Ad-blocking: a sign that web publishers don’t care about readers

But they do pay, in attention, which is monetized using ads.

> Look at New Yorker, for example. The ads are generally interesting and feature great photography.

Wish Google would introduce some sort of minimum design requirements for their AdSense image ads.

I also wish they'd give publishers full control over the appearance of their text ads. Right now, these ads look horrible, and only premium publishers (ie. websites with millions users) are given this sort of control.

I'll be honest, I hate all ads, regardless of how good they are. I think it's creepy and fills my mind with things I do not want it to be filled with. For me, the entire debate is silly because it's my screen -> my decision what appears. I think it barely matters how good the ads are. I've only seen one single website that did ads right (they were perfectly embedded into a mosaic pattern of site functionality, things like a little tile with the coca cola writing). (EDIT: Okay, news.ycombinator.com also does it well with its inline job ads. See, I didn't even think of it as an ad, that's how nicely it's embedded.) The problem is that people used to use the internet to exchange files and information that was then locally stored on each PC. Now, you go to youtube, listen to a song, and 20 minutes later you download the entire video again if you listen to it (if you closed the tab inbetween). That stuff adds up and of course everyone is reluctant to pay that bill. The solution is going back to a decentralized download-culture like it was in the 90's. Storage space is incredibly cheap. Nobody has to pay that bill of transferring the same things over and over and over again.

Im not sure why people defend ads. They fear the free web would be in danger? It already isn't free if it has ads.

In the end if the ads is distracting you from the content its a bad ad, and given the choice you don't want to see it.

Thus the only acceptable ads, are things like product placement. You know its an ad but it doesnt cut the flow.