While I agree that websites should have a way to support themselves, it shouldn't be so pervasive and distracting that their target audience simply walks away out of plain frustration - I've already done this with live TV and Radio, haven't watched or listened to anything on either one for many years and don't see this changing anytime now or in the future (have all the content I want on CD/DVD/Blu-ray). Here is a quote from another article I read earlier:

Phil Jones, chairman of one of Australia's top marketing consultancies, The Bridge, believes bombarding targeted people with automated online ads has reached the stage where it can be counterproductive.

"You still need an intuitive understanding of when it's appropriate to place a marketing message," he says. "It's one thing knowing you can reach the right target, it's another deciding when to do so. For example, in real-life selling, you wouldn't interrupt a wedding reception, would you? You still need to apply subjective judgment."

And as I said before, if lack of financial support leads to an empty and barren Internet then so be it; when (and if) that time comes I'll just pull the plug and find something else to do.

If ads didn't ever evolve past the animated banner gif I wouldn't have considered adblocking.

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

And as I said before, if lack of financial support leads to an empty and barren Internet then so be it; when (and if) that time comes I'll just pull the plug and find something else to do.

That's my end-game. Enjoy the internet while it's around, and once it crashes and burns in Y2K-2 I go back to living life again.

AidanExamineer wrote:

and once it crashes and burns in Y2K-2 I go back to living life again.

That's way too optimistic. 😜

I know. But I just hate the whole thing. Present company excluded, of course.

I even block almost all trackers using ghostery.

This reminds me that on this website there are no trackers... well done 😁 (always see the trackers in the menu bar)

Am I the only one not using adblockers here?

I don't understand what you guys are so angry about. I attend a limited number of websites daily: one social network, two retrocomputing forums, several cycling/randonneur forums and websites, an automobile portal, drawception and IT jokes/funny stories.

On all those sites ads are either minor or unavoidable, in case with the social network. There are other websites in my bookmarks and they are mostly OKish.

The troubles only start when I search for pirated games/software/literature, open torrent databases, etc. What else? Porn sites, which I don't attend, are also very dirty.

As far as I know, most guys here openly critisize piracy. But if you're not a pirate, you don't need all those adblocking software, do you?

RacoonRider wrote:

Am I the only one not using adblockers here? […]
Show full quote

Am I the only one not using adblockers here?

I don't understand what you guys are so angry about.....

....The troubles only start when I search for pirated games/software/literature, open torrent databases, etc. What else? Porn sites, which I don't attend, are also very dirty.

As far as I know, most guys here openly critisize piracy. But if you're not a pirate, you don't need all those adblocking software, do you?

Maybe you are today, since I started to use them (funny coincidence) a couple of weeks ago.

My wife, apparently shopped for some lingerie from my PC at home. And I have lingerie adds from the company he did the shopping for, days long in every site I frequented, both at home and at job, till I realized what's happening. And definitely no, they are not pirate/torrent/porn sites. Consider the appropriateness of your screen at work, half covered by lingerie clad models, while what you are doing is just googling something, or checking on sector related blogs/forums as part of your daily routine.

RacoonRider wrote:

Am I the only one not using adblockers here? […]
Show full quote

Am I the only one not using adblockers here?

I don't understand what you guys are so angry about. I attend a limited number of websites daily: one social network, two retrocomputing forums, several cycling/randonneur forums and websites, an automobile portal, drawception and IT jokes/funny stories.

On all those sites ads are either minor or unavoidable, in case with the social network. There are other websites in my bookmarks and they are mostly OKish.

The troubles only start when I search for pirated games/software/literature, open torrent databases, etc. What else? Porn sites, which I don't attend, are also very dirty.

As far as I know, most guys here openly critisize piracy. But if you're not a pirate, you don't need all those adblocking software, do you?

The problem comes with ads that run Flash videos and open pop under windows that you don't notice until they start sucking up CPU cycles and memory and cause everything to slow down.

And trackers

and the worst of all, drive-by malware/spyware that exploit the ad system for payload delivery.

Yeah, ad blockers are now a must for security. And this applies even if you never visit p0rn sites or other questionable sites.

IMHO if a website has obnoxious enough ads that manage to put you off and not even enjoy its content, it is not a website worth visiting. I do not have Adblock - have not used it for a long time, though I have used it in the past - and all my PCs are malware-free with nothing but Windows 8.1 (now 10) built in anti virus, and I still browse the web just fine. Blocking ads on YouTube, IMHO, is borderline cruel to content creators - specially those that live off their content. And when these content creators put out a few sponsored videos, I've seen several people who admit using Adblock on the comments being the first ones to complain. I usually only press the button to skip the ad if it is obnoxiously long (5+ min ad for a 10 min video? no thanks - I've seen YouTube ads longer than the videos themselves) and even then I'm more forgiving when watching videos from YouTubers I like.

SquallStrife wrote:

How do you all propose sites get funded? Would you pay a per-visit/monthly/yearly fee to access your favourite web sites?

That^

I do use adblock but I disable it for websites which I use frequently because they deserve the support. However, I often look for obscure, hard-to-find stuff on Google and as a result I often visit websites which turn out to be those junk-download-our-virus-sir websites and such, which are, of course, riddled with ads. I fail to see why I should help them generate revenue.

The thing is, there are loads of people who don't disable their adblockers for any website even if they use it all the time because they don't care or, in some cases, probably, don't even know they can do that.

We, the users of the internet, have a point: there are loads of intrusive, annoying ads. The people who put them up there have a point: good content isn't cheap to make.

Right now we appear to be in a kind of a Mexican standoff.

I think the solution is simple: regulate ads with strict laws. Ban pop-ups and derivatives, ban audio, ban video, restrict sizes. Make them bearable to behold and prosecute everyone who doesn't obey these laws. Then launch an anti-adblocker campaign on social media. Things are bound to improve if you make both parties happy or, at least, much less miserable.