6 ms·

We started off nice: "Hey, you are disabling ads, please turn them on" etc. Then we offered an ad-free subscription (almost worthless). And I think we played

We started off nice: "Hey, you are disabling ads, please turn them on" etc. Then we offered an ad-free subscription (almost worthless). And I think we played with another idea or two, before finally going through with the blocking adblockers.

chiph 10y ago
I think you missed the point of the question - people install adblockers typically because they find the ads are intrusive (full-screen graphic overlays, etc), or their machine gets infected with ad network-delivered malware. If you presented ads that were respectful to the visitor (i.e. weren't offensive) I expect the blocker escalation war would cease.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  How would your users know you had "respectful" ads?
  - ihsw 10y ago
    For example, when they visit, there are no interstitial pages, boxes covering the page when a user mouses out of the viewport, autoplaying audio/video, or any of that other obscene nonsense.
    - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
      paulddraper is pointing out that if the user has an adblocker, they will never notice whether your ads are intrusive or not.
      - ihsw 10y ago
        There is no chance to recover a user after they install an adblocker.
        daveguy 10y ago
        Unless you stop using ad networks and just inline unobtrusive text ads?
        ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        This is a trap. If you make your ads content-like, and integrate them into your content, then people will say your site is deceptive, hiding ads in content so people read them like factual articles.
        corobo 10y ago
        You don't need to make them content-like. Have ad sections that are just text. I can't recall the name of the site but that one Mac-related site that does text ads seems to be doing pretty well at it. Please if someone does know the site I mean let me know it's on the tip of my tongue!
        angry-hacker 10y ago
        The inventor of markdown. Fireball something. But it's really an exception.
        corobo 10y ago
        Daring Fireball, that's the one! Of course it's an exception - no other bugger tries, opting to instead chuck adsense all over the place.
        K0nserv 10y ago
        John uses Deck[0] for Daring Fireball 0: http://decknetwork.net/ http://decknetwork.net/
        corobo 10y ago
  - 15charlimit 10y ago
    I haven't once seen an attempt by any site to show me a "this is what our ads would look like - we're clean, honest!" element when they detect I'm blocking. My adblock policy (the same one I use on all friend & family systems) is extremely strict. I'm not going to whitelist your site, or any site for that matter, just to see if your ads are "safe". Your options are to show me they are DESPITE my blocking for a chance at an unblock, or prevent me from viewing your site altogether.
- nostrebored 10y ago
  You're acting like the typical use for adblockers is targetted -- it's not. People browse the web with always-on adblock. Your site is likely not the one that tipped them over the edge, either.
- wutbrodo 10y ago
  > people install adblockers typically because they find the ads are intrusive (full-screen graphic overlays, etc), or their machine gets infected with ad network-delivered malware. If you presented ads that were respectful to the visitor (i.e. weren't offensive) I expect the blocker escalation war would cease. This is absolutely incorrect. Users may install them because they find some amount of ads to be abusive, but damn near nobody (relative to all ad blocker usage) starts out on a white list basis, and the idea that they're diligent about unblocking sites that have "good" ads that get past their blocker is just absurd.
  - danielweber 10y ago
    Can you mod my Playstation? I need to play, um, archived games. Yeah that's it. Archived games.
    - Nursie 10y ago
      While this cliche is indeed very true, the ability to play games from a hard-drive in the PS2 was amazing. No ferreting about for disks, much faster load times etc. I didn't pirate a single one, and loved HDLoader.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    Unfortunately I agree with you. I try to do that, but too many sites are abusive. If a site said "hey, we see you block ads, please unblock, we only use small text ads", I'd unblock right away. Most of the time though, after I unblock a site, I immediately have to re-block it.
    - gosukiwi 10y ago
      Personally I find that "begging" annoying for sites that I almost never use, like Pastebin. I consider it for sites I use more often, but I agree with you that most of the time I end up turning it on again, ads just lag the site and are obtrusive.
  - corobo 10y ago
- dangerboysteve 10y ago
  Another issue is that many 3rd party ad networks have performance issues. Nothing like waiting for the ad network to catch up so you can view the site.

