6 ms·

I think websites should start popping up a similar message when adblock is detected. I realise this is an unpopular view around these parts, but it's a bit of

by axod 18y ago

I think websites should start popping up a similar message when adblock is detected. I realise this is an unpopular view around these parts, but it's a bit of a "jerk" thing to do.

Herring 18y ago
The irony here is you're supporting click fraud. What advertiser would want to waste ads on people who are obviously hostile? But you're perfectly happy to take money for worthless views & that sounds a lot more like actual stealing.
- axod 18y ago
  I'm in no way supporting click fraud. I don't care if you view adverts and decide not to click on them. I do care if you aren't even prepared to entertain the notion that at some point you might find an advert intriguing enough to click on it. How is the relevancy/usefulness of adverts going to increase if you're not prepared to listen? It's fine to be hostile to websites that use horrible techniques - flash, popups, etc etc many of the news sites seem to do it now - "Here's an advert while the article 'loads'"... But I think the non-jerk thing to do is to give websites at least a chance. IF they abuse your trust, and advertise intrusively in your face, it's probably best to just not go to that website any more. By installing a blanket earplug mentality, you're refusing to trust any website to treat you properly. Which IMHO is pretty antisocial. >> "What advertiser would want to waste ads on people who are obviously hostile?" Do people using adblock never buy anything? Do they never find information useful or interesting? Are they really immune to all forms of useful communication? Never read a product review and then decided to purchase? I'm skeptical. </rant>
  - Herring 18y ago
    It probably depends on the person, but it's clear worthless views are rather overrepresented. Look through the adblock reviews on addons.mozilla.org. When I'm choosing a new graphics card, I ask around forums instead of looking at ads. Antisocial or not, you'd be wasting your advertiser's budget by trying to target me.
    - axod 18y ago
      I wouldn't be wasting anything if it was a % per sale. So an advert such as "Get 10% off [the graphics card you are about to buy] by using this link" wouldn't interest you at all eh? Also, it's pretty probable that some of the forums you look at are in fact just adverts. They don't look like adverts, adblock doesn't think they're adverts, but they may well be.
      - Tichy 18y ago
        No, a "get 10% off" link sounds like a scam.
        axod 18y ago
        You should start being a bit more trusting and less cynical.
        Tichy 18y ago
        Trust in advertising? I don't know... How many "get 10% off" offers can there likely be? When I shop for products, I usually check with price comparison sites anyway. They usually have shop ratings, too. What good could a random "10% off" offer do? If they are really cheaper than the competition, why wouldn't they just register with the price comparison site, so that I could find them that way? And if I go to their site through an ad, I don't have any ratings for them. Ultimately I prefer to shop with Amazon anyway, because their customer service is reliable... The chances that an ad pushes something into my face that I really, absolutely need but simply forgot about are rather slim, I think. In conclusion, all good an ad could do to me was to make me buy stuff I don't really need.
        axod 18y ago
        You do realize the price comparison sites are essentially large adverts, and they get commission when you buy through them?
  - Tichy 18y ago
    Maybe someone should create a better adblocker then. Recently I would actually have been willing to turn the adblocker off for some sites that ask kindly, but it is very inconvenient to do so. It seems AdBlock plus only let's me either turn the whole thing off or on at once (or I could wade through the thousands of default filters - no, I won't). It would be nice to have an easy way to enable ads for certain sites. Although in general I think it is stupid - I wonder if for people hostile to ads, the ads might actually have the opposite effect (hate of the product instead of desire to buy). So actually it would be better for the advertising companies to not show ads to such people (like me). Another thing: if I want recommendations, I am definitely not hoping for some ad provider to get it right. I will go to a site that gives me recommendations directly.
    - decode 18y ago
      I use AdBlock Plus and if I right click on the status bar icon, I get two menu items, "Disable on <domain>" and "Disable for this page only". It saves this preference across sessions.
      - Tichy 18y ago
        Hm, what do you mean by "status bar icon"? I also have Adblock Plus (installed via apt-get on Ubuntu), but I don't see those options anywhere? Edit: Oh OK, found it - had to enable the status bar icon in the settings. Thanks!
sethg 18y ago
Is the proportion of adblock users actually high enough for the ad-buyers to care about their impact?
- axod 18y ago
  I'm not sure... as a single data point I measured usage on the Mibbit main client for a while (Mainly early adopter fx3 tech types), and it was 8% or something for the main client. Of course it isn't too important as adblock is useless in blocking all but the most simple adverts. In the general population the % is probably much much lower though, so you're right - probably not worth worry about until you're a very big site. It's more the antisocial attitude I disagree with.
  - Herring 18y ago
    Looking at ads is social? Only on HN, I suppose. :)
hxa7241 18y ago
That's fine, and you have every right to do so. I will then use the 'adblock detected popup message'-blocker.

by axod 18y ago

I think websites should start popping up a similar message when adblock is detected. I realise this is an unpopular view around these parts, but it's a bit of a "jerk" thing to do.

