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Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

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Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#71

Post by maaku »

tomp wrote: post #43
adamt wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely and like you for a long time I didn't use ad-blockers on morale grounds. Personally I don't get overly excited about the tracking/re-targeting, but what did bother me was how ridiculously intrusive the ads on some sites that totally destroyed my user experience, wasted my batteries and cellular data and at times prevented me from (on mobile) from getting to the content I actually wanted. With mobil…

> On Google search sometimes the people who will pay for ads are sometimes a better signal than those that SEO their way to the top. Are they? If you have 2 products that sell for X, one company spends Y on ads and X - Y on product, the other spends X on product. It would seem that the second one should be SEOd (by good reviews and recommendations) to the top, and that would be the more important signal.

Too simplistic a model.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#72

Post by thirdsun »

freehunter wrote: post #65
thirdsun wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here - I'm not that concerned about targeted ads, but if it means significant consequences for my bandwidth, security, performance or simply being able to use the site as intended, well, then I don't seem to have a realistic choice. That said, I think there's room for an adblocker that focuses on ads that are too intrusive and whitelists decent, static ads automatically. Currently I do that manually on a per sit…

Adblock Plus does that. Ad networks can in some fashion request their ads be unblocked, and ABP does some sort of review (I'm not sure how it all works, I don't use it).

I'm not sure, but isn't that review process basically a transaction of money? As in buying your way out of being blocked? That's probably the last thing I'd want.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#73

Post by fucking_tragedy »

team_doom wrote: post #27
cm2187 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually end up doing that with websites that block browsers with ad-blockers from viewing the content. It takes a while to change my habits but when they are changed there is no coming back to these sites.

To me that comes off as "Hey, I'm angry you won't let me view your content without paying for it anymore". Obviously in this case paying for it is viewing/watching ads. Not trying to get high and mighty with anyone. The whole ad-block culture just screams entitlement to me and it bothers me a lot.

These businesses feel that they are entitled to my time, my browsing history, my CPU time, my battery life, my limited mobile data, my habits, my privacy and the security of my identity and machines.

They feel that they are entitled to not adapt their business model to change and will push anyone off the jungle gym who won't play by their archaic rules.

It's their right, but the only entitlement I feel I deserve is the right to ignore their childish behavior as well.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#74

Post by jamespo »

freehunter wrote: post #68
jamespo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did they do that, put a rootkit on his machine forcing all hits to them?

Well they didn't exactly say "do we have your permission to run your CPU up to 100%, hog all of your memory, and install trackers on your computer? And occasionally, can we install malware on your machine?"

Reminds me of the arguments about not letting in any refugees as some of them may commit a crime.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#75

Post by InclinedPlane »

karterk wrote: post #5

For a very long time, I did not want to use ad blockers. I have used ads in the past to monetize some of my own projects, and I really did not want to stab the creators of quality content. However, last week I finally reversed my decision and started using ad blockers. Why? Frankly, many sites are just greedy. Banners were ugly enough (and I tolerated them) but many sites these days show ads that cover the content, a…

Exactly.

I support makers and creators and artists. I back kickstarters. I have patreon subscriptions. I buy music and books and swag from artists I like a lot, especially those that I think need the most support. And sometimes I volunteer my time and skills. All in all I've spent or donated tens of thousands of dollars either in cash or time throughout the years to the arts.

Meanwhile, I spent 20 years browsing the web without an ad blocker. Since I've started using one last year, it's led to a much better experience.

Yet still, there are people who think that I should be burdened with some moral obligation to suffer advertising, for things that I will never buy, being shoved in my face in order to consume content. As though the business models of every single content creator on the planet were my personal problem. No, I do my part, and more. I've paid my advertising dues as well, and I'm done. If you don't like that you can go fuck yourself. You should be spending your time urging content creators to fix their broken business models, or helping them to do so, not moralizing about fucking advertising.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#77

Post by fucking_tragedy »

freehunter wrote: post #65
thirdsun wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here - I'm not that concerned about targeted ads, but if it means significant consequences for my bandwidth, security, performance or simply being able to use the site as intended, well, then I don't seem to have a realistic choice. That said, I think there's room for an adblocker that focuses on ads that are too intrusive and whitelists decent, static ads automatically. Currently I do that manually on a per sit…

Adblock Plus does that. Ad networks can in some fashion request their ads be unblocked, and ABP does some sort of review (I'm not sure how it all works, I don't use it).

Ad networks pay ABP to be whitelisted. That is their review process.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#78

Post by InclinedPlane »

team_doom wrote: post #20
karterk wrote: post #5

For a very long time, I did not want to use ad blockers. I have used ads in the past to monetize some of my own projects, and I really did not want to stab the creators of quality content. However, last week I finally reversed my decision and started using ad blockers. Why? Frankly, many sites are just greedy. Banners were ugly enough (and I tolerated them) but many sites these days show ads that cover the content, a…

I think this is the wrong way to approach this. You're essentially pirating content now. If you don't like the ads, stop using the site. It's that simple. To take it a step farther, send an email to customer service explaining WHY you're no longer using the site. This sends a much stronger message to them about what makes you unhappy with the service they provide.

Do you ever listen to the radio or live tv? And if so do you feel an obligation to not switch channels when there are ads playing?

Such utter nonsense.

Re: Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

#79

Post by bluejekyll »

inanutshellus wrote: post #54
eveningcoffee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am with you in this. I saw that people around me started to use AdBlockers and I found first that it is not really fair from them. Until one of the news sites I regularly read was barely usable by always running on 100% CPU, which means it was not possible to open it on multiple tabs without making my computer fully unusable. And until Google started to use video ads in my region. I figured that it would be better…

I actually like seeing ads (though I wish they weren't coming from omniscient ad networks and were instead coming from the sites I was visiting). Content providers get money, I get free content. Nice. HTML5 Video Ads are what finally switched me to ad blockers. When people served static images and Adobe Flash videos, I could just disable auto-play of Flash, and voila, I see ads, but don't get obnoxious videos on rand…

Safari at least added a disable all sound on a tab button. They should probably add or include video as an option too.
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