Your opinion on (not) blocking ads on websites

[Hensingler]

I block advertising where possible because advertising is like a parasitic disease making everything we buy a few percent more expensive and offering almost nothing useful in return.

While other people continue to see and be influenced by advertising I will still be paying for it whether I see the adverts or not.

If there was a cure for advertising the world would be a better place.

[NiHaoMike]

There are sites that will request you to disable ABP otherwise it won't show its content.

A few tries of "F5 and ESC" work nicely to break the adblock breaker. If they couldn't figure out that I do let acceptable ads through, they deserve the bandwidth usage.

[mcinque]

I dont block add i block domains. 

That's exaclty what adblockers has done for years. Knowing that some ads become served from the same domain of the website you're browsing, and you should block them also (if you can).

See for example google: adwords results were successfully blocked initially, now they're served from the same domain and mixed into the search results making them undetectable by a script

[John Coloccia]

I block all adds...haven't setup my linux laptop to do that yet, and it's annoying as hell. Some sites block me because my ad blocker is running. Fine, whatever. I just won't go there. Seems like a fine solution to me. I block what I don't want to see, and other people block me because of my choice. Simple.

[WastelandTek]

[technix]

Being a CS major I have piled a lot of code (and hardware) into my Google Chrome to shut most of the ads down:

* AdBlock Plus: the main adblocker
* AAK-Cont + Tampermonkey: keep the anti adblock scripts out
* PrivacyBadger by EFF: block out some worst offenders
* Xeon E3-1231v3 & 32GB RAM: enough resource for the scripts to burn without grinding the machine down too much

[Lord of nothing]

When my Server is going next room I have space and the silence I need for my Webpage project.
What is the best way to finance it? It cost me ~60€ / Year with all Domains ~100€.
I dont want place Adds. Aff links to the Company who have the same topic?  Just Paypal?

[Karel]

When my Server is going next room I have space and the silence I need for my Webpage project.
What is the best way to finance it? It cost me ~60€ / Year with all Domains ~100€.
I dont want place Adds. Aff links to the Company who have the same topic?  Just Paypal?

What do you think? Hobbies are being paid from your salary. Like all hobbies.

If it's not a hobby, what is your business plan?

[Lord of nothing]

Hobbies are being paid from your salary.

I am just home have no Job.
Nope it cant be a business model because i dont want to rip off people like the official sites.

[vodka]

So , i found pages of this style, practically the 90% of the screen with ads. Not precisely on strange pages, if not on national newspaper.
I begin to use the ADS Block for avoiding the shit ads TV style on youtbe, one minute of ads to begin video and other one minute at final by the short videos. Or one or two of ads each 15 or 20 minutes for the long video.
 I hate this to dead, when i dinner, many times i watch almost 24 minutes of ads and 2 minutes of program(12 minutes of ads, 30 seconds or  2 minutes of program and again 12 minutes)

[Red Squirrel]

I'm all for supporting the sites I visit, but I block all ads, because the ad networks cannot be trusted and lot of ads now are super annoying.  They are used to spy on you, and some of them even load malware on your machine.  This is not the sites owners' fault but the ad networks.

I see ads on this site occasionally, but think it's because Dave sells advertising directly and hosts them himself.  I don't block them here as I don't really have a reason to, they are not annoying or dangerous etc.

[Urs42]

What is the best way to finance it?

I run four Servers for a community, i hate ads, so there are no ads on any of the services. I work at a company wich does some housing and i can use some space in one datacenter. For new hardware i do usually pay about 50% of the price, the rest of the money is "croudfunded" by the community.  Even without any ads, this is also a good advertising for my company, everybody knows where those servers are...

[ConKbot]

Much like most consumers, I'm lazy. If even just 1 percent of ads are so annoying that I'm installing an ad blocker, it's blocking everything. If ad block software could have certain channels on YouTube that got white listed, I'd consider it, but I haven't found one that can do that. Not that I've looked that hard, given I have a fully functioning ad blocker, and I'm lazy. 

[razberik]

I am lazy to set up a ad-block utility.
Fortunately I have some kind of ad-filter in my eyes and in my head, that I am not able to recognize them. I can browse websites but I never notice any ads.
Same in public transport, I am not able to hear stupid dialogues of stupid commuters, it is an ambient noise for me.

[Lord of nothing]

Fortunately I have some kind of ad-filter in my eyes

I belive the cand block scrips in your browser.

[aargee]

This is very neat https://pi-hole.net/ and works very well here on a spare Raspberry Pi I have.

[IanJ]

I am lazy to set up a ad-block utility.
Fortunately I have some kind of ad-filter in my eyes and in my head, that I am not able to recognize them. I can browse websites but I never notice any ads.

I'm kinda the same.......but I have an extra plugin which detects when sites are so overrun with ads such that they are taking the pi$$......the tab is down irrespective of the content I'm looking to see.

Seriously though, I use to run an ad-blocker but heck some of the sites I visit I want them to get the revenue......

Ian.

[matts-uk]

Yes I block ads, because...

http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Golgafrinchan_Ark_Fleet_Ship_B

Too many people, getting paid too much, to talk utter rubbish. 

I say, starve them! It's for the good of the planet.

[suicidaleggroll]

I don't block ads.

If a website is obnoxious with their ads, I blacklist that site and don't go there again.  Adblockers are WHY ads are so obnoxious these days, I don't want to contribute to sites having to make their ads more and more ridiculous to get past adblockers just so they can get their revenue.

[NiHaoMike]

Adblockers are WHY ads are so obnoxious these days, I don't want to contribute to sites having to make their ads more and more ridiculous to get past adblockers just so they can get their revenue.

