Do you feel guilty about using Ad Block Programs.

Have used ad blockers for years, I have recently changed from Adblock plus to uBlock origin. The company that owns Adblock plus, eyeo, has grown into a sizeable company, what I don't agree with is their 'acceptable ads' program that lets advertisers meet some rules, pay them to whitelist their ads, it is opt in for users but I wouldn't be surprised if it changes to opt out or no choice in the future.

Dimithy

I pretty much have it disabled on any site I use regularly. These websites provide me with hours of entertainment, and information, for free.

Maybe I'm just lucky, or people are exaggerating, but as far as I can see the days of pop ads and the likes are long gone from the vast majority of good quality sites.

yellowlabrador

There's talk of a premium version of Youtube coming out soon. A lot of youtube 'stars' are now promoting and advertising products in their videos. I think that encouraging people to think they can have a youtube career is a bit crazy. It will be interesting to see how many people will be willing to pay for an ad free youtube service.

Billy86

K4t wrote: »

No, and this part only reinforced my lack of guilt.

I don't feel guilty about it either, though I allow ads on some sites I use a lot. But why do you feel less guilty about it because it takes money from people who have built something up from scratch on their own?

Infini

Been blocking em by default for years simply because theyve been used in the past to launch viruses from so all adds are blocked by default.

darkpagandeath

But how does one know that there pc can be scanned for viruses for free. :pac:

I have already found that some sites refuse to allow you to go beyond the first page or so if you have an ad blocker in place, I simply look elsewhere.
Their choice to force ads onto browsers, my choice to go elsewhere.

BeardySi

cisk wrote: »

Have used ad blockers for years, I have recently changed from Adblock plus to uBlock origin. The company that owns Adblock plus, eyeo, has grown into a sizeable company, what I don't agree with is their 'acceptable ads' program that lets advertisers meet some rules, pay them to whitelist their ads, it is opt in for users but I wouldn't be surprised if it changes to opt out or no choice in the future.

So you stopped using it because you don't agree with a decision you think they might make in the future?


No guilt whatsoever. I very rarely allow ads, and only then for sites I use regularly and want to support. I don't think I've ever actually clicked on an internet ad.

Treadhead

Treadhead wrote: »

So you stopped using it because you don't agree with a decision you think they might make in the future?


No guilt whatsoever. I very rarely allow ads, and only then for sites I use regularly and want to support. I don't think I've ever actually clicked on an internet ad.

Pretty much, I don't agree with them making a business out of it. The other blocker is donation based, it's also more efficient on cpu and memory usuage.

_Kaiser_

Thinking more about it, I wouldn't say it's a big deal anyway TBH.. for every tech-savvy user with an Ad Blocker there's probably 10 using the default IE browser their machine came with or vanilla Chrome because they haven't any idea you can install plug-ins

ALiasEX

cisk wrote: »

Pretty much, I don't agree with them making a business out of it. The other blocker is donation based, it's also more efficient on cpu and memory usuage.

ublock is donation based but not ublock origin,

Rezident

Never. Just because we're used to it doesn't mean it's ok. Marketing actually works sometimes, as in it really makes people buy things they don't really want or need.

'Advertising is legalised lying' - HG Wells.

NachoBusiness

I was on some site the other day and Chumbawamba started blaring straight away and at the top of the screen it said they apologized but because I was using ad-block plus, I would have to listen to that song whilst using their website. Can't remember what site it was. Might have been a porn site. If so, please don't confirm.

justchecked

NachoBusiness wrote: »

I was on some site the other day and Chumbawamba started blaring straight away and at the top of the screen it said they apologized but because I was using ad-block plus, I would have to listen to that song whilst using their website. Can't remember what site it was. Might have been a porn site. If so, please don't confirm.

any site with autoplay gets a lifetime ban in my book.

if it was the last pron site in the world and it had autoplay Id head off and get the dunnes lingerie section.

autoplay is canceraids.

puckmymuskie

I use Disconnect and Ublock.

