An analysis of Ad-blocking

[Ghost]

I'll preface this by saying that the report in question was posted in September 9, 2014. So it isn't the newest news, but I feel it's interesting to discuss.

 

Ad-blocking growth is growing, and online content creators are suffering. This is evident from the low CPM of Youtube, but extrapolating a bit from the advertising information we know about YouTube and the graph below, we can assume that all the free content on the web is in trouble. This is the full report is linked below, and I recommend reading it. What are your thoughts on growing ad-block usage, and the results of it on the internet?

 

Take away from the report:

• Ad-block usage is going mainstream
• Although it's mostly the younger generation using ad-block now, as younger generation grows, only ad-block users will replace them.
• Ad-block mostly spreads by word-of-mouth.

I'm going to take this moment to remind people that this forum is not exempt from this, in fact, as most of you are tech enthusiasts, you are even more likely to all have adblock. Remember that you can disable adblock on the forum and there is a contributor option here, if you want to support the forum: http://bit.ly/LTT_Contribution .

 

In addition, you can disable adblock for specific YouTube channels, more info can be found here: http://bit.ly/LTT_YT_AB_Whitelist

 

Full Report Link

 

Other Ad-block Reports by PageFair

[minibois]

Yeah, ABP is becoming one of the biggest Chrome/FF extension installs it seems

I have ABP disabled on LTT (forum), but not on YouTube anymore.

The ads on there have gotten pretty insane (as in long, frequent and just plain weird) and in the videos there are pretty much always sponsors too, so why would I need to watch another ad?? (<- that's just how my brain thinks about it..)

 

But it seems pretty sad.. Don't want to see YouTube become paid.. The content is usually just not worth it

[HeyKitty]

I have fully stopped watching tv because of all the ads. Please don't let ads ruin the internet for me too. :'(

[Guest Kloaked]

I have fully stopped watching tv because of all the ads. Please don't let ads ruin the internet for me too. :'(

 

Content creators gotta eat

[shert73]

Give us the option. I'd pay not to watch adds and support the content creators, and the people providing the platform in which I get to watch it (youtube ,twitch ect..) It cost money to provide us with said content.

[Thorium19]

I disable adblock for websites like LTT and twitch, although I don't on youtube due to the idiotic prerolls that are getting worse and worse every time (curse you google, not giving content creators control of adverts). I agree it's becoming an issue for free content now, however that is due to the poorly constructed adverts that are before things in youtube. If, like on LTT, the content creator could control what adverts are shown, then I would happily disable adblock on youtube. But until a time when that happens, I won't disable adblock and I can't afford to contribute to creators I value either.

[Sakkura]

I've disabled adblock on linustechtips.com but don't see any ads anyway. *Shrug*

[Trik'Stari]

I don't have adblock. I have a free month of bronze contributor status, and thus no ads.

 

If I could I'd be a full time bronze contributor.

[Sauron]

Hopefully the business model evolves positively.

[mr moose]

I don't use any form of adblocking software.  In the end it will only lead to where websites will all become payed services. I'll suffer one or two dumb ads so I don't have to pay for youtube.   The thing that annoys me is that the more people who use adblock the closer this comes so people like me won't even have the choice in the end.

[rambi36]

I fucking hate ads and i'll do anything to get rid of them 

[xentric]

I assume lot of website have been hit hard by ad-block and I have heard long time Youtube creators say the ad revenue has drop significantly over the last few years. (which I think is googles changes and adblock) I think it hurts the nature of the internet. We see ads but the site and it's content is free to us has visitors. Without the ad money how can they fund to improve the site and keep it running?

 

I hear the argument that I pay for the internet why should I see ads. This argument holds up for TV because a lot of the cable providers own the many of the networks but with the internet ISP don't have a stake in most sites.   

 

The fact that adblock goes to these companies and says "if you pay us we won't block your ads" is shady. Almost like Yelp pushing positive reviews forward to paying companies and negative reviews to non-paying.

