Adblocking - should it be banned?

[twentysix by twentyfive]

While he's at it, he should look up "secretary" too. I bet he never sits cross-legged on the edge of the desk, his sleek, firm thigh emphasised by the tightness of his pinstriped dark grey skirt, his shapely calves smooth under the sheer denier, his heaving bosom caged by his crisp white blouse, unbuttoned far enough to show a hint of his lace-trimmed pink brassiere, coquettishly biting his pencil, undoing his ponytail and shaking out his perfectly-conditioned auburn hair, and peering longingly over his glasses with a "come hither" look!

Ms Goodbody?

Mills and Boon

 

[fairyhedgehog]

I use Adblocker. On sites which politely ask if I would consider turning it off or take out a subscription, I usually turn it off. If any of the ads that pop up are all flashy, moving, video type ads, I turn adblocker back on.

I'm also on a knitting/crocheting website (Ravelry) and the ads there are relevant and are usually from very small businesses. I do click on those and I've even gone back to see an ad that I only saw out of the corner of my eye but it looked interesting.

For what it's worth, I have adblocker turned off in here.

I admit to feeling guilty about blocking Facebook ads but I still do it.

 

[Bollo]

 

[MichaelW2]

Shutupandtakemymoney.

 

[speccy1]

No it shouldn`t be banned, adverts GET ON MY TITS

If I want something, I`ll buy it, I don`t need somebody nagging on about it

 

[FrankCrank]

...I have Adblocker, and the Telegraph said I must now subscribe. Removed them from my bookmarks, but every other news sources seem happy. As I spend way too much time at the computer, done me a favour really

 

[Kajjal]

The advertisers kindly use my internet to download all kinds of intrusive ads i don't want to see.

 

[mustang1]

Not sure what they mean by "protection racket".

 

[Dirk]

The day the government pays for my PC hardware and internet access is the day I might consider not using an adblocker.

 

[Crackle]

He was talking about the bit where the business concerned can pay the adblock company in order to be white-listed and thus not blocked by them.

Ah, I never read the article but that throws the question into a completely different light and explains a few things about the odd way adblocks sometimes work.

 

[jefmcg]

There's no way you could ban adblocking software. I can't imagine a legal definition that could work. Ban all apps and extensions with "ad blocker" in the name? Then someone would make something with the same functionality, but give it a different name. Is the Government going to employ someone to check every browser extension to make sure it can't be configured to block ads. Who's paying for that? And how will they stop us installing unapproved or illegal browser extensions? And how would you define the law so ad blockers were banned, but child protection programs that block porn sites (and presumably porn ads) are ok, or would they ban them too? Imagine the outcry. Would they also make editing the hosts file a crime?

 

[jefmcg]

Ah, I never read the article but that throws the question into a completely different light and explains a few things about the odd way adblocks sometimes work.

Yeah, this was new to me when the current news stories started. I guess it proves the adage: "if you aren't paying then you are the product"

Amusingly, when I read an article that google turned up when I searched for "adblock plus protection racket", this popped up while I was reading.

 

[ufkacbln]

OT...

We were pestered day by day by "Bowater Zenith" We would have at least one phone call per day and a weekly visit

Then one day they came round to see double glazing being fitted and were stupid enough to ask why we had not asked them for a quote!

Explained that I disliked their badgering and hadn't even considered letting such an appalling company on my premises

I tend to blacklist companies that call door to door or cold call

Same applies to Internet ads

 

[Bollo]

I can understand the concern about ad blocking from the PoV when companies can get white-listed by paying a fee to the blocker firm, but it's not that far away from paying Google for a preferential search listing. For most B2C companies at least, a second page listing is death.

In defence of adverts.....we've become so used to consuming content for free that we sometime forget that many sites are not just playgrounds for us to post shoot but also someone's livelihood. For a very close to home example, look to further than @Shaun's current fundraising efforts for CC.

The issue isn't that adverts are a pain in the rump, but whether you consider your consumption of those ads (even if you just scroll past) fair exchange for what you recieve from the site. So, for example, I get my daily dose of wispy-washy liberal news from the Guardian. Like most traditional news providers with a background in print, it's running at a loss, yet there's an expectation that all those journos are happy to work for free as long as I don't actually buy a physical manifestation of their output. The ads on the Guardian site have recently become much more intrusive, but in the end I'm either going to have to live with it or move on.

The real issue is that it's usually not the end point of the adverts that makes the real bucks. The companies who control the delivery channels are where the money is properly made.

 

[growingvegetables]

..... from the Guardian. Like most traditional news providers with a background in print, it's running at a loss, ...

... and the Guardian politely recognises the ad-blocker, politely makes their case, and ever so politely invites the user to become a member.

If I didn't buy a hard copy pretty well every day, I'd happily pay - damn it, it's a lot cheaper than buying a pile of paper! But I like unwinding with the paper and a pint after work - and doing the crossword online is just not the same.


[edited to add some comparative figures]
AdBlock Plus blocked
- 2 ads on this CC page (yes, I know, and I'll put CC back onto my white list now). [later edit - and I haven't a clue what they are, now that adblocker is turned off!)
- 1 ad on a BBC news item page.
- 8 ads on a Yorkshire Post news item page.
- 11 ads on Yorkshire Evening Post news item page.
- 15 ads on a Southern Daily Echo news item page.
- 22 ads on the Met Office Leeds forecast page. ---
- 30 ads on a Daily Mail news item page.


- and (strangely - don't know what's happening), 0 ads on a Guardian news item page. ( ??? Nah - summat odd about my internet setup, I guess).