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Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

acceptableads.com

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Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#2
Raise your hand if you're surprised that the only unfilled seats are the ones who will be in favor of fewer ads. I wonder how many meetings have been held already to discuss strategy, in their absence. I also wonder whether it will matter, with 7 seats for ad agencies (4+3; I'm not fooled by this "expert" bullshit for one second), and 3 for anti-ad advocates, plus some rando.

Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#3
Based on just a skim of the story: I'm sure that people will complain about this, and I'm sure that there genuinely is much to complain about—advertising is, almost by its nature I think, an adversarial business—but:

Ever since ABP announced the Acceptable Ads program, the biggest complaint lodged against them has been that it's within their control, and so in their interest not to enforce policies strictly in their users' interest. (See https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Adblock%20Plus%20Acceptable%20... .) I am certain that this latest step is not perfect, but it is a step forward, and a sign of at least apparent willingness to listen to the community, and I am glad to see it.

Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#5
I just read the criteria for acceptable ads the first time. Not that I really expected otherwise, but all the criteria are just about non-intrusiveness and recognizability, tracking is not mentioned once on the entire site. At least for me blinking text is not the primary concern, it is being tracked on every click I make. So in my opinion acceptable ads is not even roughly heading in the right direction.

Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#6

Raise your hand if you're surprised that the only unfilled seats are the ones who will be in favor of fewer ads. I wonder how many meetings have been held already to discuss strategy, in their absence. I also wonder whether it will matter, with 7 seats for ad agencies (4+3; I'm not fooled by this "expert" bullshit for one second), and 3 for anti-ad advocates, plus some rando.

[deleted]

Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#9
post #3

Based on just a skim of the story: I'm sure that people will complain about this, and I'm sure that there genuinely is much to complain about—advertising is, almost by its nature I think, an adversarial business—but: Ever since ABP announced the Acceptable Ads program, the biggest complaint lodged against them has been that it's within their control, and so in their interest not to enforce policies strictly in their…

I find the entire idea of "Acceptable Ads" to be the antithesis for an ad blocker. Ads are an infection vector and privacy leak.

It's like concept of "acceptable groping" from an HR department. Completely at odds with their stated intent and standard ethics.

Sorry, I'm now using uBlock Origin and/or Safari content blockers. I'll go with those organizations who don't have any interest/stake in permitting ads.

If I am going to pay for content, I'll do so. If that's not kosher with the content producer, I'll simply abstain.

Re: Adblock Plus announces members of independent Acceptable Ads Committee

#10
post #3

Based on just a skim of the story: I'm sure that people will complain about this, and I'm sure that there genuinely is much to complain about—advertising is, almost by its nature I think, an adversarial business—but: Ever since ABP announced the Acceptable Ads program, the biggest complaint lodged against them has been that it's within their control, and so in their interest not to enforce policies strictly in their…

The biggest complaint has always been that it's a gigantic conflict of interest. You can't block ads and also make money from allowing ads. It's inherently contradictory. I don't think there's any fixing this six years later by announcing

"Also, in an industry first, an ordinary user will be seated as one of the 11 committee members to represent consumers’ demands of the online advertising industry."

It's an industry first after six years of the industry Nth of selling out your users. We can't begrudge Adblock Plus's desire to make money. But there's as little reason to accept them blowing smoke up our asses.

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