Hmmm... interesting discussion (potentially) to be had here... brought along by the memory of some incidents and some comments made here. AdBlock plus. (or whatever they call it). There's 2 sides to this argument: 1) i am the user, and i should be able to chose whether or not i view ads. Therefore, there's nothing wrong with installing Ad blocking software. 2) I am a web developer, and advertising pays for my site, that's why i can afford to deliver information, pictures, video, etc for free. From this perspective it's NOT acceptable. For that matter, if i had a site that was ad-paid, i'd block users that run adblock (there are scripts available), thus violating their right to information. However, people viewing sites that are paid for by ads while blocking the ad is (IMO) equal to flatout piracy...
LOL. Sure, i could live with that, but as someone that makes part of his livelihood on the internet, i see this as destructive towards the free information nature of the web... if more people adapt adblock, sites will a) display more ads (more impressions=more cash), which in turn will lead to more people using adblock and b) start blocking people with adblock... it's a bit of a violation on either side of the coin, but i'd rather alienate 3 viewers to my sites than have to charge the other 100.
i adblock by default, so that blogspam from reddit and stuff isn't giving me ads. any website that i visit with any frequency gets whitelisted, any website with obnoxious ads gets blocked again. flashblock blocks flash ads on all sites, even bit.
I say websites should feel free to either block users that run adblock, or at least restrict what these users can access. At minimum the users that run adblock, should be denied the ability to log in, which i think is lenient.
my view is: if a website has made a conscious effort to provide relevant advertising, and depends on advertising revenue, then you shouldn't block it. stuff like "swat the mozzie" or "click for 1000 free emoticons!" or whatever, well, i'd like people who provide that crap to go out of business, so that can be blocked without any feeling of guilt. the problem really though is that there's a lot of misunderstanding. 99% of people who adblock are of the view that "well i don't click ads so blocking them makes no difference". wrong!
I don't block any ads. Even sites where I pay not to see ads, if I get the option to leave them on, I do. Unless they're needlessly obtrusive - but that usually just stops me bothering to go to the site anyway. I used to, though, block everything. But recently, I've become more aware of how much sites rely on advertising to keep afloat (Especially ones that don't charge subscription fees/don't even have a system for one, ala Bit-Tech), as such, I've abandoned blocking ads.
I started using Adblock back while I was still on a 56k modem for the sake of making pages load quicker. These days I still use it as another line of defence against both malware and; blinking, flashing, moving or other attention grabbing adverts that serve no purpose than to distract me from content or slow the web browsing experience. Such as using full page roll-outs or streaming video clips. These people are taking liberties with my connection and sanity. Bit-Tech is whitelisted, as are online comic sites that I visit. TBH, I like the front page promos that Bit run. The site background during the Spore promo was particularly spiffy.
I don't run an ad-block, but i do run a flash block which cuts out most of the really annoying ads, inc some on here (sorry). My poor epia has kittens with out flash hogging 50% of the cpu time.
Every site I go on has ads that are relevant to what I am looking at and non obtrusive so I don't care. I wouldn't bother with ad block because any sites that I would block, I just wouldn't go on because they are clearly rubbish. I have clicked on the ads on bit tech quite a few times, not because I thought "oh I'll make them a little more dosh" but because I thought "oooh ocz ssd" or "hmm whats that cooler on that BFG" etc etc
Just for the record, it doesn't directly make us (or any other site running advertising) any more dosh
I use NoScript with Firefox so although generally I don't actively block ads, on the websites that have the annoying as hell ads I don't have to see them I have no problem with, and in fact quite like the ads here on Bit, they are well made and don't intrude all over the page. So, for here at least the ads can stay.
I'm wondering how you came about this idea? Myself, annoying ads = i'll go out of my way to avoid buying that product
Isn't it done on views rather than clicks? You get paid if people see the adverts even if they don't click on them.
It doesn't? I have seen a few sites that say stuff like "feel free to support our site by clicking on this advert..." or something to that effect. So what you are saying is you don't make money per click, you make money for having a site with a lot of ad clicks ie the company advertising has a higher chance of getting a click on your site? Now because I didn't quite understand that I will try to explain myself better. Instead of heres 100 simoleons for a months worth of advertising and 1 simoleon per click. It is infact something like well you normally get this much traffic and this many clicks heres 'a relative amount to the amount of traffic/clicks you get' simoleons. Or is it just all down to traffic and no clicks at all? Ninja edit: RE: "99% of people who adblock are of the view that "well i don't click ads so blocking them makes no difference". wrong!", doesn't that contradict what you said about not getting money for viewers clicking on ads?
My understanding, which is limited by the editorial/sales divide, is that it is done on a impressions basis. The reality is that a tiny, tiny proportion of people see an advert, click and buy. It's miniscule. Instead, advertising functions like TV - brand awareness and so on. It's more important for us that people see the adverts, rather than click them. At least, I think that's right. Hiren or RTT know more. Me, I never adblock purely for the reason that I can't be arsed to set it up and want to support the sites I go to. There are sites I use for Abandonware and so on which do make use of pop-ups and I wouldn't block them either because I go to sites I like and want to support.
im good at tuning out to what i dont wanna see/hear (just ask my mother), so i keep the adds even thou 99% of them are irrelevent to me (such as bits adds being primilary british based computer suppliers)
