6 ms·

Banner ads pay my salary, so out of professional courtesy, no. It's very easy to voluntarily blind yourself to ads. Plus, if I see something egregious on my em

Banner ads pay my salary, so out of professional courtesy, no. It's very easy to voluntarily blind yourself to ads. Plus, if I see something egregious on my employer's site, I can let them know. I use Ghostery to see who's buying data from whom.

pjin 15y ago
Problem for me is not seeing ads, it's that they take too long to load and block the rest of the page. Perhaps strictly a browser problem, but until a better solution I just use vi /etc/hosts
maggit 15y ago
> It's very easy to voluntarily blind yourself to ads. So you do block ads, only with your brain ;) Fair enough, but can I ask why this is more courteous than blocking them in the browser? Are ad loads generally causing money to flow? I was under the impression that click-throughs cause revenue, rather than ad loads?
- randall 15y ago
  It can go either way. CPM ads are for display, and a lot of sites charge for CPM.
- eli 15y ago
  That's what lots of advertisers are pushing for. It makes in some cases, but in others it's a bit disingenuous. Lexus doesn't really care how many people click through to its landing page; they want to get their logo in front of your eyes as often as possible so that when it's time to buy a car, their brand is fresh in your mind.
- danmaz74 15y ago
  The difference is that from time to time you see an interesting ad and click on it, if you don't have an ad blocker.
- markmccraw 15y ago
  Some online ads are just general brand awareness ads, in the way that the big Pepsi sign at a baseball stadium isn't talking about a new product or trying to get you to buy a Pepsi right now.
- byrneseyeview 15y ago
  Part of it is competitive intelligence. I want to know who's doing big ad buys on Huffpo and FoxNews and the NYT. Agencies have gotten very clever at measuring the indirect effect of ads; most of them don't get a direct click, of course, but you can still look at things like how likely someone was to search for your company's brand name the week after they saw the ad.
onemoreact 15y ago
I block flash and popups which prevents a lot of advertising. IMO, professional courtesy only goes so far, and the fact I clicked on a link does not mean you can do whatever you want.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
justinph 15y ago
They pay mine, too, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. It also means I try and not view them on my own site to cost our advertisers money.
cpeterso 15y ago
A compromise position for those who don't mind ads is "Fanboy's Annoyance Block List" (for Adblock Plus). It blocks annoying social media buttons without blocking ads.
dlikhten 15y ago
My thought is: If you can't afford me blocking ads then do one of two things: 1) No flashing ads. No flash ads (cpu time is mine!) No ads that blur content with ads. And I will turn off ad blocking on your site. If ads have sound and I can't block it I will never visit the site. This is why arstechnica has ads turned off for me, autoplaying video and sound. BTW I will not turn off blocking of the +1 button or Like or whatever. I just don't wanna be tracked. 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would.
- a5seo 15y ago
  > 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would. Nice in theory, but there are many markets where only 1 company will win, and it WILL be the ad-supported model. That's just how the math works.
- dromidas 15y ago
  Definitely agree with that. Although I would add a personal #3. 3) I've been using the internet since 1990 and how many items have I purchased from an ad? 0.
  - mike-cardwell 15y ago
    You may have unwittingly purchased an item because somebody else purchased it after seeing it on an Internet ad though...
- al_james 15y ago
  > 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would. You might. 99% of the population would not.
- jdangu 15y ago
  1) The industry is finally realizing that a massive amount of people got pissed by flashing display ads. Up to 14% of the online population uses an ad blocker (much more on HN :). Last month, the IAB published their new guidelines, including max CPU usage for Flash banners: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/508767/Rich_Media http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676... I'm working on a product that helps publishers verify that CPU usage from ads served on their site does not exceed their specs, http://www.clarityad.com http://www.clarityad.com Adobe is also investing in this, with their project Adthenticate http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adthenticate/ http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adthenticate/
brianobush 15y ago
I write porn blocking software, so should I view porn out of professional courtesy?
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  If the logic follows, you should use the software you make and not watch porn out of professional courtesy. After all, that is what is paying your salary.
  - brianobush 15y ago
    my logic was that my job exists because of the porn industry; I know it doesn't match entirely.
grecy 15y ago
> Banner ads pay my salary Do you mind if I ask which companies are your favorite?
mzuvella 15y ago
Completely agree...plus knowing who is running what where keeps me on top of my game.
andrewfelix 15y ago
I disable adblocker for independent blogs I read regularly.
lucian1900 15y ago
You could just use adsweep, which loads them, but then hides them.

