Coffee Talk #572: Do You Block Ads on Web Sites?

The ad blocking issue is coming up again. In 2010 Ars-Technica founder Ken Fisher wrote a story on why blocking ads is devastating for web sites you enjoy. Recently, Destructoid founder Niero Gonzales wrote a story and stated that almost half of the site’s readers block ads. The use of ad blockers is particularly disheartening for videogame web sites and freelance writers. From the outside, it’s easy to see the number of gaming web sites that have shut down over the last few years. From the inside…more

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The ad blocking issue is coming up again. In 2010 Ars-Technica founder Ken Fisher wrote a story on why blocking ads is devastating for web sites you enjoy. Recently, Destructoid founder Niero Gonzales wrote a story and stated that almost half of the site’s readers block ads. The use of ad blockers is particularly disheartening for videogame web sites and freelance writers. From the outside, it’s easy to see the number of gaming web sites that have shut down over the last few years. From the inside, the number of full-time jobs, the number of freelance gigs, and freelance rates have gone down.

Today I’d love to hear about your ad-blocking habits. I’m not judging. I’m just curious. Do you always use ad blockers? Do you disable ad-blocking plug-ins on sites you like? Please take the poll below and expand on your choice in the comments section.

[poll id=”178″]

As for me, I used to use AdBlock Plus all the time, but now I rarely use ad blocking of any kind. Part of it is that advertising has generally become more sophisticated and less obnoxious. Sure, there are still some garish ads out there, but for the most part I don’t see those kinds of spots on the sites I frequent. A bigger part of it was understanding the economics of operating a content-based site, especially as a small business owner. Making money with Internet content is getting harder and harder. I’m happy to allow ads on sites that I find mildly entertaining. For those that I truly enjoy, I will actively click on ads that interest me.

Yeah, I realize that very few Internet users try to support sites this way and many aren’t even aware of how blocking ads hurts the sites they enjoy. Just thinking about the fun gaming web sites that have shut down over the years and those that are in the process of shutting down makes me wonder if they’d still be around if their readers didn’t block ads.

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

8 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #572: Do You Block Ads on Web Sites?”

  1. I run an adblocker. I do not like clicking a link and then having whatever kind of ad thrown top of text or have some annoying banner on the page that I have to actively click to remove. I disagree that the methods have become less obnoxious, at least on mobile devices. On my iphone I can visit say IGN and click on an article and then have some stupid video player pop up that will chew through my data. That is obnoxious. I noticed that once the iPhone 5 came out, many news site that I visit really liked the increased screen real estate. So much that they have a banner that scrolls the entire page with full of ads.

    It’s come to the point that I do not even watch videos online anymore. I refuse to watch a 30 second car ad to see an 8 second highlight of a Chris Paul lob to DeAndre Jordan.

    There is no such thing as a free lunch but as a consumer I don’t want ads on all of my content. If I like the content of the site I will make an exception on the adblocker. However if said white listed site has annoying pop up video ads then it will have ads permabanned. It’s not unethical of me to do so either. I’m a huge advocate of content industries adapting their business models to the information age, I do not think the advertising industry is exempt from that mode of thinking.

    1. IGN has always been obnoxious with ads. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a site that I visit frequently that has video pop-ups — both on desktop and mobile. For banner pop-ups, I see them occasionally on ESPN. Better/smarter YouTube channels also feature ads that can be skipped.

  2. I can block ads?!

    Really? How can I do this?

    I’m going to start pissing off IGN as much as they have pissed me off with their “in-your-face” ads and horrendous video player.

    -M

    1. Both Chrome and Firefox have adblocker plug-ins, if you are running IE, then I guess you just have to pray.

      1. Praying sometimes works with IE, but the Lord has yet to deliver on the smiting of animated, intrusive internet ads. Most likely because the advertising agencies and hosting sites pray more than I do to make the ads effective and be successful at annoying us.

        That last sentence would actually be funny if it weren’t so true.

        -M

    2. if you use safari then grab adblock and click to flash. that will stop those annoying videos from autoplaying on espn and the like. The same applies if you are using Chrome.

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