Questions to you AdBlockers out there

[iKingRPG]

Don't worry, i wont cuss you out for using an adblocker. Im just curious

first of all, i am aware there is 4 major types of adblock users,

1. Ads are annoying and i dont care about the websites i visit losing a couple dollars
2. I dont want companies spying on me and tracking me
3. Just me wont make a huge difference
4. (the stupid person) I already pay for my PC and internet

So i am just curious, which one are you and why?

I also have a few questions:

• What category do you fall in?
• Do you compensate websites by donating to them?
• How often do you use an ad blocker?
• do you "whitelist" any sites?
• if you use one for privacy reasons, do you pay for services (example, yt premium, "memberships" for websites, etc.)
• If you said you do it because you dont care about websites and ads are just super annoying, why do you feel entitled to keep using their services? For example, if you constanly upload 4k youtube videos and make money, and you watch youtube all day, but still dont let ads play. It feels un ethical to me, but thats just me.
• if you said you already pay for your internet and therefore everything on the internet should be free, you do realize you are only paying for a cable going to your home to your isp to the rest of the world and the cost of maintaining it, right?
• why do you use one if you dont meet any category above?

My opinion: I think ad filters, like blocking harmful ads is okay. but to block all, is kind of bad. I mean if everyone did it, rip all free services. approx. 30 million people in the USA use adblockers. imagine paying for everything, youtube, ltt forum, reddit, twitter, facebook, amazon, ebay, everything.

Edit: One more thing, SCREW YOUTUBE FOR ADDING DOUBLE ADS

[SenKa]

Depends on the websites. Heres a couple major ones for me:

 

eBay: They already take an exorbitant amount out of what I make, so fuck them.

Craigslist: Do they even show ads? I've never seen an ad on CL even on devices without adblock.

Amazon: They take enough of my money via amazon Prime, which gets bumped in price basically every year.

LTT Forums: From what I understand mixed with simple reasoning, most of LTT's ad revenue is generated by things that can't be blocked anyways, such as their sponsor spots in videos. Whatever they lose off that massive madrinas coffee ad is pennies compared to what theyre already making.

YT: I donate to all of the creators I support, I feel as if this makes up for it and them some because I donate via Streamlabs or Paypal, which do not take massive cuts like YT Super Chat does.

Reddit: I don't feel bad for Advance Publications.

Twitter: Super don't feel bad for Jack Dorsey either.

Facebook: Fucc zucc

 

Other questions:

I donate whenever I can

I don't whitelist any sites, I just pause the adblock manually should I need to.

I don't think I meet any of the 4 criteria above, so I'll answer... I use an adblock because I find it the only way my voice can be heard even in the slightest to massive companies, also makes getting virus' less likely even though I am a fairly adept person with PC's. If I ever want/need to download something sketch I use a VM.

[Windows7ge]

I'm the kind of guy who dislikes ads but still wants to support content creators and certain smaller websites. So I have white-listed some. I'm quite compelled to build a Pi-hole though and if Linus says buy a shirt to make up the difference for LMG then hell why not. My current hoodie is a little beat up just from age anyways.

 

My other concern would be security. A lot of the ads I see on a lot of sites are redirects to really sketchy places. Too many websites don't police their ads very well and I'm not about to give myself a virus due to a mis-click because they didn't feel like holding up their half of the bargain.

 

Also how a lot of websites go about serving the ads are in my opinion excessive. Full screen pop-ups or just pop-ups in general that interrupt what you're doing drive people off the platform (or to an adblocker).

 

I have thought about why is it not possible to design an adblocker that downloads the ads but just doesn't allow them to be displayed? The website advertisers wouldn't know the difference and clients still wouldn't see them, and the site owner would still get the revenue.

[Arika]

I use an ad blocker.

 

Partly due to privacy and partly due to annoyances. There are some websites i use that i cannot turn my ad blocker off otherwise like 60% of the page is ads. There's ads to keep your website running, and then there's just hugely over the top.

 

I will also admit i run it on youtube in some cases. It's automatically set to off on YT, but if i come across a video that overdoes it on the pre-roll and mid-roll ads (i'm not talking about mid video ad-reads from the youtuber) then i fire up the ad blocker.

