Is Blocking Ads Right?

by Rich Menga on Jul 7, 2008 | 11 comments

A while ago an article was written here on whether blocking advertisements on web sites was ethical or not. My opinion is that it is ultimately your choice whether you want ot see them or not (given the fact many people use ad blocking software these days). I say that for the web sites you visit, if you like what they have to offer and use ads to pay the bills (like PCMech), let the ads display. It is an easy, simple and free way to help out the sites you like.

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David Bullock
The question isn’t what users can do or the economic value of ads for a publisher. The question being asked is: Is it right? Is it ethical?
What’s your stand on the “rightness” or morality of blocking ads?
This post ducks the question. Is the title just link bait?
http://www.geezergeek.net Floyd Bufkin
I use ad blocking not because I object to seeing the ads, but because many times the ads contain multi-media content that does not interact well with my browser. The page I am trying to view will go grey and freeze up my browser. I’m running FF3 in Kubuntu 8.04. I have all the plugins installed to handle most multi-media, but some ads can still cause problems with viewing a page.
http://none David M
Take your choice. Block all ads and eventually you will have to pay to see websites ….or just the opposite. Most people don’t work for free and when advertising blocking software becomes so effective that it blocks all ads then don’t be surprised when you have to start paying for all content.
“How do you think the bills should get paid” would have been a better title for this column.

Oren
Why do you assume that paying to see a website is wrong? Do you think that the companies that pay for advertisement do it for fun? NO. They know that the advertisements will make you buy their products. So you’ll spend the money anyway.
The big question is if that’s the right model for the internet or not? should we directly pay for the information we get (like for example when we buy a newspaper), or should we pay for it indirectly buy buying advertised products.

Oren
BTW, I prefer to pay for the information I get. I think advertisements have many negative social effects.

draceena
I will have to admit that I do block some internet ads, but not all of them. I just like to kill the high bandwidth kind (flash & video types) as I have a slower download speed and now that my ISP has put a cap on my download ammount, I will probably have to block even more ads.
Jen
David M, to borrow a phrase close to America’s heart is “far from the mark”.
Websites will never be paid only. Those who opt to will be lonely pools of fanboys and family.
That being said, I block the lot. Even the encrypted uri’s once I decode the ad server.
If the entire business model is dependant on advertising only to keep the lights on, that business model is doomed to fail, (that’s from high school economics text).
Create something other than op-ed and I will pay for a product. I’ll pay for a product so you don’t have to use ads.
Any *tool (individual who rejects reality) with wordpress (or blogger for that matter) can start making money with ad’s.
Or you can find a benefactor.
Master Myztry
Many ads are nothing but scams. Multimedia eyesores that lead to subscription scams. That’s why I block ads.
Sometimes I allow them, but honestly that takes too much effort most the time. Digg is one of the few sites that I enable ads. Cos I like what they are doing.
A machine readable AdPolicy file on a server would do wonders. I don’t want to read a privacy policy, ad policy, or anything else resembling a contract.
Sites should declare their behaviour, and if they are on an industry whitelist, the browser should allow filtered against the user preferences.
Problem solved. Happy Customers. Happy Advertisers. Happy Sites…
Pingback: Using Ad Blockers: Is It Stealing?
Doug
I keep Windows crippled with java off, ad blocking on and my hosts file full, plus my router is set to filter any and all Google related sites, plus many others. Because of google, you can do a search that leads to a link farm page, that has nothing to do with what you are searching for, and the links on the link farm pages lead to more link farm pages and it is a totally useless pain to go around in circles. Google ads have created the unsafe internet, and morons keep praising them. If people can’t afford to pay for web hosting, then they do not need to have a website. That said, the internet would be less cluttered with useless link farms and un professional garbage. I stay very careful to not click on affiliate links also. Thank GOD for text only browsers.
Toby
I block every ad I can, but that’s because I can. The number of people blocking ads is quite small as a percentage of overall web surfers.
Is ad blocking ‘wrong’? No. Is making your ads easy to block a sign of poor planning and poor programming skills? yes.