KomradeBishop

Recommend uBlock over Adblock (as mentioned earlier) - seems to run better, and haven't noticed excessive memory usage with it either.

Ads are a great way to get malware, so blocking them by default is simply just good practice; bonus in that you don't have to deal with anything annoying either.

It was only less than a month ago for instance, it was found/fixed, that by simply loading fonts from a website, could be used to infect your computer - and there are dozens/hundreds (if not thousands) of yet to be discovered ways of exploiting the software you run when viewing websites, and no website has any real control over the ads they show, so it's just a really bad idea to be allowing any ads at all.

Rattled

NachoBusiness wrote: »

I was on some site the other day and Chumbawamba started blaring straight away and at the top of the screen it said they apologized but because I was using ad-block plus, I would have to listen to that song whilst using their website. Can't remember what site it was. Might have been a porn site. If so, please don't confirm.

Such an outlaw....

ressem

Surprise, surprise,
advertising networks are used to distribute malware.
Distributing malicious, insufficiently checked javascript, flash and images to the target audience.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/my-browser-visited-drudgereport-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-malware/

The criminals behind the campaign previously carried out a similar attack on Yahoo's ad network, exposing millions more people to the same drive-by attacks.

The campaign used against the AdSpirit and Yahoo networks connected to servers run by Microsoft's Azure service.

bnt

No. Advertisers have had the chance to behave responsibly, but have ignored it, so that's the end of the story for me. It's not just ads, it's 3rd-partytracking scripts too, so NoScript is on too, and I'm currently trying the EFF's PrivacyBadger.

puckmymuskie

^^^ does badger sell your info to ad companies like ghostery? Im sure disconnesct doesn't.

Arytonblue

Only learnt this recently, every time you use your browser to block an ad, somewhere out in the world, a lonely, balding advertising exec in his mid 40's, possibly going by the name Chet or Chad, living in Spokane, WA, slowly but surely loses a fraction of his life-force, knowing all his attempts to spread useless information of products and entertainment to the wider public is ultimately in vain. Sad stuff altogether. We should all be ashamed.

Arytonblue

Arytonblue wrote: »

Only learnt this recently, every time you use your browser to block an ad, somewhere out in the world, a lonely, balding advertising exec in his mid 40's, possibly going by the name Chet or Chad, living in Spokane, WA, slowly but surely loses a fraction of his life-force, knowing all his attempts to spread useless information of products and entertainment to the wider public is ultimately in vain. Sad stuff altogether. We should all be ashamed.

Well, if I want (or need) his products, I'll search for them, that's what search engines are for. I don't need them shoved in my face.

No ad-block at work and I find the web pages cluttered up with stuff I've just bought,
I don't need another one so I don't want to see ads for it!!!

bnt

puckmymuskie wrote: »

^^^ does badger sell your info to ad companies like ghostery? Im sure disconnesct doesn't.

Since it was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the body that makes the most noise about online privacy today ... I bloody well hope not.

DivingDuck

NachoBusiness wrote: »

I was on some site the other day and Chumbawamba started blaring straight away and at the top of the screen it said they apologized but because I was using ad-block plus, I would have to listen to that song whilst using their website. Can't remember what site it was. Might have been a porn site. If so, please don't confirm.

Doesn't everyone already have their sound muted when on porn sites anyway...?

eeguy

Google Chrome has the most ad-blocking software, according to the article.

So if the company that relies on ads for revenue lets users block ads wholesale, then why should I feel guilty about blocking them.

Maybe if ad placement was more subtle, there'd be no need to block them.

hatrickpatrick

I never used ad blocking software until autoplaying, talking ads began to crop up all over the internet. I'm a music junkie, and nothing wrecks my internet buzz more than Avicii being interrupted by "WANNA HEAR THE SECRET TO MILLION DOLLAR STOCK TRADING? I WAS ONLY 21 WHEN I LEARNED..."