 

There has been a large number of channel's i've just thrown like $20 at to a patreon or what ever donation system (or on twitch if they happen to be a streamer) they have set up and i dont feel bad about turning on adblocker for those since i watch so much of their content and the $20 is going to be way more that what they would get from my ad views. i was a RoosterTeeth first member for like 2 years. The amount of money they got from that pretty much covers me for life for the rest of their videos, so I turn adblocker on for that too.

 

TBH i would prefer youtubers stop using youtube ads all together and just do their own ad reads during the videos. it's much less jarring and likely going to be actually relevant to their audience than youtube's broken algorithm 

[TetraSky]

Adblocking isn't just about ads these days.

It's also your first line of defense against crap on the internet. Too many ads that tries to infect your computer with shit.

It can also be used to block out some elements on a website that honestly are just a massive annoyance and terrible design. Like a website that puts a huge banner that never goes away after scrolling down... Or have large white space on a dark themed website for some insane reason.

 

 

But to answer your questions in order

• 1-2-3 and 5, security reasons.
• If I did that with every websites I visit, I'd go bankrupt.
• All the time.
• Some, like youtube.
• No.
• It's not the few pennies they'd make off me in a year that'd truly make a difference. Sure it could be argued that if EVERYONE didn't use an adblocker, then those pennies would add up to dollars and what not... But screw that idealistic crap.

If you offer something of value, ads wouldn't matter anyway as you'd have other means of revenue. Any site owner with a brain should know to at least have some sort of web store to sell merch or accept donations at the very least if they aren't the kind of websites that attracts things like sponsors.

[SenKa]

1 minute ago, Arika S said:

TBH i would prefer youtubers stop using youtube ads all together and just do their own ad reads during the videos. it's much less jarring and likely going to be actually relevant to their audience than youtube's broken algorithm 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Though, this may cause trouble for smaller youtubers who can't ring up dyson and say "ey gimmie a vacuum ill feature it in my vidyah", because big companies don't care about small channels.

[desertcomputer]

32 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

I mean if everyone did it, rip all free services. approx. 30 million people in the USA use adblockers. imagine paying for everything, youtube, ltt forum, reddit, twitter, facebook, amazon, ebay, everything.

 

These services aren't free, you're paying them with your personal information.

 

I would much rather pay for these service then having ads which tracks and monitor you.

 

 

 

[The1Dickens]

This feels like bait, but I'm curious to see where this goes...

6 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

What category do you fall in?

None of those, explicitly. I disdain ads for services and products I have no interest in, or from major corporations just trying to flood you with their name.

8 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

Do you compensate websites by donating to them?

Directly, no. I don't track my time, find a calculator and determine some monetary amount and then cut a check. If there are affiliate links, I try to use them if the site proved helpful. If the site offers a subscription with value, then I might consider it.

10 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

How often do you use an ad blocker?

I currently have Adblock+ and uBlock Origin installed to filter out as much crap advertisement as possible.

 

11 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

if you use one for privacy reasons, do you pay for services (example, yt premium, "memberships" for websites, etc.)

I've tried going down that road, and each site that claims to go "ad free for a subscription fee" can't sustain itself (for some reason) and you wind up being fed ads regardless of having paid for a subscription.

13 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

If you said you do it because you dont care about websites and ads are just super annoying, why do you feel entitled to keep using their services? For example, if you constanly upload 4k youtube videos and make money, and you watch youtube all day, but still dont let ads play. It feels un ethical to me, but thats just me.

If someone doesn't care about a website, they won't continue to visit it. Ads or not is not going to make them suddenly care. Too many ads, on the other hand, will push users away.

 

22 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

if you said you already pay for your internet and therefore everything on the internet should be free, you do realize you are only paying for a cable going to your home to your isp to the rest of the world and the cost of maintaining it, right?

I'd wager that this category of person falls well into the minority of people, most of whom don't understand how the internet works. I can't even play devil's advocate on this one, because I wouldn't even begin to know how.

27 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

why do you use one if you dont meet any category above?

