Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

ad-blocking on your pc

For most people it's a no-brainer, after all who wants ads?

The "news" and music industries are unhappy at their loss of revenue.
The Government seems to be on their side.

Personally I'd be against a ban on ad-blocking (if you follow the triple negative), even if it means I can't read online newspapers. I already pay monthly for internet so money should come from the media suppliers (BT, Virgin, Sky etc).

What's your view?

Reply 1

Fickschlitten

Always open source alternatives around.

Reply 2

username1560589

Websites have to make money somehow. If not blockable advertising then some other form of advertising or subscriptions. On the other hand an individual using ad-blocking makes negligible difference.
I don't see how they can police it though. Even randomly breaking into people's homes and reading every file on their drives fails due to encryption.

Reply 3

NJA

Original post by TheArtofProtest

Ad blocking doesn't seem to work on, shall we say, "dodgy websites".

I go to click the X button and it opens up a whole group of tabs telling me that my computer is infected. Some of them even refuse to close.

But lately, they've gotten clever with the X button on streaming websites. Sometimes, it's like playing where's wally or bloody musical chairs.

Gah, there should be more stringent ad blocking.

Have you tried Adblock Plus?

It works on non-dodgy sites :wink:

Reply 4

Al-farhan

I have seen a recent rise in websites blocking access to content if adblocker is detected.
If this continues and say taken up by youtube then the days of adblock software could be numbered.

Reply 5

username1862217

Tbf ad companies don't make money from us if we don't click on their ads. And I never did that even before I got adblock, so there's no loss. However, the companies in the ads do pay for their ads and can pay per click, so any accidental clicking costs them money but then achieves nothing if the popup is immediately closed (which is what I used to do before the days of adblock*). So if anything, me having adblock is saving companies money.

*I visit websites for a reason and do not wish to be transported off that website by some ad, hence why I had a habit of immediately closing accidental ad popups. If I want to find something online I just use a search engine. I don't think I've ever come across an ad before that has roused my interest.

Reply 6

MildredMalone

I disable it for content creators who I like, such as Nostalgia Chick.

Reply 7

tomclarky

Ad Block is the natural reaction to overly intrusive commercial advertising. If every website respected our eyeballs and had small, humble ads down one side like Facebook always used to have then it wouldn't be necessary.

The new thing is newsletter overlays. 80% of the websites i visit for the first time throw a giant box over their content asking for my email address (Ad Block doesn't stop this, which is presumably why its taken off.) Again, because of how intrusive it is, it's only a matter of time before someone invents a way to block these.