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Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#11

Post by jordigh »

knd775 wrote: post #7
ivank wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The filter list will block the div by id, class, or by its position among some other containing element.

But how does it know that it is an ad? Some advanced heuristics?

Filter lists are curated by humans. It's an arms race between two smart groups.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#13

Post by ivank »

knd775 wrote: post #7
ivank wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The filter list will block the div by id, class, or by its position among some other containing element.

But how does it know that it is an ad? Some advanced heuristics?

It's all manual. Someone sees it and submits the item into the EasyList blocklist: https://easylist.adblockplus.org/ - it looks like http://forums.lanik.us/ is used for reporting items to block or unblock.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#14

Post by johnward »

jordigh wrote: post #8
wvenable wrote: post #3

We do that but Ad-blockers block even those ads. We have our own text-based adds like Google Adsense text ads which are just tags and those get filtered out as well.

I work hard to block all ads, including those. It's super helpful if you can provide an HTML class to your divs so I can more easily block them, but I will keep on working on blocking all ads by all means possible. I'm thinking of building an ad extension that doesn't show the ads but reports to js that the ad is still there, so that websites think that ad is there. It might also help for some cases to download the a…

Stop browsing ad supported content then. It's a simple solution that works for everyone involved. Everyone says "i'd happily pay" but few put their money where their mouth is.

For the HN downvoters why is choosing not to consume the ad supported content so bad?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#15

Post by johnward »

knd775 wrote: post #6
georgeott wrote: post #2

Who counts the impressions, to pay the ad client?

OP probably means major publishers who can solicit advertisers more directly.

Which tend to still use 3rd party ad severs. Probably because they don't want to develop that tech in house.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#16

Post by lolatu54 »

Ads have many specialized requirements that you wouldn't really want to build yourself. Tracking, tokenization of url parameters, rotating ads to meet impression goals, and typically advertisers have build their ads to be served by major ad networks, so you would have to replicate their systems to support those ad units. Ads are way more complicated than most people realize.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#17

Post by eevilspock »

I believe a website is responsible for everything that is delivered and all tracking that happens when they publish a page and deliver it. They don't get to segregate their content from ad content and wash their hands of responsibility for any lies or misuse of data by the later.

So forcing domains to host the ads they insert and all the tracking that goes with makes that more explicit and thus a good thing.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#18

Post by skaplun »

johnward wrote: post #14
jordigh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work hard to block all ads, including those. It's super helpful if you can provide an HTML class to your divs so I can more easily block them, but I will keep on working on blocking all ads by all means possible. I'm thinking of building an ad extension that doesn't show the ads but reports to js that the ad is still there, so that websites think that ad is there. It might also help for some cases to download the a…

Stop browsing ad supported content then. It's a simple solution that works for everyone involved. Everyone says "i'd happily pay" but few put their money where their mouth is. For the HN downvoters why is choosing not to consume the ad supported content so bad?

You dont know if target is ad supported when you click on a link.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't publishers serve ads from their domains to thwart ad-blockers?

#19

Post by freehunter »

johnward wrote: post #14
jordigh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work hard to block all ads, including those. It's super helpful if you can provide an HTML class to your divs so I can more easily block them, but I will keep on working on blocking all ads by all means possible. I'm thinking of building an ad extension that doesn't show the ads but reports to js that the ad is still there, so that websites think that ad is there. It might also help for some cases to download the a…

Stop browsing ad supported content then. It's a simple solution that works for everyone involved. Everyone says "i'd happily pay" but few put their money where their mouth is. For the HN downvoters why is choosing not to consume the ad supported content so bad?

That's like saying "stop downloading F2P games" or "don't support the RIAA/MPAA". There are really just so few sites that aren't ad supported.

"It's a simple solution that works for everyone involved."

It's literally none of those things. It's not simple, it's not a solution, and it doesn't work for anyone involved.

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