I use it because much of the advertising I see just simply doesn't apply to me. Somehow, my "profile" of being a 33-year old white male living in Southern California pegs me as someone who dines at Red Lobster, drinks ALL THE BEERS, watches sports, and has a romantic partner whom I will purchase jewelry for, or will buy me jewelry. I can't remember the last time I saw an ad for something that was actually useful to me. I buy store-brand products, mostly, and if I have an urge to learn about something, I will scour the internet where communities gather to learn what I can and see what other options are available.

 

32 minutes ago, iKingRPG said:

My opinion: I think ad filters, like blocking harmful ads is okay. but to block all, is kind of bad. I mean if everyone did it, rip all free services. approx. 30 million people in the USA use adblockers. imagine paying for everything, youtube, ltt forum, reddit, twitter, facebook, amazon, ebay, everything.

30 million people are probably tired of being force-fed advertisements for major corporations who they either have to use, due to no viable competitors (often the case in telecom), don't do business with because of terrible experiences, or do business with because of good experiences. The number of people who have learned of a new service, product, or company through advertisement is likely in the thousands, if not hundreds. Today's advertising is archaic and runs on the rule of "flood you with Company A media so you don't even think of anyone else", which only comes from corporations who are plenty big enough and don't even need advertisement.

[kirashi]

1 hour ago, iKingRPG said:

Don't worry, i wont cuss you out for using an adblocker. Im just curious

first of all, i am aware there is 4 major types of adblock users,

1. Ads are annoying and i dont care about the websites i visit losing a couple dollars
2. I dont want companies spying on me and tracking me
3. Just me wont make a huge difference
4. (the stupid person) I already pay for my PC and internet

So i am just curious, which one are you and why?

Primarily? None of the above; I block ads because I consider them insecure by design. Ad networks are third parties to the websites hosting their ads, and more often than not don't bother to ensure the redirect URLs, ad content, or purchasers of the advertisements are using them for legitimate purposes. I will continue blocking ads until I, the user, am able to personally trace every ad back to the originating purchaser of said ad, including full name, address, and contact number, or at least until ad networks allow users to file claims against the ads that can be tracked & followed up on.

 

1 hour ago, iKingRPG said:

I also have a few questions:

• What category do you fall in?
  • You already asked this before this list of questions - see above answer.
• Do you compensate websites by donating to them?
  • Highly dependent on the value the website or service is providing me. Spotify? HELL YES, I've been a subscriber since they became available in Canada in Fall 2014, and wish I had been able to subscribe sooner. YouTube? Sorry, but in Canada, RedTube, I mean, YouTube Red doesn't provide good value to me because I am unable to view US-only content.
• How often do you use an ad blocker?
  • 24/7/365
• do you "whitelist" any sites?
  • Only those sites that have failed UI/UX design testing, causing my adblocker to prevent the UI from working correctly, and even then, it's a temporary whitelist - once I'm done using the site, adblocker is re-enabled for the service.
• if you use one for privacy reasons, do you pay for services (example, yt premium, "memberships" for websites, etc.)
  • Privacy is low on the totem pole, because even if you pay for a service, you, the user, are still the product. The only way to prevent this is to not use the service, or host an equivalent service on your own servers so you have full control over the privacy and security of your data.
• If you said you do it because you dont care about websites and ads are just super annoying, why do you feel entitled to keep using their services?
  • N/A, but on a related note, ads today compared to the popup & banner ads of the late 1990's and early 2000's are a lot less invasive. On the other hand, since many people don't have "unlimited" (read: falsely advertised actually limited) data plans, I used to waste my mobile data loading 20mb video ads without compensation for overages, which is unacceptable as I have no way of knowing if an ad is going to be 1mb or 20mb before it loads.
• if you said you already pay for your internet ... you do realize you are only paying for a cable going to your home to your isp ... right?
  • Yes. The connection between my house, the node, the CMTS in the headend, up to the internet exchange is what I pay for - everything else isn't covered by that, and instead is either funded by user subscriptions or the webserver owners themselves, which is their choice to do so.
• why do you use one if you dont meet any category above?
  • N/A

[GetacFanboy]

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What category do you fall in?

