Advertising Execs Diss Ad Blockers

[BudAshes]

Hah, fanastic. I'm going to donate some money to a adblock plus because of this guy:

 

[Sonikku]

I might still be dealing with ads if they hadn't gone nuts with the whole 4-5 per page, causing page errors, running flash player, audio the whole works.

 

[Eug]

The advertising companies did it to themselves. If they had stuck to non annoying ad formats that also don't act as spyware, perhaps we would not be forced to block them in order to make the internet usable.

Agreed. And I don't have any ethical problem blocking ads. The main reason I don't usually... on my iOS devices at least... is because the ones available have had issues with not working right with some sites, and sometimes there is an introduction of lag in the page rendering.

However, for Adblock Plus, I think they are hypocrites, considering they get paid to allow ads though.

I also think it's perfectly fine if a site wants to put me behind a paywall. Most don't though since 99% of the content on the internet isn't worth paying the subscription fees. And for those that use soft paywalls that just count the number of articles you've read in a period of time, stored as cookies, I just use a private browser.

BTW, one problem I have with the ads is not so much the intrusiveness of them per se (although they do suck because they are intrusive), it's the fact that they take so many damn resources. They eat memory and CPU cycles. It's remarkable just how much sometimes. Sometimes ad blockers will fix this, but like I said on some platforms some ad blockers will introduce other problems of their own.

 

[Icepick]

The advertising companies did it to themselves. If they had stuck to non annoying ad formats that also don't act as spyware, perhaps we would not be forced to block them in order to make the internet usable.

I completely agree. This is what drove me to make the effort to download and run ad blockers. If the adds were tolerable and unobtrusive then I wouldn't bother with blocking them.

 

[Art&Science]

One of my favorite things about going to (certain) places in Europe is the almost complete lack of advertising media in public area...

It's really nice. Of course there are adverts in Europe, but compared to the US the level of commercialism is significantly less and it's refreshing not to be sold something constantly.

In this regard, we should be more like Europe... I don't think we need a law limiting the advertising, we just need to elevate our thinking and realism that... noone wants to see that sort of thing and tone it down.

 

[zinfamous]

Ad blockers are also deemed a threat to free speech, according to advertisers. I didn't know that advertisers spend a lot of their time concerned about the Constitution and my rights. Advertisers do have the right to speak, but they forget that I have the right not to listen. Ad blockers support my right not to listen. But I guess according to internet advertisers, my view is hate speech.

But Corporations are people, friend.

 

[JEDI]

but.. u might miss the golden age of advertisement like:

and this:

 

[Jaepheth]

comedy central shows this for ~ 25 seconds with ad block on:

Still better than most ads

 

[vi edit]

Advertising, embedded video and clickbait has largely killed my desire to spend any major time on the web. It's just a warzone of popups, obnoxious sounds, and page shifting shit that you have to wait to load before you can click a link without it moving on you.

Yahoo is a toxic dump that I don't even go to anymore. Between full screen adds and all of the landmine click bait shit they have every third line. Meh. It's just not worth it.

Even here...I can't stand posting without adblock. Those ads that take up so much of the top of the site and shove links down while they load is infuriating.

 

[lxskllr]

Yahoo is a toxic dump that I don't even go to anymore. Between full screen adds and all of the landmine click bait shit they have every third line. Meh. It's just not worth it.

My boss uses yahoo mail, and since he's dumb as a brick, he doesn't use the mail client I setup for him. I did put uBlock on his browser, and it shows 100+ objects blocked on the yahoo mail page, and I didn't even give him the aggressive lists I use.

 

[slayer202]

I'm sure all you guys would have no problem paying subscription fees to your favorite websites....

 

[lxskllr]

I'm sure all you guys would have no problem paying subscription fees to your favorite websites....

I pay for my email, and I pay for some of my software, even though it's gratis. I'd pay for some of the sites I visit, but not all.

 

[AdamK47]

Blocking online advertisements wouldn't be so prevalent if the advertisements themselves weren't so destructive to the main content being presented. It's all driven by greed.

Nobody wants thousands of javascript code and various other ad injections obscuring, obstructing, or totally preventing the targeted content from being displayed.

 

[slayer202]

I pay for my email, and I pay for some of my software, even though it's gratis. I'd pay for some of the sites I visit, but not all.

I've rarely had a problem with an ad on the websites I visit frequently. Blocking their ads would be wrong imo. Websites can do whatever they want, and in return, we should choose whether we want to visit those sites or not. That freedom, and ability to generate revenue, creates content and gives us all of these great FREE websites to visit. I think it's cheap to say "well this website ruined it for me so I'm blocking everything", or certain types of ads, as people in this thread have mentioned. People should stop visiting those websites if they can't browse them without the ads that someone decided to put there.

