scams or start spaming the page with a loud booming voice or a annoying buzzing noise, they are mostly porn, im sorry but do i really look like i want to have a freaking porn pop up or add bar when im in front of my parents.

you starting to see the difference now, a tv add wont break your tv, wont spam a annoying noise all the way through your progam, tv doesnt have a bandwidth limit (unless your watching pay per view but come on here you see my point now), tv wont hijack your tv to change to a different channel, a tv add wont randomly post boobs on screen or start talking dirty to you (unless of course you are on those channels, but that defys my point here).

Don't ad-blockers allow you to set the sites you want exempt from the block? That way you can choose only trustworthy sites to allow ads and block the spam and trojan downloaders.

It isn't the site you have to worry about half the time, its the add hosts themselves (most sites ive seen, have subscribe for a advertising banner list and not just one specific add, ok its hard to describe what im meaning here as i forgot the right word but im sure you understand what im meaning). You cannot tell when they are going to screw a site over (intentionally or by accident), its happened on a few sites i frequent before.

Then you have the trouble of hoping that the site owner has the brains to test a new add themselves before they add it for any sort of infection, more often than not... they dont check and if it contains one you get skewed if you view them.

Ergo its best to play it safe and just block everything.

 

[Senaro]

I can't remember the last time a popup or tv commercial ever convinced me to buy anything. So screw the ads.

 

[Firoth]

Get Firefox and Adblocker, makes surfing so much easier.

Silly Sleek, as if there are any other browsers to choose from.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

When I saw your comment on that video, my first thought was "Well, that would make a good thread, wouldn't it?"

Anyway, while normally I'd agree with you, there are some exceptions. For example, ads that play out loud. There's a message board I visit occasionally, and they have ads that play automatically in every thread, followed by a literally random youtube video. I'm sorry, but that get's blocked.

On the 'scapist, the ads are almost always good or un-intrusive, and I want to support the site. So I don't block it.

Long story short, banner ads are fine, ads preceding videos are fine, but auto playing ads are horrible, even worse than websites that play music automatically. Hulu in particular has a good system, where it will sometimes even allow you to pick the ad you want to watch.

 

[Space Spoons]

Stop using flash and other incredibly annoying/intrusive ads and I'll stop blocking them.

This. I have no problem with banner ads and having to watch commercials before a video, but when they start eating up my browser's resources and start blaring music in the background, I block them without remorse.

I love the Escapist and other sites I visit, but if they want my support, they've got to respect me as a consumer by not hosting ads like that.

 

[Sleekgiant]

Get Firefox and Adblocker, makes surfing so much easier.

Silly Sleek, as if there are any other browsers to choose from.

But I also have Google Botnet edition

 

[Plurralbles]

they could try putting tasteful ads up... That would help me out.

I dont block them, but I boycott everythign that comes up.

 

[movienut]

I get your point but I wonder about its practicality online. I suspect the way of the future might be subscription services mixed with non intrusive ads. Lets face it, if people can block pop ups and other ads they will and no amount of good arguments will change that. A growing number of people have started watching TV shows on DVD for just this reason, to avoid ads. I have more and more people at my work paying to rent the DVDs just to avoid comercials.

 

[Caliostro]

I use adblocker, and no script. That said, if I know it's a safe website/ad/whatever, I don't mind unblocking it, as I think it's fair so, as explained in the OP, one can support content.

I think there are 2 different things to consider: Safety and convinience.

The first is rather obvious, to me at least. The internet brought along a completely new wave of insecurity. You no longer need to be mugged at gun point to be robbed, you don't need to lose your briefcase to have your files end up in the wrong hands, etc... Security has become a very serious issue on the internet, and ads are pretty much the single greatest threat you can find. This doesn't happen on the TV, or theaters, or pretty much anywhere else. Watching that commercial for Coca Cola, or Nike, or whatever the fuck, before The Walking Dead doesn't really affect me. Clicking a random ad, sometimes without the website owners even knowing, can fuck you over very quickly and very painfully. It is that simple, and I can't blame anyone for doing whatever they can do avoid it. This is the reason my ad blocker and noscript block EVERYTHING by default. I'll allow whatever I trust after.

The other reason is sheer convinience. Some ads are fine. Some ads are obnoxious. For the most part (and unless you're using specific touchscreens or something), filling up your deadzones with image ads is pretty harmless. Some type of ads I will mercilessly block, regardless of whose site it is and however much I love them: auto-loading roll overs, pops and "sound" ads. Why? Because they're fucking obnoxious and interfere with my browsing. Things that are just there for me to look at them, I'm ok with. Sure, they can be a bit visually aggravating sometimes, but as long as they're not "seizure inducing", it's ok. The Escapist has generally been great about it, so I don't mind leaving the ads unblocked. Some other sites, like Youtube, are not. Youtube used to ("used to" because they're been permanently blocked in every computer I own since then) have this really, really, REALLY, fucking irriting set of ads that would auto-load and start yelling, or playing a music, or some horrible shit like that once you loaded the page...

It all should honestly come down to common sense, but sadly common sense is a myth.

tl;dr: If they're not dangerous, or interfere with your browsing, they're ok, and really shouldn't be blocked.