This is sad day for content creators. If the site is full of ads you are not comfortable to view do NOT VISIT such sites again. It's stealing, it's manipulating the statistics.
We can't get good content because corporations taught people to not pay for content and now we will not get good content because people will slice the income of those who use ads.
While I would agree with this line of thought, ad networks have been used for the spread of malware and various scams. Ad networks have also tracked the browsing habits of users, with little regard for our privacy.
It's easy to say that if the site is full of ads, I should not visit it again, however I also do not want to load pieces of Javascript doing the above by mistakenly visiting a website that I do not want to visit. This isn't just an issue of annoyance, but one of online safety as well. I now recommend to every friend I have to use ad blockers.
Therefore I cannot sympathize much with networks complaining or with creators complaining about ad blockers. They've brought this on themselves and unless they change their ways, ad blockers will get more and more popular.
Its not just that they bungled it. Its a question of who owns my computer. I do, so I get to say what is displayed and what code is run. So clipping out the ads is entirely my own business, done in my own home on my own devices.
No, I can't possibly agree with the line of thought of the parent comment. Its self-serving nonsense.
On a fundamental level,
your server is free to do whatever it wants with the requests I send it, and my browser is free to do whatever I want with the responses it receives.
Because your server is yours, and my computer is mine.
Is it easy to detect people who are using adblock and serve them nothing? Not that that is the best way to handle it but the OP does have a point. At least it would stop leaches. If you put content out for "free" because you make a few cents from advertising if they block the ads it's not much different than stealing.
I have never done this, but technically you could do this. The problem I see how to implement this in a way that can not easily be countered with new ad blocking tools.
For example, a year or so ago I saw that DuckDuckGo notices when you use ad blocking and very respectfully asks you to consider not blocking their ads.
A few months later, the ad blocking software that I use, added a feature to block those respectful messages too.
Ad blockers should develop a way for sites to know if a user is using the ad blocker. It's not about advertisers winning it's about people that pay for hosting with the expectation they will make ad revenue from their content. I feel like ad blockers is pushing us towards the "comcast pay per channel" type internet.
The fact is a majority of sites need to make money from their content. So they can sell ads, or related products, or paid access or just beg like wikipedia but there has to be some potential to make money or a majority of sites cease to exist.
Do you switch channels on your TV when the commercials start and switch back when the show resumes? Blocking online ads is basically the same. i.e. perfectly legitimate.
Only you hurt the creator more online, since the advertisers can now measure the views+clicks. Which is also perfectly fair - They should not have to pay for ads nobody sees. This would also be fair on TV - But there it's impossible to measure.
First of all I do not watch TV. I assume that's why netflix is so popular. Please pardon me i am not sure if it has an ads in it or not but i assumed since it's a content on demand it does not.
Also simply blocking something because you can but you should not is cheating.
Cheating? How is it that controlling what my software, running in my hardware, running on my power does or does not do is cheating? Should I not have control over what's mine?
If a website finds that their business model became unsuited for modern times, it's their responsibility to change it, not mine.
How about, if you really want to deliver ads, then sell first party ads delivered from your own servers with the content... nobody is stopping that, and unless you use css classes like "ad" or JavaScript to deliver said ads, then it likely won't get blocked.
I worked on an SPA website a few years ago that used a time-based billing model for advertising, The three adslots for the given user session were for the same advertiser, this required locally delivered ads, and a JS/http ping to establish between min and max display time recording... It worked fine, and even got through the ad blockers.
There's no reason a publisher cannot do the same. Just like there's no reason a random website I visit should force me to download questionable content from third parties unknown to even the publisher.
Yes, but you might discover that your content is not valuable.
People are willing to pay for content that is valuable. LWN [1] and the No Agenda Show [2] prove that you don't need ads to produce content that is leagues beyond any ad-supported content.
The underlying reason most newspapers are dying is because they aren't doing anything but regergitating the Associated Press and Reuters. There's no difference between a thoughtful, well investigated new article, and one that's a rehash of the Associated Press or Reuters. Why go through all the work of confirming with credible sources, looking through documents, and interviewing experts when you can get the same number of page views from a syndicated article.
I got lost. Your content is not valueable, ok plausible. Then, newspapers are dying because they only show (valuable) articles?
I think rather, its not the value of the information that's at issue. Its the monopoly on the source that's valuable. Once the monopoly is gone, once you can get the same stuff for free somewhere else, then nobody pays.
I think if you remove the ads on your website and put up a donations/patreon link you may be pleasantly surprised that nobody feels that your content is worth paying for.
Definitely. Content blocked by Adblock is always top notch stuff nobody in his right mind would be able to live without. I know for sure; I create a lot of those amazing wonders during my workday.
We can't get good content because corporations taught people to not pay for content and now we will not get good content because people will slice the income of those who use ads.