4 ms·

Adblock isn't immoral

15 points by anonyfox 11y ago

mobiuscog 11y ago
Ad-Blocking isn't immoral - adblock (the plugin) is because it then allows companies to pay to allow their ads through.
- anonyfox 11y ago
  I think you mean the specific plugin "Adblock Plus", other blockers like uBlock don't do this AFAIK.
  - mobiuscog 11y ago
    I thought that was what I had written ;) I personally use uMatrix (more control than uBlock).
herbst 11y ago
If we could just stop talking about AdBlocking all day again, that would be great :) Revenue is dropping and dropping the last months, so is my engagement on keeping the sites great.
nailer 11y ago
> Many Website owners force all these negative implications on all of their visitors. No they don't. Website owners force this on people who want to view their ad-supported content. If you don't like the ad-supported content, nobody is forcing you to view it. This article has no new content, just a restatement that some ads are bad, which nobody disputes.
- woodandsteel 11y ago
  You are being forced if all the sites with valuable content agree to support it with banner ads.
  - Nadya 11y ago
    No, you are still not being forced to look at their content... it's still your choice to do so or not. Personally I add sites to point to 127.0.0.1 in my host file and call it a day. Does them a favor and I don't need to keep track of which links to avoid clicking because the site tells me to disable my ad block or isn't available without removing ad block. If it hits localhost I go back a page and move on with my life. If it is important or worth knowing about - it will be reposted somewhere or spoken about somewhere where I will be able to read it without going to their site. For what it's worth, I also add the sites that ask me politely to disable my ad blocker. If they're going to give me the option to continue to view their content with it enabled, I consider it polite to decline and not continue to waste their bandwidth on serving me their pages.
woodandsteel 11y ago
Great article. However, it left out that users pay for ads because the cost of advertising is added on to the price of products. So you really are not getting it for free. The underlying problem is the basic monetary model of the web is broken. We need something like micropayments. Maybe Ethereum will make this possible.

15 points by anonyfox 11y ago

mobiuscog 11y ago

Ad-Blocking isn't immoral - adblock (the plugin) is because it then allows companies to pay to allow their ads through.

anonyfox 11y ago
I think you mean the specific plugin "Adblock Plus", other blockers like uBlock don't do this AFAIK.
- mobiuscog 11y ago
  I thought that was what I had written ;) I personally use uMatrix (more control than uBlock).

herbst 11y ago

If we could just stop talking about AdBlocking all day again, that would be great :) Revenue is dropping and dropping the last months, so is my engagement on keeping the sites great.

nailer 11y ago

> Many Website owners force all these negative implications on all of their visitors. No they don't. Website owners force this on people who want to view their ad-supported content. If you don't like the ad-supported content, nobody is forcing you to view it. This article has no new content, just a restatement that some ads are bad, which nobody disputes.

woodandsteel 11y ago
You are being forced if all the sites with valuable content agree to support it with banner ads.
- Nadya 11y ago
  No, you are still not being forced to look at their content... it's still your choice to do so or not. Personally I add sites to point to 127.0.0.1 in my host file and call it a day. Does them a favor and I don't need to keep track of which links to avoid clicking because the site tells me to disable my ad block or isn't available without removing ad block. If it hits localhost I go back a page and move on with my life. If it is important or worth knowing about - it will be reposted somewhere or spoken about somewhere where I will be able to read it without going to their site. For what it's worth, I also add the sites that ask me politely to disable my ad blocker. If they're going to give me the option to continue to view their content with it enabled, I consider it polite to decline and not continue to waste their bandwidth on serving me their pages.

woodandsteel 11y ago

Great article. However, it left out that users pay for ads because the cost of advertising is added on to the price of products. So you really are not getting it for free. The underlying problem is the basic monetary model of the web is broken. We need something like micropayments. Maybe Ethereum will make this possible.