Why Adblock is bad for the "free" Internet.


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Why Adblock is bad for the "free" Internet

"I can understand and sympathize with the general distaste for pop-up advertisements. They are obstructive and annoying. But I do not sympathize with the distaste of standard banner advertisements that pay for all the free content we currently enjoy."

So True.

actually if sites were to block content to AdBlock users and if adblock could be enabled/disabled without a firefox restart or create an allowed sites list which AdBlock currently doesn't have would be suitable to me .

it's the ads with the crosshairs and moving crap that I can't stand

i guess the writer ofdthe article doesnt know that adblock doesnt siop banner ads from being downloaded from the server unlike all the other banner blockers that you can get for other browsers. all it does is hide the banner, so really adblock is good as it still registers as a view.

Banner ads are find by me except for the ones that talk. It scared the crap outta me and annoys me that i load a page and i here "Hello, i can say anything you type" i type, "STFU you dumb B*tch."

That and the ones where its like...

"Hey im blah blah blah"

actually if sites were to block content to AdBlock users and if adblock could be enabled/disabled without a firefox restart or create an allowed sites list which AdBlock currently doesn't have would be suitable to me .

it's the ads with the crosshairs and moving crap that I can't stand

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Not to mention the ones that start blaring music or sound like the movie trailers on cinescape.com, .... in the middle of the night or when your listening to music.

i guess the writer ofdthe article doesnt know that adblock doesnt siop banner ads from being downloaded from the server unlike all the other banner blockers that you can get for other browsers. all it does is hide the banner, so really adblock is good as it still registers as a view.

I believe most banner systems work on click throughs though. Not all but most of the ones that actually pay anythign anyways, were click through systems last i looked.

Lets use a recent, rough estimate of ~6% of internet users who use Firefox.

Now, a fraction of these users (not sure of the statistic) use the extension

And, a fraction of THOSE users have an effective filterset.

How can this be so devastating at this point in time?

Edited by chacho
actually if sites were to block content to AdBlock users and if adblock could be enabled/disabled without a firefox restart or create an allowed sites list which AdBlock currently doesn't have would be suitable to me .

it's the ads with the crosshairs and moving crap that I can't stand

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I only know of a handful of sites that block ad-blockers, one of which is EnvironmentalChemistry.com.

As for your other statement, adblock CAN be enabled/disabled without a restart, and there's a hotkey as well (ctrl+shift+b), so you don't even have to open up the prefs.

I agree with the "allowed sites" idea. I would certainly include neowin in that list, if the feature were added.

I'm not against ads.  Without them we'd all be paying for a subscription to this site.  I don?t think people should block banner ads.

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Without adblocking, however, there would be no incentives for companies to produce/use less intrusive advertisement methods.

The way I see it is ad's do not work on me what so ever. So by me blocking them I'am not wasting their bandwidth by downloading banners/ad's which I will NEVER click on.

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Exactly. I never click on ads. Why you ask? Because the crap they advertise I don't want or need!

The way I see is like this: marketing is there for a reason. Ex. I was looking through the current edition of Popular Science Magazine when I came across a very good looking tasteful ad. It had a catchy one liner and actually got me to read at least some of the ad to find out what this particular product could do. Ads on the internet, for the most part, have nothing to do with they website you are looking at and are generally pretty useless (with the exception of Google Ads ... they are actually helpful and aren't intrusive). So, for sites to get me to stop blocking ads, they will have to make them much more attractice, less flashy and all around pertain to the website I am viewing.

Without adblocking, however, there would be no incentives for companies to produce/use? less intrusive advertisement methods.

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Nice idea, but the only incentives adblocking gives advertising companies is to come up with ways of getting around the adblocking software and probably making ads more intrusive to users. They don't, afterall, make money buy making ads you arn't going to notice.

Plus, while these companies try and find workarounds to adblocking software they are more likely to find holes in web browsers giving them new means of placing adware and spyware software on users systems.

Hmmm....

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What's your point?

Banner ads are find by me except for the ones that talk. It scared the crap outta me and annoys me that i load a page and i here "Hello, i can say anything you type" i type, "STFU you dumb B*tch."

That and the ones where its like...

"Hey im blah blah blah"

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"Hi, I've got a secret website that's so hardcore!" =)

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