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It seems that the problem is people have different reactions to ads. Some want no ads at all, some don't mind ads as such, but are wary of ads with heavy js and

It seems that the problem is people have different reactions to ads. Some want no ads at all, some don't mind ads as such, but are wary of ads with heavy js and video payloads that cause slowdowns and are potentially malign. There doesn't seem to be a good solution that allows the user to easily modulate what they'll accept.

digi_owl 9y ago
An added complication is that one party will buy ad space from Google, and then turn around and sell it on to another party that may put up quite different ads from what was initially claimed.
qplex 9y ago
Don't forget all the tracking and the profiling. They hardly ask your consent for that. I really wouldn't feel bad about any adblocking. And for anyone that wants to run ads : just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks.
- davidfischer 9y ago
  > And for anyone that wants to run ads : just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks. I thought so too. Once you reach a certain size, even 1st party ads get blocked.
  - davvolun 9y ago
    Yeah, but... > Once you reach a certain size Top 5 annoying ads of all time for me are autoplaying Youtube ads -- which I would think would be self-hosted.
- parametrek 9y ago
  > just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks. In what universe do you live? Every little forum that self-hosts ads is already in the blocklists.
- ma2rten 9y ago
  Advertisers want require that ads are served from a 3rd party server for attribution.
ilikepi 9y ago
I always thought The Deck[1] seemed to achieve a good balance. It was trivial to whitelist them, and I had no qualms in doing so. Too bad it apparently wasn't sustainable... [1]: http://decknetwork.net/ http://decknetwork.net/
- Rjevski 9y ago
  Carbon (https://carbonads.net/ https://carbonads.net/) seems to be going strong.
  - Jack000 9y ago
    non-tracking ad networks are pretty niche, you're basically trading revenue for aesthetics. I have carbon on one of my projects and get 100 clicks on 60k views for $0.95CPC - I think adsense could easily double that revenue but at the cost of more intrusive tracking ads - not really worth it for a side project but I'd be tempted to switch if I had a bit more traffic.
    - Rjevski 9y ago
      What does your site provide - does it sell any products or services or is it purely ad supported? If it’s ad supported and you don’t care about your brand I’d say there’s no risk in switching to shittier ads, but if you want to keep a quality brand or have other services you sell, be careful as shitty ads could put off potential paying customers making it not worth it in the long-term. The advantage of Carbon (or any other quality ad network like The Deck) is that the ads don’t really look like ads, so you can use them pretty much anywhere without degrading the UX and getting essentially free money. It might be not much but it’s still free money in exchange for a minimal change in the UX. Nasty ads might pay more but would degrade the experience so much I would no longer consider it “free” money no matter how much they’re paying.
geocar 9y ago
Ad blockers are good enough, I think. I run an ad network that serves ads server<->server (I just wrote up how it works[1] for someone else) and I suspect this approach will become more popular to cover the people who "don't mind ads as such". [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17000756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17000756

digi_owl 9y ago

An added complication is that one party will buy ad space from Google, and then turn around and sell it on to another party that may put up quite different ads from what was initially claimed.

qplex 9y ago

Don't forget all the tracking and the profiling. They hardly ask your consent for that. I really wouldn't feel bad about any adblocking. And for anyone that wants to run ads : just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks.

davidfischer 9y ago
> And for anyone that wants to run ads : just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks. I thought so too. Once you reach a certain size, even 1st party ads get blocked.
- davvolun 9y ago
  Yeah, but... > Once you reach a certain size Top 5 annoying ads of all time for me are autoplaying Youtube ads -- which I would think would be self-hosted.
parametrek 9y ago
> just serve them locally in a sufficient format and you'll slip through blocks. In what universe do you live? Every little forum that self-hosts ads is already in the blocklists.
ma2rten 9y ago
Advertisers want require that ads are served from a 3rd party server for attribution.

ilikepi 9y ago

I always thought The Deck[1] seemed to achieve a good balance. It was trivial to whitelist them, and I had no qualms in doing so. Too bad it apparently wasn't sustainable... [1]: http://decknetwork.net/ http://decknetwork.net/

Rjevski 9y ago
Carbon (https://carbonads.net/ https://carbonads.net/) seems to be going strong.
- Jack000 9y ago
  non-tracking ad networks are pretty niche, you're basically trading revenue for aesthetics. I have carbon on one of my projects and get 100 clicks on 60k views for $0.95CPC - I think adsense could easily double that revenue but at the cost of more intrusive tracking ads - not really worth it for a side project but I'd be tempted to switch if I had a bit more traffic.
  - Rjevski 9y ago
    What does your site provide - does it sell any products or services or is it purely ad supported? If it’s ad supported and you don’t care about your brand I’d say there’s no risk in switching to shittier ads, but if you want to keep a quality brand or have other services you sell, be careful as shitty ads could put off potential paying customers making it not worth it in the long-term. The advantage of Carbon (or any other quality ad network like The Deck) is that the ads don’t really look like ads, so you can use them pretty much anywhere without degrading the UX and getting essentially free money. It might be not much but it’s still free money in exchange for a minimal change in the UX. Nasty ads might pay more but would degrade the experience so much I would no longer consider it “free” money no matter how much they’re paying.

geocar 9y ago

Ad blockers are good enough, I think. I run an ad network that serves ads server<->server (I just wrote up how it works[1] for someone else) and I suspect this approach will become more popular to cover the people who "don't mind ads as such". [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17000756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17000756