Seriously, advertising companies have only themselves to blame. It's like the argument about pirated films (double click file, watch movie) vs legitimately bought DVDs (put DVD in, watch twenty minutes of unskippable ads and piracy warnings, watch movie) - if you make your "legitimate" model so corrosive to the user experience, circumvention is the natural result of that. I never blocked a single ad back in the days when ads were silent, or at least wouldn't start making noise until you moused-over them. But when either listening to or actually producing music, and using headphones, it's not worth the risk of being interrupted by some gobsh!te salesman talking at twice the "normalised" audio volume just because I happened to look up a particular website.

hatrickpatrick

The Randy Riverbeast wrote: »

The touch version of boards has ads which are very easy to tap on.

This. Also, those ads where it lets the page load, and then as soon as you scroll down some javascript thing appears which takes over the whole page, and you have to hunt around for a "close ad" button - often a decoy which clicks on the ad, while the actual "close" button is smaller and more tucked away.

Websites for looking up song lyrics are notorious for this - you're half way through reading the first verse when the text dims, and "GET THIS SONG AS A FREE RINGTONE" flies across the screen.

osarusan

No. Crazy question.

Arytonblue

My personal favourite is when, on a dodgy streaming site, the entire screen turns into a tedious mini-game to try and clear the ads on screen in the correct order as fast as possible. Click the wrong X and you're boned. Fantastic stuff.

Bongalongherb

I don't feel anyway guilty for blocking a nuisance/parasite. If I was not using an add-blocker I'd be just looking at adverts instead of the web information I'm trying to read. Get your 2 month supply of Viagra here at the best prices and sh!t, yeah thanks for reminding me ffs.

The best invention that accompanied the net is add-blockers, especially adblock-edge, may it rise high and eat up all of those indoctrinating adverts trying to convert me from my weetabix to this new crunchy pox serial, or trying to sell me things that are useless. Find another way to sell your product instead of branwashing the population please, or you will die like the old video tape.

eqwjewoiujqorj

The advertisers are probably still tracking you anyway if you have cookies turned on, so make sure to turn them off.

NoScript is also useful for stopping lots of rubbish content.

Very Bored

There was something about this on Radio 4 the other day, saying how they are starting to revisit how to advertise on the internet because of the proliferation of adblockers. Virtually nobody, apparently, objects to adverts which sit alongside a webpage or at the bottom, but they do object massively to pop ups and those which track you and aggressively advertise by referring to what you were looking at hours or days ago.

Mint Aero

No.

Irish Steve

have adblocker on the PC, due to the aggravations of ads that get in the way, slow things down, and make browsing a less pleasant experience.

I just wish there was an equally effective way to screen out "search engines" that when you go to them don't have the thing you searched for, despite putting the search term on the page.

The Randy Riverbeast

DivingDuck wrote: »

Doesn't everyone already have their sound muted when on porn sites anyway...?

Depends on if youre alone or not. A bit of sound can make it better.

DarkyHughes

Another good example of why the Indo is such a useless waste of trees & ink..

Sh1tbag OToole

This thread just reminded me to install adblock. No don't feel guilty, internet advertising companies such as Google are inherently evil.

Most people simply accept the advertising now because they never saw the internet before it went all commercial and mainstream but it was so different back then. Early protocols like Gopher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_protocol) didn't even support inline images and animation, you only clicked on the item that was of interest and the rest is just text and links. Thats not to say if Gopher had gone mainstream support for embedded advertising wouldn't have been added.

But feck it everyone and everything is after your money now. Joined a meetup group there a few months ago but lost interest when I found out there was a hefty charge to go to each event. A bit of digging revealed yer man was just using it to pimp his own business in a slightly more personalised manner

The Black Oil

No.

I support one guy through Patreon, and that's it. A fiver a month. I don't have any Youtube subscriptions. I simply can't be arsed, I've no interest in leaving comments and I don't want to receive emails saying 'so and so has posted a video'. The ads for car insurance and that sort of thing can feck off. It's not just Youtube, though.

