Crowd-funded AdBlock campaign

[JStrike]

The sad part is that people may start to complain about poor service levels or paywalls, but they fully support ad blockers on these online platforms. If ad revenue dries up other business models will indeed develop, but it may well mean users will have to pay – which is already starting to happen.

If the content is good, quality users will pay. Look at the New York Times, Daily Maverick, etc

 

[Chevron]

Or those ads on Youtube over the video that you need to close, the 5 second ad videos wait is long enough as is.

And where do you recommend putting ads where users will see them?

People seem to be a lot more open to ads than paying though. This can be clearly seen in app stores where you have the free, bare-bones version of an app that has substantially (I'm talking orders of magnitude here) more hits than the paid, full-featured and ad-free version. This, in fact, tells me that most people don't mind ads at all if it means getting something for free that they'd otherwise have to pay for.

So who benefits from the ads being blocked at ISP level?

People have Ad blockers on their phones. So no Ads on the free apps either.

Another problem rampant in advertising that users are becoming more aware of is tracking. I don't particularly want your advertisers building of profile of me (without my consent and even against my wishes) based on the ads you sell on your site.

How is this a bad thing?

I hate seeing ads that have nothing to do with me. More targeted Ads means I don't mind them as much. I'll actually be more likely to click on them and see what the company has to offer.

 

[supersunbird]

People seem to be a lot more open to ads than paying though. This can be clearly seen in app stores where you have the free, bare-bones version of an app that has substantially (I'm talking orders of magnitude here) more hits than the paid, full-featured and ad-free version. This, in fact, tells me that most people don't mind ads at all if it means getting something for free that they'd otherwise have to pay for.

So who benefits from the ads being blocked at ISP level?

But if the ads are to overbearing I delete the app and find alternatives or go without...

 

[JStrike]

How is this a bad thing?

I hate seeing ads that have nothing to do with me. More targeted Ads means I don't mind them as much. I'll actually be more likely to click on them and see what the company has to offer.

Many people find it very creepy when ads are targeted. It means they know something about you, which people do not want

 

[supersunbird]

And where do you recommend putting ads where users will see them?

The first 5 seconds thing and banners are enough, I dont wants 3 little windows all over the video as well... guess who rarely watches youtuve stuff these days... ME! So now they loose out on all ad revenue from my side.

 

[icyrus]

If the content is good, quality users will pay. Look at the New York Times, Daily Maverick, etc

Unfortunately in most circumstances individual users on average are not willing to pay what advertisers are. As far as I am aware the examples you gave still all run ads behind their paywalls.

I hate seeing ads that have nothing to do with me. More targeted Ads means I don't mind them as much. I'll actually be more likely to click on them and see what the company has to offer.

It is a privacy violation. So you may get a more relevant ad, but how is this data they are collecting on you stored and who is it shared with? If you don't care fine, but more and more people are becoming aware of this.

 

[JStrike]

Unfortunately in most circumstances individual users on average are not willing to pay what advertisers are. As far as I am aware the examples you gave still all run ads behind their paywalls.



It is a privacy violation. So you may get a more relevant ad, but how is this data they are collecting on you stored and who is shared with? If you don't care fine, but more and more people are becoming aware of this.

If those ads are run by the publication i.e NYT behind their paywall, then it isn't targeted ads, which people don't mind as much. It is the Ad networks which collect data about you across multiple sites and show targeted ads that people hate

 

[Bona Botse]

Less users isn't a problem if the revenue is high

But that's fixing a non-existent problem. You say that users don't want ads. I responded by saying that they don't seem to mind the ads if it means free stuff. So why take away the ads?

 

[JStrike]

But that's fixing a non-existent problem. You say that users don't want ads. I responded by saying that they don't seem to mind the ads if it means free stuff. So why take away the ads?

Because there is a rapidly growing anti-advertising network sentiment that is rising. The whole reason this thread exists

 

[icyrus]

If those ads are run by the publication i.e NYT behind their paywall, then it isn't targeted ads, which people don't mind as much. It is the Ad networks which collect data about you across multiple sites and show targeted ads that people hate

I don't subscribe to the NYT so I can't say for sure but I would highly doubt any of the ad techniques behind the paywall are different to those on public content. Their user data and attention are still their most profitable products they sell.