Mainly "Ads are annoying and i dont care about the websites i visit losing a couple dollars"

However I don't care about all ads. Just don't like to risk it because of all the sites that do have annoying ads.

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Do you compensate websites by donating to them?

I've donated to VB-Audio because I love their software and I'm planning to buy LTT merch soon. Other than that, no. I have to really love a product before I'd directly support a company. 

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How often do you use an ad blocker?

On all 5 of my laptops (One in particular is a very old single core laptop that primarily serves as a VoiceMeeter Banana machine but sometimes required chrome to open a lastpass vault. Pages load significantly faster with the adblocker) , My gaming desktop, my office desktop, pretty much all my machines except my android phone and tablet, though I do watch youtube on my phone quite a bit. Makes me feel less bad about using an ad blocker on youtube. 

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do you "whitelist" any sites?

Yes, actually, many news sites especially will have pop ups that don't let you view the page unless you whitelist them and I typically do it. I feel like if a site is struggling enough to do that, it's worth whitelisting them. That said it's super shady when they abuse their whitelist privilege with annoying video or audio ads. That just pisses me off. 

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If you said you do it because you dont care about websites and ads are just super annoying, why do you feel entitled to keep using their services? For example, if you constanly upload 4k youtube videos and make money, and you watch youtube all day, but still dont let ads play. It feels un ethical to me, but thats just me.

Could have worded that less condescendingly, but for youtube specifically:

1) I still let ads play on my phone and feel like those ads still make me profitable

2) Google still mines and sells my data to advertisers

3) I still see a lot of ads from google. Search results still have ads, and I'm okay with it. I run the ad blocker to block intrusive ads, not all ads, it's just a side effect that some (but less than you would think) get blocked as a result.

4) I have youtube premium anyway. 

In general:

1) Many services have other revenue streams, and ads are not their only income generated from me.

2) Not all ads are blocked by my ad blocker.

3) If it became enough of a problem the site would force users to whitelist the ad blocker before using the site, and many sites do that

4) I don't mind paying for services I like and if it's a good enough service I'll probably upgrade to a membership of some sort.

5) I do care about the websites, and don't mind non intrusive ads. To me it's the sites that abuse that privilege that forced me to make the decision. I actually made the decision to go with the specific ad blocker that I did because it finds a balance between blocking too many ads that sites don't become profitable and keeping my protected from intrusive ads.

My ad blocker even has this message when you first install it:

 

"AdBlock started blocking intrusive ads the moment it was installed. But you may see a few non-intrusive ads on some sites. We try to be good web neighbors by striking a balance between protecting you from bad ads and depriving responsible sites of the revenue they need to provide the content you love. You can opt out now or turn this setting on or off later in AdBlock's options. It's your choice, always."

 

 

Quote

My opinion: I think ad filters, like blocking harmful ads is okay. but to block all, is kind of bad. I mean if everyone did it, rip all free services. approx. 30 million people in the USA use adblockers. imagine paying for everything, youtube, ltt forum, reddit, twitter, facebook, amazon, ebay, everything.

Most adblockers are like mine and don't block all ads and are "filters" like you say. 

I still see ads on the forum, reddit, twitter, (I don't use facebook so idk), and not all but some on eBay. I have youtube premium so I'm not sure if I'd see ads without my ad blocker or not. Also, I don't know that it's that big of a deal to pay a few bucks to support your favorite services. If all my favorite services started charging $2-5 /mo I'd probably pay for them ngl. 

 

 

[XR6]

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What category do you fall in?

1 and 2.

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1. Ads are annoying and i dont care about the websites i visit losing a couple dollars
2. I dont want companies spying on me and tracking me

 

Quote

Do you compensate websites by donating to them?

I don't compensate websites, but I do give some money to content creators on youtube that I watch frequently.

 

Quote

How often do you use an ad blocker?

I use it all the time. If I'm using my computer then I'm using an ad blocker.

 

Quote

do you "whitelist" any sites?

Only if I have to.

 

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if you use one for privacy reasons, do you pay for services (example, yt premium, "memberships" for websites, etc.)