There are plenty of links or ads I'd consider clicking if not for the inevitable onslaught of garbage that would follow, so I just don't click them. Other than that, there is nothing obtrusive about typical ads on legitimate websites

and if EVERYONE blocked ads, we'd be unhappy with the level of content we would start seeing. But most people are selfish

 

[zinfamous]

I've rarely had a problem with an ad on the websites I visit frequently. Blocking their ads would be wrong imo. Websites can do whatever they want, and in return, we should choose whether we want to visit those sites or not. That freedom, and ability to generate revenue, creates content and gives us all of these great FREE websites to visit. I think it's cheap to say "well this website ruined it for me so I'm blocking everything", or certain types of ads, as people in this thread have mentioned. People should stop visiting those websites if they can't browse them without the ads that someone decided to put there.

There are plenty of links or ads I'd consider clicking if not for the inevitable onslaught of garbage that would follow, so I just don't click them. Other than that, there is nothing obtrusive about typical ads on legitimate websites

and if EVERYONE blocked ads, we'd be unhappy with the level of content we would start seeing. But most people are selfish

If everyone blocking ads destroys the internet, then I'm sure we'll just move on to something else that wastes our time.

 

[vi edit]

Blocking online advertisements wouldn't be so prevalent if the advertisements themselves weren't so destructive to the main content being presented. It's all driven by greed.

Nobody wants thousands of javascript code and various other ad injections obscuring, obstructing, or totally preventing the targeted content from being displayed.

That's really the root of things. Adds started going so over the top and intrusive that it disrupts browsing. That's what killed yahoo for me. Whole page in-your-face animated ads that you can't escape. Same with some mobile ads on forums that take over your screen as you try and swipe through threads.

That's part of the reason I started spending more time at reddit. Their ads are non-intrusive, in a static spot and don't dick up the ability to use the site.

 

[vi edit]

If everyone blocking ads destroys the internet, then I'm sure we'll just move on to something else that wastes our time.

Like candy crush and boom beach!

 

[TheGardener]

But if we don't block ads, then we send a message to the ad executives that the behavior of their ads on our devices is perfectly acceptable. And then they will up the ante, pushing to find out at what point we will not accept their intrusion. At this point, the ad execs are starting to feel the pain. But for the majority of people in the US, they will continue to be victimized, because they don't know how counter act the intrusive ads. Maybe this is a business opportunity for people looking to supplement their income.

 

[JEDI]

I'm sure all you guys would have no problem paying subscription fees to your favorite websites....

i'll just switch to a competitor that offers it free!
competition FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[slayer202]

But if we don't block ads, then we send a message to the ad executives that the behavior of their ads on our devices is perfectly acceptable. And then they will up the ante, pushing to find out at what point we will not accept their intrusion. At this point, the ad execs are starting to feel the pain. But for the majority of people in the US, they will continue to be victimized, because they don't know how counter act the intrusive ads. Maybe this is a business opportunity for people looking to supplement their income.

blocking ads isn't the answer. stop visiting those sites. the sites have to do the right thing, if you're counting on the advertisers you're gonna be disappointed.

victimized? lol

 

[WelshBloke]

blocking ads isn't the answer.

It's an answer.

 

[TheGardener]

blocking ads isn't the answer. stop visiting those sites. the sites have to do the right thing, if you're counting on the advertisers you're gonna be disappointed. victimized? lol

When ABP came out with a white list, I did try it. I very quickly went back to blocking every third party ad. For me blocking ads is the answer. I'll do so until I can't.

 

[SunnyD]

If an ad were JUST an ad, I wouldn't be running ad blockers. But let's face it... ads aren't just ads anymore. They're spyware. They're demographic tracking. They're datamining. They're behavior tracking. They're a whole shitload of everything that's wrong all to monetize the person under the guise of just putting a simple ad in front of eyes.

If the money that was made off of monetizing me actually went to me, I'd be a little more okay with what's going on with advertising these days. But let's be honest, the general trend of price is item prices go up while you get less item meanwhile corporate revenues keep growing. So me, the consumer, the ad watcher, and also me the product keep losing more money in the process.

So until then I will control what I get to see because they will ultimately find a way to monetize me anyway.

 

[William Gaatjes]

They got greedy and let ad networks devolve into spyware infested, music blaring, plugin consuming garbage. I have no sympathy.

This, it is very annoying to experience a web site that is unresponsive until it finished loading the overly intrusive ads. :thumbsup:

Long live ad block plus.

 

[Thebobo]

Whats a good Chrome script blocker?