 

[2026]

Some ads really need to die.

Anything that flashes.
Anything that uses flash.
Anything that takes up more than 20% of the screen (**** you facebook...)
Anything that leads you into dodgy practices (ala - enter cellphone number here to see your IQ... at R50 per day sub fee)


But some people don't seem to understand that the 5s before a youtube video - or the panel to the right - or the background is such a minor hassle. Such a minor hassle that keeps people creating content you want to watch. It beats tv ads (5 seconds in youtube for over 20mins of content - compare that to TV which you PAY FOR...)

 

[Bona Botse]

Because there is a rapidly growing anti-advertising network sentiment that is rising. The whole reason this thread exists

I don't think so. Even the campaign in the OP admits that 70% of web surfers still see ads. Surely if the sentiment was growing as rapidly as you say, it wouldn't need such elaborate campaigning and it would be left to grow naturally? This just seems like a dev marketing his product. I laughed when, after I installed AdBlock, he advertised to me how he left his job to develop AdBlock full time and that I should "donate" to his cause.

 

[Bona Botse]

People have Ad blockers on their phones. So no Ads on the free apps either.

You'd have to be pretty savvy to get that right though. I'm willing to bet that people with adblockers on their phones constitute less than 3% of all phone users .

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Some ads really need to die.

Anything that flashes.
Anything that uses flash.
Anything that takes up more than 20% of the screen (**** you facebook...)
Anything that leads you into dodgy practices (ala - enter cellphone number here to see your IQ... at R50 per day sub fee)


But some people don't seem to understand that the 5s before a youtube video - or the panel to the right - or the background is such a minor hassle. Such a minor hassle that keeps people creating content you want to watch. It beats tv ads (5 seconds in youtube for over 20mins of content - compare that to TV which you PAY FOR...)

Hehe. I totally agree. I have nothing against ads to fund developers but there was one on MyBB the other day that should have come with epilepsy warnings.

 

[Chevron]

It is a privacy violation. So you may get a more relevant ad, but how is this data they are collecting on you stored and who is it shared with? If you don't care fine, but more and more people are becoming aware of this.

I think you need to learn a bit about how this works.

On facebook it works like that. They see you single so show you ads for dating sites.

With adsense at least, they don't know it's you icyrus. They just know that someone on that pc was looking at the BMW website, so maybe that person will like see to see ads on cars.

Also you can target websites. So just because you see a graphics card ad on a tech website, doesn't mean you were targeted.

 

[icyrus]

I think you need to learn a bit about how this works.

On facebook it works like that. They see you single so show you ads for dating sites.

With adsense at least, they don't know it's you icyrus. They just know that someone on that pc was looking at the BMW website, so maybe that person will like see to see ads on cars.

Also you can target websites. So just because you see a graphics card ad on a tech website, doesn't mean you were targeted.

With all due respect I know how it works. Perhaps you should look a little deeper.

Any site embedding a facebook/twitter/google widget is giving each of those providers access to track the user across their site. This can be tied up to their user account quite easily. Why do you think that browsers like Safari are clamping down so hard on 3rd party cookies?

In reality, any site that uses and iframe or pixel tracker to another domain to serve ads opens their users up to this type of tracking.

 

[Chevron]

With all due respect I know how it works. Perhaps you should look a little deeper.

Any site embedding a facebook/twitter/google widget is giving each of those providers access to track the user across their site. This can be tied up to their user account quite easily. Why do you think that browsers like Safari are clamping down so hard on 3rd party cookies?

In reality, any site that uses and iframe or pixel tracker to another domain to serve ads opens their users up to this type of tracking.

If you're so worried about it then browse incognito.

 

[JStrike]

With all due respect I know how it works. Perhaps you should look a little deeper.

Any site embedding a facebook/twitter/google widget is giving each of those providers access to track the user across their site. This can be tied up to their user account quite easily. Why do you think that browsers like Safari are clamping down so hard on 3rd party cookies?

In reality, any site that uses and iframe or pixel tracker to another domain to serve ads opens their users up to this type of tracking.

Spot on

 

[icyrus]

If you're so worried about it then browse incognito.

Or you know, use an adblocker...

 

[Chevron]

Or you know, use an adblocker...

That's piracy.

At least with incognito the content creators get their fair share and can actually survive to make more content for you.