I can understand some of the frustrations the creators are dealing with, if it's a revenue stream for them.

https://twitter.com/Barnacules/status/571464579961638912

Some of them do complain about it a little too much, not necessarily the guy above, btw. At the same time, there can be an awful stench of entitlement in comments sections 'hey, why aren't you doing this and that?' I've heard Youtube has made somewhat of a mess of delivering subscription updates to users and the creators have seen their views decline as a result. Not sure how accurate that is.

PixelTrawler

Another good reason to block ads.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2015/08/my-browser-visited-drudgereport-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-malware/

Even worse than the annoyance and slowing of web pages is malware. And as that link shows it can happen on regular websites.

A chrome plugin i added lately is Privacy Badger. Its not an ad blocker. Instead it shows the number of links on a page that are actively tracking you.

scamalert

As previous poster said,you go into website mining your own business just to download some torrents,and suddenly you have 5 screens popping out,sounds coming out with ideas to make you millions,etc-then have to be real careful in closing down those windows-since feckers put in stuff where they ask do you really want to close this tab.

Yes sir ill click your button to have a headache for rest of the day cleaning all the crap afterwards that you'll install.

while i dont use any ad blocks,but its getting worse with usual sites,you come to read some news-and theres 20 ads bouncing around the screen.

I know hosting and traffic costs a lot,but if site that averages huge traffic cant support itself in some ways they might die as well.Not fan to pay for anything online but simple donation button for most sites would be more then enough if they are worth the content.

Tazio

Bind/polipo running at home..... No one sees ads in my house.... Even visitors..

eamonnq

I only block subliminal advertising.

eqwjewoiujqorj

http://www.geek.com/apps/mozilla-just-built-an-ad-blocker-into-firefox-1631245/

Firefox is building an adblocker into Firefox.

It will be for "Incognito mode" only but you can turn it on for all browsing.

If firefox does this, other browsers will have to follow or lose market share.

MilesMorales1

Not at all.

Old Jakey

I've had adblocker for almost a year now. Today I turned it off for a laugh and I don't know how I put up with ads for years.

No guilt at all.

briany

I see a lot of indignation over Adblock Plus and their policy of letting "acceptable ads" through. To be honest, it's pretty transparent what they're doing - they even have a list of the ads that you can review, and you can, of course, untick the box. Anyone who would notice the issue to begin with would have the wherewithal to go into ABP's options and do the same. Now, maybe some people would argue that they should not have to do this, but I think one of the stated aims of Adblocking extensions to begin with was not so much that you were never supposed to see an ad ever again, but trying to push some reforms so badly needed in online advertising with the understanding that it's still ad clicks and views that drive the Internet.

pickarooney

Bongalongherb wrote: »

may it rise high and eat up all of those indoctrinating adverts trying to convert me from my weetabix to this new crunchy pox serial, or trying to sell me things that are useless. Find another way to sell your product instead of branwashing the population please, or you will die like the old video tape.

Hehe

DivingDuck

PixelTrawler wrote: »

Another good reason to block ads.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2015/08/my-browser-visited-drudgereport-and-all-i-got-was-this-lousy-malware/

It's things like this which make it difficult to argue against the use of blockers, to be honest.

You might feel badly for depriving a website of revenue, but when that website has signed into a system which prevents them from being able to protect their readers/users, you don't really have a lot of choice.

Severard

I use adblock and it's very useful. So many ads these days are far too long on YouTube videos and numerous when videos are started. I do white list certain YouTube channels though. As for other websites nope, they have too many ads on them not to use it.

Billy86

Severard wrote: »

I use adblock and it's very useful. So many ads these days are far too long on YouTube videos and numerous when videos are started. I do white list certain YouTube channels though. As for other websites nope, they have too many ads on them not to use it.

If you think that's bad, they had it programmed in Australia three years back when I was there, to play two ads in between every single video. Yes, even 5 second soundbite type clips.

I rarely use Youtube anymore, and that was the point where my usage of it fell way down. Sadly, I had somehow not heard of adblocker at that stage.