Herring 18y ago

The irony here is you're supporting click fraud. What advertiser would want to waste ads on people who are obviously hostile? But you're perfectly happy to take money for worthless views & that sounds a lot more like actual stealing.

axod 18y ago
I'm in no way supporting click fraud. I don't care if you view adverts and decide not to click on them. I do care if you aren't even prepared to entertain the notion that at some point you might find an advert intriguing enough to click on it. How is the relevancy/usefulness of adverts going to increase if you're not prepared to listen? It's fine to be hostile to websites that use horrible techniques - flash, popups, etc etc many of the news sites seem to do it now - "Here's an advert while the article 'loads'"... But I think the non-jerk thing to do is to give websites at least a chance. IF they abuse your trust, and advertise intrusively in your face, it's probably best to just not go to that website any more. By installing a blanket earplug mentality, you're refusing to trust any website to treat you properly. Which IMHO is pretty antisocial. >> "What advertiser would want to waste ads on people who are obviously hostile?" Do people using adblock never buy anything? Do they never find information useful or interesting? Are they really immune to all forms of useful communication? Never read a product review and then decided to purchase? I'm skeptical. </rant>
- Herring 18y ago
  It probably depends on the person, but it's clear worthless views are rather overrepresented. Look through the adblock reviews on addons.mozilla.org. When I'm choosing a new graphics card, I ask around forums instead of looking at ads. Antisocial or not, you'd be wasting your advertiser's budget by trying to target me.
  - axod 18y ago
    I wouldn't be wasting anything if it was a % per sale. So an advert such as "Get 10% off [the graphics card you are about to buy] by using this link" wouldn't interest you at all eh? Also, it's pretty probable that some of the forums you look at are in fact just adverts. They don't look like adverts, adblock doesn't think they're adverts, but they may well be.
    - Tichy 18y ago
      No, a "get 10% off" link sounds like a scam.
      - axod 18y ago
        You should start being a bit more trusting and less cynical.
        Tichy 18y ago
        Trust in advertising? I don't know... How many "get 10% off" offers can there likely be? When I shop for products, I usually check with price comparison sites anyway. They usually have shop ratings, too. What good could a random "10% off" offer do? If they are really cheaper than the competition, why wouldn't they just register with the price comparison site, so that I could find them that way? And if I go to their site through an ad, I don't have any ratings for them. Ultimately I prefer to shop with Amazon anyway, because their customer service is reliable... The chances that an ad pushes something into my face that I really, absolutely need but simply forgot about are rather slim, I think. In conclusion, all good an ad could do to me was to make me buy stuff I don't really need.
        axod 18y ago
        You do realize the price comparison sites are essentially large adverts, and they get commission when you buy through them?
- Tichy 18y ago
  Maybe someone should create a better adblocker then. Recently I would actually have been willing to turn the adblocker off for some sites that ask kindly, but it is very inconvenient to do so. It seems AdBlock plus only let's me either turn the whole thing off or on at once (or I could wade through the thousands of default filters - no, I won't). It would be nice to have an easy way to enable ads for certain sites. Although in general I think it is stupid - I wonder if for people hostile to ads, the ads might actually have the opposite effect (hate of the product instead of desire to buy). So actually it would be better for the advertising companies to not show ads to such people (like me). Another thing: if I want recommendations, I am definitely not hoping for some ad provider to get it right. I will go to a site that gives me recommendations directly.
  - decode 18y ago
    I use AdBlock Plus and if I right click on the status bar icon, I get two menu items, "Disable on <domain>" and "Disable for this page only". It saves this preference across sessions.
    - Tichy 18y ago
      Hm, what do you mean by "status bar icon"? I also have Adblock Plus (installed via apt-get on Ubuntu), but I don't see those options anywhere? Edit: Oh OK, found it - had to enable the status bar icon in the settings. Thanks!

sethg 18y ago

Is the proportion of adblock users actually high enough for the ad-buyers to care about their impact?

axod 18y ago
I'm not sure... as a single data point I measured usage on the Mibbit main client for a while (Mainly early adopter fx3 tech types), and it was 8% or something for the main client. Of course it isn't too important as adblock is useless in blocking all but the most simple adverts. In the general population the % is probably much much lower though, so you're right - probably not worth worry about until you're a very big site. It's more the antisocial attitude I disagree with.
- Herring 18y ago
  Looking at ads is social? Only on HN, I suppose. :)

hxa7241 18y ago

That's fine, and you have every right to do so. I will then use the 'adblock detected popup message'-blocker.