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Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

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Re: Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The example that comes to mind is content that IS advertisement. For that you can look into just about any US magazine (not sure about UK, but I suspect they are very similar there), for example this article in GQ http://www.gq.com/food-travel/restaurants-and-bars/201211/fo... . In this instance, they are making recommendations to you from a position of authority, even though it comes from a position of selling ad sp…

You got it. And my main observation (or hunch, to be safe!) is advertising "blindness", whether psychological or technological, has encouraged and will continue to encourage this form of advertising.

Interesting. I never thought of it as an advertisement arms-race, but that's what it is.

Re: Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

#62
post #3

Adblocker is one of the first things I installed for my mother on her new computer. For me seeing ads is an annoyance, but for her it's a real problem. She can't instantly distinguish adverts from content - particularly things like Adsense.

Completely agree with this usage. If I didn't install an adblocker on my mothers computer she'd have 14 extra toolbars installed in her browser, 3 different virus scanners running and be out of pocket every month for some service she's been convinced she needs.

It would be good if there was an option to allow for "Parent friendly Ads".

Re: Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The example that comes to mind is content that IS advertisement. For that you can look into just about any US magazine (not sure about UK, but I suspect they are very similar there), for example this article in GQ http://www.gq.com/food-travel/restaurants-and-bars/201211/fo... . In this instance, they are making recommendations to you from a position of authority, even though it comes from a position of selling ad sp…

I don't disagree, but there's another side to this. It's happened in print for years - a review in June, a double page spread ad in July. But it damages editorial integrity and it dilutes genuine content. In print this doesn't really matter - there are huge barriers to entry, and newcomers are more likely than anyone to do it to make it easier to score revenue. Online though, if I suspect that [blognamehere] are plug…

Great point. Once you buy the magazine, the money is spent, whether you like it or not. Although, it should encourage you to not buy anymore.

On the flip side, printed magazines would be so prohibitively expensive without adverts that nobody would buy them, so I guess in print it's a balancing act between alienating users via too many ads or cost of the magazine.

Re: Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

#68
If there was a setting for AdBlockPlus that only blocked non-text ads I'd switch to that in an instant. I don't mind supporting sites that have ads - but I'm not going to put up with flashing, moving, overlaying items when I'm trying to read some text.

Re: Poll: Do you use an Adblocker?

#69
post #38

I'm a strange person. I don't use an ad blocker because I despise browser extensions on an ideological basis, but I also hate ads, so I avoid sites where I can see them. When I used Opera, I used to use the built-in ad blocker though.

I have to ask: what is your ideological objection to browser extensions?

I don't like customized environments. When I used Opera, I didn't have to configure anything, I liked the defaults and I liked that each instance of Opera, anywhere, was the same. Browser extensions make each browser instance unique. (For the same reason I don't like heavily customized vi/emacs/unix environments).

I also view browser extensions as something that ameliorates the perceived defect, rather than fixing the systemic cause of the problem. I think that browsers should come with ad blockers by default, and if I install one myself I'm always reminded that browsers are not like I feel they should be.

As a programmer, I like clean, small interfaces and good software architecture. My opinion is that putting ad blockers on top of the browser is bad design. I feel like filters like this should stay behind the browser. The fact that browser extensions are browser specific reminds me that extensions don't use a clean, composable, generic interface, but a browser-specific, ad-hoc one. I don't like that.

I install very little software, only what I really need. I chose my software carefully. The decision to install a browser extension is more costly to me than the decision to install a particular browser. I don't necessarily think the people writing the extension are as competent as the people who write the browser, and even if they are, they are more people for me to depend upon. I did try browser exitensions, once, and I learned not to trust their release cycle.

It's all extremely subjective.

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