I only pay for spotify at the moment but I might get a floatplane subscription and a bronze/silver contributor subscription soon.

[iKingRPG]

On 10/5/2019 at 11:38 PM, TetraSky said:

Adblocking isn't just about ads these days.

It's also your first line of defense against crap on the internet. Too many ads that tries to infect your computer with shit.

It can also be used to block out some elements on a website that honestly are just a massive annoyance and terrible design. Like a website that puts a huge banner that never goes away after scrolling down... Or have large white space on a dark themed website for some insane reason.

 

 

But to answer your questions in order

• 1-2-3 and 5, security reasons.
• If I did that with every websites I visit, I'd go bankrupt.
• All the time.
• Some, like youtube.
• No.
• It's not the few pennies they'd make off me in a year that'd truly make a difference. Sure it could be argued that if EVERYONE didn't use an adblocker, then those pennies would add up to dollars and what not... But screw that idealistic crap.

If you offer something of value, ads wouldn't matter anyway as you'd have other means of revenue. Any site owner with a brain should know to at least have some sort of web store to sell merch or accept donations at the very least if they aren't the kind of websites that attracts things like sponsors.

I'm happy that you guys are taking to time to actually give me good and reasonable answers. I asked on Reddit, and half of the people were like "SCREW YOUTUBE, AND I WANT TO PIRATE BLUE RAY RIPS WITHOUT ANY ADS"

[minibois]

If I use the site often, I disable AdBlock to see if the ads are bearable. Once I see three or more instances of frankly terrible advertising, autoplaying videos or other sorts of ads that should NOT have been approved for publishing on your site; I block the ads again .

But only on my desktop/laptop, not on my phone.

 

On YouTube I do have AdBlock turned off for some channels, but many of them not.

For example, if I just watched one or more ad(s), I don't want to hear another pre-roll ad baked into the video. That feels unfair to me.

 

I understand AdSense won't pay the bills and they need to do more ad spots. I understand the YouTuber cannot dictate if I will get an ad (they can enable/disable ads, but enabling will only make it so a portion of the audience gets ads. I.e. if you just watched two ads in a row, YouTube won't just serve another one later).

 

I am not really in the position financially to commit to supporting certain YouTubers/websites.. but have considered doing that for the certain groups I do feel like I should support.

 

What it comes down to, is that with every ad view I will keep up a website/YouTuber and how do I know I want to support that without knowing who that is?

Well yes, I support a YouTuber automatically by clicking on a video.. but you kind of get what I mean.

[iKingRPG]

On 10/5/2019 at 11:32 PM, SenKa said:

Craigslist: Do they even show ads? I've never seen an ad on CL even on devices without adblock.

Well the whole point of Craigslist is free advertising lol

[AbsoluteFool]

Am i the only one till now that doessn't use adblock? Ok. I have tested it. But honestly as i own websites that show ads (Not those autoplaying video ads or full screen pop-ups etc). But i do prefer watching an ad instead of donating or subscribing directly. Although i do that aswell, moustly on rotation, one month here, another month there and so on.

 

To be completely hoest no i wouldn't feel bad about using adblocker on bigger websites like google, youtube or amazon. My however, concern here is that the internet will close behind a payment wall if everyone use adblocker. And it will, it's already happening here.

 

What's really needed is a clear policy on how ads are shown. Like here in Norway you must write "advertisement" over the ad. Otherwise it's against the law.

I also think the data gathering and mining google does with the data is idiotic. it's mass manipulation that are directly corruptive, and is used for corruption aswell.

[Kilrah]

On 10/6/2019 at 6:06 AM, iKingRPG said:

Ads are annoying and i dont care about the websites i visit losing a couple dollars

Ads are super annoying and give the poster so little money that being annoyingly exposed to ads daily for a month on a site you visit a lot brings them less than if you just threw them a measly dollar per month directly, so the return is definitely not worth the burden.

 

So adblock everywhere, and the sites/creators I appreciate I support them directly when they give a way to. I have Youtube Premium, plus I give about $30/month total direct to various things I like through their Patreon pages or equivalent.