Oh look, this again. 1. The internet was already a pretty neat place before online advertising became ubiquitous. There was lots of good content online, lots o

Oh look, this again. 1. The internet was already a pretty neat place before online advertising became ubiquitous. There was lots of good content online, lots of curated databases of information, lots of good reference sites. If a bunch of blogs gradually dry up and blow away because they can't be profitable enough through advertising anymore, fine. They'll be replaced. 2. AdBlock is not destroying the internet. The internet was destroyed by advertising. AdBlock became popular as a direct result of the proliferation of websites that were 20% content and 80% advertising, fluff, and nonsense. It became popular as a direct result of blinking, jumping, moving, popping-under advertising elements. It became popular as a direct result of users having their browsers (and machines) compromised and infected by ad networks that did not vet their advertisers correctly. Content owners were perfectly willing to let the administration of advertising be somebody else's problem, and when that somebody else decided not to do their job either, users got screwed and they turned to AdBlock. 3. AdBlock does not, to my knowledge, block most donation requests, so I don't get where he thinks it's hypocritical that AdBlock is donation-supported. 4. AdBlock also recently rolled out a by-default "non-intrusive ads are OK" setting for all Firefox users. This led to quite a bit of controversy, which I think mostly illustrates just how sick of advertising a lot of people are. But, it stuck. So, now you can't even argue anymore that AdBlock is terrible because it's blocking all of your revenue. 5. Users may not be entitled to your content, but you aren't entitled to your users' attention, either. For instance: more and more sites lately seem to be using a Lightbox on page load to ask you to sign up for their stupid newsletter, or follow them on Twitter, or like them on Facebook. As a content owner, you're certainly allowed to do that. And, users are certainly allowed to install an extension that will block that, too. 6. I happen to agree that NoScript does more harm than good, as a practical matter, given current standards of web development. However, again, I fully understand why it exists: a huge number of attempts to compromise web browsers, track users against their will, or otherwise abuse their trust, is done through Javascript. Back when compromised Wordpress websites were a serious problem, every single one I saw -- not a small number, cleaning them up was something we did at the time -- used Javascript in the footer of one or more files to attempt to hit the browser. NoScript protected against that. 7. I didn't think Ghostery would be a very big deal, but I installed it a while back and have been completely flummoxed at the sheer amount of stuff blocked by it on websites. Loading a site and seeing a 20-deep list of social network buttons is merely visually annoying; having them all load their own little scripts and other bullshit is enough to incentivize me to block them. AdBlock, Ghostery, and NoScript aren't ruining the internet; uninhibited commercialism and a complete lack of respect for users is.