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Adblock Plus now sells ads

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Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#191

Post by snowfield »

tedmiston wrote: post #73
tomp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with them. To me, ads are unacceptable. They steal your attention and polute your mind with subtle signaling and behavioural patterns. I applaud iniciatives like São Paolo's outdoors ad ban [1], and wish it were implemented in many more cities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa

Sure, it would be ideal to live in a world without advertising. But if advertising is the cost we pay to monetize content like news, well, I'd rather accept that than other content models like paywalls.

There is way too much content. If your company can't turn a profit without selling ads and selling user data. Maybe it shouldn't exist.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#192

Post by hnbroseph »

themartorana wrote: post #179
chii wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you don't have the right to their content... if they allow the public to view their content, they cannot dictate how the content is viewed. There's ways to block people from viewing content if ads are blocked - but a lot of sites don't do that, because they deem the traffic more important.

"...if they allow the public to view their content, they cannot dictate how the content is viewed..." You could not be more wrong. I am having a hard time imagining any art installation, public park, etc., that does not have rules about how you use and consume it. Offering something to the public does not mean the method of consumption is suddenly a free-for-all. This is a ridiculous assumption that gets played out h…

ads during football cannot potentially harm people like ads on websites can, have and will continue doing. you can also change the channel or use a recording device to omit ads.

also, i think the person you replied to was speaking more in terms of technical capability rather than some notion of quid pro quo.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#193

Post by tomjen3 »

pc86 wrote: post #43
cyborgx7 wrote: post #39

No such thing as an acceptable ad.

Then pay for content. Ads are how people who provide free content make money. Yes, they are often offensive (visually, not necessarily the content), slow to load, and contain or utilize some of tracker or retargeting mechanism. But if you can remove those and you basically just have a PNG telling you about a product or service, that is the very definition of acceptable. But to freely consume content from someone (whe…

Spam is defined as content the receiver is not interested in (turns out some people really do want cheap viagra), acceptable ads can then be said to be the person viewing them considers acceptable. By that token there maybe no ads op considers acceptable.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#194

Post by morgante »

rloc wrote: post #83
thclark wrote: post #36

uBlock Origin it is! Extensions: Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa... Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin... Opera: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/ublock/ Microsoft Edge: https://github.com/nikrolls/uBlock-Edge#microsoft-edge

The only thing to do if you haven't already. uBlock is open source and does the job. This all adBlock making money by blocking ads and then showing their own ads is becoming ridiculous and unethical. So what does Adblock stand for now ?

You're assuming that everyone shares your world view.

I'm a happy Adblock Plus user and I like this move.

Advertising, in general, does not bother me. I occasionally even find it valuable. Ads on sites like Google and Facebook are perfectly fine by me—I just don't want big, animated ads or (more frequently) broken ones which prevent me from reading content. In fact, I already go out of my way to disable ABP on sites where the ads are acceptable.

Contrary to what people on HN believe, advertising is not inherently evil. Most people are perfectly fine with ads so long as they're not invasive.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#195

Post by Spooky23 »

pythia__ wrote: post #109
rloc wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing to do if you haven't already. uBlock is open source and does the job. This all adBlock making money by blocking ads and then showing their own ads is becoming ridiculous and unethical. So what does Adblock stand for now ?

Why is it unethical? What ethical principle is being violated? (These are not rhetorical questions.)

There's a significant difference between providing a tool to allow an end user to take an action and leveraging your position as a middleman to inject content. This is no different than the egregious behavior displayed by Verizon and others.

What gives Ad Block Plus the right or qualification to determine that my ad is a "bad" ad?

Why should ABP have the ability to suppress editorial or advertising content on my website, replace it with it's own advertising content and not share revenue with me?

Ad blocking itself may be considered a ethical issue as well, but it's a different ethical issue. With blocking, the decision is ultimately made by the end user. With ad injection, ABP is making itself a third party stakeholder.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#196

Post by pmoriarty »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #54
jwise0 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the royal "we", perhaps :-) I started blocking ads because they dramatically slowed down my browsing experience. But I keep blocking ads because, fundamentally, I believe that advertisements are neurotoxins, and nobody has the right to poison me. The old Sean Tejaratchi quote - popularized by Banksy - applies here, I think - http://www.readingfrenzy.com/ledger/2012/03/taking_the_piss

>> "I believe that advertisements are neurotoxins, and nobody has the right to poison me." And you have no right to the content you're viewing but blocking ads on. If you really consider ads 'poison' surely boycotting sites that use ads is the solution or offering an alternative solution this is actually viable.

That's not how we usually deal with a public health hazard. Usually the government steps in and forces the company to stop the harmful activity (or even shut down), and then face criminal charges.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#197

Post by morgante »

hnbroseph wrote: post #186
cptskippy wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocking Ad is itself unethical. Ads are placed on pages to pay for the content. By blocking ads you are depriving the content creators of compensation for their work. Replacing Ads with other ads is worse because you're not only depriving a content creator of revenue but then profiting off of their work. You could argue that it amounts to theft.

counter point: blocking ads is self-defense and defense of others, including one's family. it is everyone's ethical duty to block all ads, because a non-trivial and unpredictable portion of ads contain hostile, abusive, invasive and/or subversive content. this can lead to loss of data, loss of time, loss of money and loss of privacy.

> it is everyone's ethical duty to block all ads, because a non-trivial and unpredictable portion of ads contain hostile, abusive, invasive and/or subversive content

It is everyone's duty to burn all books, because a non-trivial and unpredictable portion of books contain hostile, abusive, invasive, and/or subversive content.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#198

Post by test6554 »

Why not keep adblock plus, but also install ublock origin and three other adblockers as well?

Not only would they all have to sell out like adblock plus, but advertisers would also have to pay each of them before you saw a single ad.

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#199

Post by greenshackle »

ceejayoz wrote: post #173
dsr_ wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you also think that leaving the room or changing the channel when the TV or radio plays an ad is unethical? Is using fast-forward on your DVR unethical? Is skimming past the ads in a newspaper or magazine unethical? Is it ethical to let your eyes glide past the ads shown in a browser? Is it ethical to read books from a free library rather than buying the right to read a copy from a store?

None of those situations are very comparable. TV is paid on viewership numbers. Newspapers are paid on circulation. Gliding past ads on a site is factored into the CPM values. Books in a library are paid for and covered by the first-sale doctrine.

They are completely comparable.

You don't think people who change channels to avoid ads/who use DVRs is factored into the price per viewer for TV ads?

Your individual impact might be harder to track than with ad-blockers, but on the aggregate you are driving down the price per viewer by switching on channels during ads, using DVR, etc.

(Imagine a world where 100% of people used a DVR and skipped ads. Obviously the price of TV ads would plummet. By using a DVR you are contributing to making our world, that world).

Re: Adblock Plus now sells ads

#200

Post by manigandham »

stincity wrote: post #178
k-mcgrady wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "I believe that advertisements are neurotoxins, and nobody has the right to poison me." And you have no right to the content you're viewing but blocking ads on. If you really consider ads 'poison' surely boycotting sites that use ads is the solution or offering an alternative solution this is actually viable.

And I respectfully disagree. I don't enjoy ads, I never click on them even if the item is something I'd use at the time, I will not click on it. I'll just go to amazon or whatever and get it there. I will never, ever click on an ad. So I'd rather not even see them.

Clicking on ads isnt necessary. A vast amount of ads are paid on an impression basis and I can guarantee that you've been affected by the advertising you've come across in your life.

This is one of the most data-driven industries on the planet and there are petabytes of data generated every day showing how well it works.

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