The Devastating Effect of Ad-Blockers for Guru3D.com

Post by jwmerrill » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

nwhitmore wrote: post #114

jwmerrill wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> using an Ad Blocker and viewing content is theft. Here's a different POV. Using an ad blocker is not theft: it's a negotiation. When I click on a link to your site from a site like HN, I have not implicitly agreed to whatever terms you would like to impose on me. I can't even really know them ahead of time. Instead, I'm sending my User Agent to negotiate fetching some resources. If I decline to fetch your ads, you…

Really? What header does your browser send to my server informing me that you are blocking ads so that I know to deny you my content?

Post by dminor » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 5:05 PM UTC

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #55

hannob wrote: post #22

This is so common for the many anti-adblock texts you see these days - they all avoid to talk about the major issues here. (I say that with the background that a significant part of my income comes from ad-financed news pages.) That is: * Security risk through ads (malvertising, ad networks not supporting https etc.). * Ads killing performance (70% CPU for a flash ad is not uncommon). * Privacy (Ad vendors having mos…

I hate ads for all the reasons you cite and because some are hugely distracting. But small websites are not in a position to change the state of affairs, and if nothing changes and people keep blocking their ads, they're going to be dying in large numbers. As a result, everything will be locked into app stores with even less privacy and with many restrictions on the type of content that is allowed. The sort of answer…

Post by raddad » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 5:06 PM UTC

jhall1468 wrote: post #118

njharman wrote: post #84

If your business model requires changes to reality, then your business model is probably dead. [If you have lobbying power, you can extend your business model for awhile, perhaps indefinitely ala content industry and copyright.] In other words, adapt your business model to change or die. It's not up to "reality", us, to change to support your business model. If there is demand for whatever you produce, someone will c…

It's exactly this kind of attitude that is going to lead to paywalls for virtually every type of content on the Internet. And the people that use the most heavy-handed approaches with ad-blocking are going to be the same people that are screaming "NOT MY PROBLEM" while the ship goes down. Their business model doesn't require changes to reality. Their business model requires the end-user to accept reality for what it…

Post by JDDunn9 » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

sologoub wrote: post #105

JDDunn9 wrote: post #25

I remember a time on the Internet before ads, when the only websites were made by geeks who were passionate about the topic. Then came the popup ads, followed by the popup blockers, banners never worked, then came contextual ads. Google made it quick and easy to profit from content and made content a commodity. Currently they are the #1 financier of web spam, and pay off ad-blockers to whitelist their ads. There's no…

What you are describing is a world where only big, well financed, or well known entities can survive. In order to keep the amazing internet we actually have, we need to come up with a model that can be used by small upstarts to either serve smaller markets or to give them time to figure things out and become large over time. Requiring people to publish things for free will only result in the most extreme of views. Lo…

Post by mozumder » Sun, Nov 01, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

robgibbons wrote: post #128

Note to website operators: Ad blockers are not just a way of disabling annoying content. They prevent intrusive tracking and spying. If you can find a way to monetize my views without tracking my habits and sharing them with third parties, I'll happily disable my extensions.