pjin 15y ago

Problem for me is not seeing ads, it's that they take too long to load and block the rest of the page. Perhaps strictly a browser problem, but until a better solution I just use vi /etc/hosts

maggit 15y ago

> It's very easy to voluntarily blind yourself to ads. So you do block ads, only with your brain ;) Fair enough, but can I ask why this is more courteous than blocking them in the browser? Are ad loads generally causing money to flow? I was under the impression that click-throughs cause revenue, rather than ad loads?

randall 15y ago
It can go either way. CPM ads are for display, and a lot of sites charge for CPM.
eli 15y ago
That's what lots of advertisers are pushing for. It makes in some cases, but in others it's a bit disingenuous. Lexus doesn't really care how many people click through to its landing page; they want to get their logo in front of your eyes as often as possible so that when it's time to buy a car, their brand is fresh in your mind.
danmaz74 15y ago
The difference is that from time to time you see an interesting ad and click on it, if you don't have an ad blocker.
markmccraw 15y ago
Some online ads are just general brand awareness ads, in the way that the big Pepsi sign at a baseball stadium isn't talking about a new product or trying to get you to buy a Pepsi right now.
byrneseyeview 15y ago
Part of it is competitive intelligence. I want to know who's doing big ad buys on Huffpo and FoxNews and the NYT. Agencies have gotten very clever at measuring the indirect effect of ads; most of them don't get a direct click, of course, but you can still look at things like how likely someone was to search for your company's brand name the week after they saw the ad.

onemoreact 15y ago

I block flash and popups which prevents a lot of advertising. IMO, professional courtesy only goes so far, and the fact I clicked on a link does not mean you can do whatever you want.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

justinph 15y ago

They pay mine, too, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. It also means I try and not view them on my own site to cost our advertisers money.

cpeterso 15y ago

A compromise position for those who don't mind ads is "Fanboy's Annoyance Block List" (for Adblock Plus). It blocks annoying social media buttons without blocking ads.

dlikhten 15y ago

My thought is: If you can't afford me blocking ads then do one of two things: 1) No flashing ads. No flash ads (cpu time is mine!) No ads that blur content with ads. And I will turn off ad blocking on your site. If ads have sound and I can't block it I will never visit the site. This is why arstechnica has ads turned off for me, autoplaying video and sound. BTW I will not turn off blocking of the +1 button or Like or whatever. I just don't wanna be tracked. 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would.

a5seo 15y ago
> 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would. Nice in theory, but there are many markets where only 1 company will win, and it WILL be the ad-supported model. That's just how the math works.
dromidas 15y ago
Definitely agree with that. Although I would add a personal #3. 3) I've been using the internet since 1990 and how many items have I purchased from an ad? 0.
- mike-cardwell 15y ago
  You may have unwittingly purchased an item because somebody else purchased it after seeing it on an Internet ad though...
al_james 15y ago
> 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would. You might. 99% of the population would not.
jdangu 15y ago
1) The industry is finally realizing that a massive amount of people got pissed by flashing display ads. Up to 14% of the online population uses an ad blocker (much more on HN :). Last month, the IAB published their new guidelines, including max CPU usage for Flash banners: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/508767/Rich_Media http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676... I'm working on a product that helps publishers verify that CPU usage from ads served on their site does not exceed their specs, http://www.clarityad.com http://www.clarityad.com Adobe is also investing in this, with their project Adthenticate http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adthenticate/ http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adthenticate/

brianobush 15y ago

I write porn blocking software, so should I view porn out of professional courtesy?

recoiledsnake 15y ago
If the logic follows, you should use the software you make and not watch porn out of professional courtesy. After all, that is what is paying your salary.
- brianobush 15y ago
  my logic was that my job exists because of the porn industry; I know it doesn't match entirely.

grecy 15y ago

> Banner ads pay my salary Do you mind if I ask which companies are your favorite?

mzuvella 15y ago

Completely agree...plus knowing who is running what where keeps me on top of my game.

andrewfelix 15y ago

I disable adblocker for independent blogs I read regularly.

lucian1900 15y ago

You could just use adsweep, which loads them, but then hides them.