chiph 10y ago

I think you missed the point of the question - people install adblockers typically because they find the ads are intrusive (full-screen graphic overlays, etc), or their machine gets infected with ad network-delivered malware. If you presented ads that were respectful to the visitor (i.e. weren't offensive) I expect the blocker escalation war would cease.

paulddraper 10y ago
How would your users know you had "respectful" ads?
- ihsw 10y ago
  For example, when they visit, there are no interstitial pages, boxes covering the page when a user mouses out of the viewport, autoplaying audio/video, or any of that other obscene nonsense.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    paulddraper is pointing out that if the user has an adblocker, they will never notice whether your ads are intrusive or not.
    - ihsw 10y ago
      There is no chance to recover a user after they install an adblocker.
      - daveguy 10y ago
        Unless you stop using ad networks and just inline unobtrusive text ads?
        ocdtrekkie 10y ago
        This is a trap. If you make your ads content-like, and integrate them into your content, then people will say your site is deceptive, hiding ads in content so people read them like factual articles.
        corobo 10y ago
        You don't need to make them content-like. Have ad sections that are just text. I can't recall the name of the site but that one Mac-related site that does text ads seems to be doing pretty well at it. Please if someone does know the site I mean let me know it's on the tip of my tongue!
        angry-hacker 10y ago
        The inventor of markdown. Fireball something. But it's really an exception.
        corobo 10y ago
        Daring Fireball, that's the one! Of course it's an exception - no other bugger tries, opting to instead chuck adsense all over the place.
        K0nserv 10y ago
        John uses Deck[0] for Daring Fireball 0: http://decknetwork.net/ http://decknetwork.net/
        corobo 10y ago
- 15charlimit 10y ago
  I haven't once seen an attempt by any site to show me a "this is what our ads would look like - we're clean, honest!" element when they detect I'm blocking. My adblock policy (the same one I use on all friend & family systems) is extremely strict. I'm not going to whitelist your site, or any site for that matter, just to see if your ads are "safe". Your options are to show me they are DESPITE my blocking for a chance at an unblock, or prevent me from viewing your site altogether.
nostrebored 10y ago
You're acting like the typical use for adblockers is targetted -- it's not. People browse the web with always-on adblock. Your site is likely not the one that tipped them over the edge, either.
wutbrodo 10y ago
> people install adblockers typically because they find the ads are intrusive (full-screen graphic overlays, etc), or their machine gets infected with ad network-delivered malware. If you presented ads that were respectful to the visitor (i.e. weren't offensive) I expect the blocker escalation war would cease. This is absolutely incorrect. Users may install them because they find some amount of ads to be abusive, but damn near nobody (relative to all ad blocker usage) starts out on a white list basis, and the idea that they're diligent about unblocking sites that have "good" ads that get past their blocker is just absurd.
- danielweber 10y ago
  Can you mod my Playstation? I need to play, um, archived games. Yeah that's it. Archived games.
  - Nursie 10y ago
    While this cliche is indeed very true, the ability to play games from a hard-drive in the PS2 was amazing. No ferreting about for disks, much faster load times etc. I didn't pirate a single one, and loved HDLoader.
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  Unfortunately I agree with you. I try to do that, but too many sites are abusive. If a site said "hey, we see you block ads, please unblock, we only use small text ads", I'd unblock right away. Most of the time though, after I unblock a site, I immediately have to re-block it.
  - gosukiwi 10y ago
    Personally I find that "begging" annoying for sites that I almost never use, like Pastebin. I consider it for sites I use more often, but I agree with you that most of the time I end up turning it on again, ads just lag the site and are obtrusive.
- corobo 10y ago
dangerboysteve 10y ago
Another issue is that many 3rd party ad networks have performance issues. Nothing like waiting for the ad network to catch up so you can view the site.