Adblock Plus has the option of letting ads through if they're "acceptable". Thus, ads that are "acceptable" just go through and greatly reduce the incentive to make ads that evade the ad blockers.

[helius]

Adblock Plus has the option of letting ads through if they're "acceptable". Thus, ads that are "acceptable" just go through and greatly reduce the incentive to make ads that evade the ad blockers.

A perfect reason to never use Adblock Plus (or any security system with a fundamental conflict of interest).

[NiHaoMike]

Adblock Plus has the option of letting ads through if they're "acceptable". Thus, ads that are "acceptable" just go through and greatly reduce the incentive to make ads that evade the ad blockers.

A perfect reason to never use Adblock Plus (or any security system with a fundamental conflict of interest).

There's a formal set of rules for what makes an ad "acceptable":
https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads
Do note that you can disable that feature and block all ads if you like.

Some argue that such measures undermine the point of blocking ads in the first place, others think that promoting acceptable ads reduces the need for blocking ads in the first place.

[hamster_nz]

I have found Pi-hole (https://pi-hole.net/) to be good. Just set the router's DHCP server to send the Pi-hole's IP address for the DNS server settings, and have blocked most ads for your network.

If you ever need to bypass it, just change your client DNS server to point directly at the router for a while.

[technix]

I think there are three big problem areas:

1: Web sites that have lost sight of "keep it simple", "work well with the lowest possbile browser / client", and "work in the interest of the user/reader".

2: Client / browser / extension software that has lost sight of "work in the interest of the user / reader".  Clients that are vastly bloated in resource consumption.  Clients that do not give the user fine grained control of what the user will allow to happen on their own computer system as a function of remote site, protocol, privacy, bandwidth, resource consumption, computer facilities (sound / audio, video, file system access, downloading / uploading content, animations, ....).

3: Web "standards" that promote the insanity of #1 and #2 and keep devising ways to make the internet "richer" by bloating the "web browser" with more and more functionality. 

Web browsing is for reading, not video, audio, DRM, chat, teleconferencing, organizing files on your computer, sharing files with remote sites, etc.  Where does it stop what "bloat" will be stuffed by the sites, the browsers, and the WWW specifications toward the hapless / helpless users?

Having thoughts about web sites / sw / browsers like the following should not be controversial or surprising :
"No!  I came to this site to read a few paragraphs of text, I don't want any movies to start playing!  I don't want my speakers to start blaring!  I don't want animations and junk swirling all over my screen!  I explicitly selected to visit site ABC.com, that is all I asked for.  I do not want 50 different connections / scripts / media accesses to all kinds of completely irrelevant companies / computers / sites just because I visited a SPECIFIC site to see information THERE!  I *pay* for my bandwidth, I don't want unwanted audio / video / transmissions to sites I did not intend explicitly to visit and exchange data with my computer!  I don't want malware or the FLASH / JAVA / AIR / JAVASCRIPT / PDF / MP3 / AVI / MP4 / whatever crapware wrappers it hides in!  I JUST wanted to READ some TEXT!  I don't want "rich media" and dancing "power point" presentations and dynamic web 2.0 crap scripting just to read a little TEXT!  I don't want remote sites to be able to geolocate me, discriminate against me because of my ip address / "profile" / OS type / phone model / geolocation / browser choice / whatever!  I don't want to use browser X brand / version, I have a PERFECTLY GOOD ONE FOR MY NEEDS!  I don't want remote sites, (particularly 3rd party ones!)  to know what I'm typing as I type, know my location, my cell phone number, my computer / phone serial number, my installed fonts, my installed software, what OTHER UNRELATED sites may have been visited on this PC, my location, what OS version I run, what browser I run, be able to turn on my microphone / camera / printer / whatever, when I installed my browser, what my entire history of visiting X, Y, Z same or UNRELATED sites is!  I don't WANT my browser to use 99%, 90%, 50%, not even 10% of my CPU, EVER!  I don't WANT my browser to use 99%, 90%, 50%, not even 10% of my MEMORY, EVER!  I don't want my sites visited or browser to track everything I do online!"

But right now it is the "perfect storm" of abusive sites, abusive client / www browser SW, abusive operating systems, and software insecurity insanity that means that you're likely to look up a word in a web dictionary today and get your financial information and personal identity stolen as a result tomorrow because of bad SW, bad sites, bad OS, bad behavior, and abusers at every level that put user concerns LAST.

Having "the sum of human knowledge" online is great.  Having "the sum of human idiocy" online and baked into every piece of software / protocol / malware / ... is not so much.

The only way users CAN protect themselves is to "turn it off".  Whether that means their computing devices.  Their internet link.  Their operating system.  Their web browser.  Or more selectively their particular protocols / browsers / apps / clients / "features" / "permissions" which are really "misfeatures" and "overly permissive" because that's all the tools they have to stop being abused on many levels by many bad actors that intentionally will stop at nothing to abuse them and their information / resources as much as they possibly can for their own profit.

It is all in the money. Mega-corporations making more and more and more and more money.

Investors want to see accelerating acceleration of growth. This is a positive third derivative of money some entity have over time. Such a function rushes to positive infinity fast, so the mega-corporations have to try make more money faster to keep the (already filthy rich) investors happy at all times.

[tszaboo]

My home PC uBlock blocked 1.7 million ads since installation, my work PC 900.000. If I'm spending 0.25 second to decide for something, if it is important or not, that is 31 days (743 hours) of my time, in the last 4-5 years. That is a lot of time. The real time will be of course smaller, but I just cannot afford it to go online without blocking ads.
Its like 10% of the features of all pages.
And I have a blocker for all the social media. I really dont care, how many people 'liked' a stuff. I dont. Go away, I'm not part of the herd.