 

I do agree that ads on the internet need to change and the model should change. My rule of thumb is if a site has annoying ads. (example: tomshardware) I don't visit that site anymore.

[Diederik_Gr]

Is there still no such thing as admuter around? I have no problems with ads just sitting around on my screen, my screen is big enough to look past them. It's the ads with sound that annoy me, really annoying to hear a commercial through your music.

[Ghost]

Is there still no such thing as admuter around? I have no problems with ads just sitting around on my screen, my screen is big enough to look past them. It's the ads with sound that annoy me, really annoying to hear a commercial through your music.

I know some people just disable flash on their browser, or have it so they explicitly need to allow all flash content on the page. Most of the video/animated ads use flash.

[Paralectic]

In my opinion if ad revenue is your dependce you should look in other ways of gaining money, I am not on a website to see advertisements.

Okay, your website is "free" but it should be a part of your service.

That's for regular websites.

For Youtube? I wouldn't mind the advertisements if they weren't as they were now. Long video's with annoying content, no thanks. A small pop-up with text and a link? I wouldn't mind that.

[SurvivorNVL]

I remember in a recent Totalbiscuit video he said that subscribing on Twitch is the equivalent of 500 people viewing ads on youtube.  That to me shows how far adblocking has pushed youtube's payments to its creators.  I can admit I use adguard, but to balance that--I subscribe, use affiliate links, and buy crap tons of shirts and merch.  Also will be upgradin' to Silver on the forum soon.  I'm sure there're a lot of people out there, though - that just don't care.  I still think Linus should have a subscriber button on the Twitch channel too.  Subscriber only after-parties!

[Guest]

I have AdGuard enabled on every site except the ones I actually want to support (like this forum). But one sites like YouTube, where I have had a 40 MINUTE AD, I have it enabled.

[ADZ_123_!"£]

If I believe that a website is very good, like this forum then I will disable it but on youtube as much as I would like to just be able to disable it for the LTT channel but some of the ads for me on youtube are just to much.

[Suika]

My issue is, I don't support obtrusive advertising in the slightest. If your ads play music and consumes the majority of the bandwidth from that webpage, I won't hesitate to use adblock, simply because my net isn't fast enough to handle it. I'm downloading MSI afterburner right now, and I'm 18.2MB, halfway through, with an estimated 6-13 minutes left.

 

YouTube is the absolute worst. Their ads combined with my generally poor internet connection prevents me from watching videos a lot of the time, I wait for the entire ad to load and finish but the video doesn't start because the ad had to stop several times to load the ad (and it's forced to load in high quality, it doesn't match the quality that my connection can actually stream). It's a terrible system that only motivates me to avoid ads.

 

On that same note, I won't hesitate to support channels, I've donated plenty of money to LMG (I think I donated around $30-40) and use the Amazon referral link rather often (that's how I bought my GTX 970). I've donated money to both JayzTwoCents and Barnacules Nerdgasm, and there are other creators that I've been meaning to donate money to as well.

 

I support content creators, I don't support obtrusive advertisements.

[CyanideInsanity]

I wonder if obnoxious ads, such as the various forms of popping up or video ads you can't mute or pause, have largely helped increase the number of adblock users. Thats why I used adblock, and whilelist places I frequent. What really sucks about these annoying ads is that I'm pretty sure most places can only report ads that have been reported by users to whichever ad provider they use.

 

I don't mind ads, but when I'm trying to read something I don't need a video playing, even more so if I've got multiple tabs of the same website going all playing a video ad...

[Michael McAllister]

I know some people just disable flash on their browser, or have it so they explicitly need to allow all flash content on the page. Most of the video/animated ads use flash.

 

I uninstalled Flash in FF.  Crashes way too often.

[Briggsy]

People are like water. they will always take the path of least resistance. If you give a person a choice, they will always take the one that is more comfortable, even if its actually more painful and damaging in the long term. 

 

As long as a means exists to block ads, a majority of people will use ad block, to hell with the long term consequences. That logic works in every area of life. Give a child a choice, and they will pick the more appealing one every time, not the smart one. Give an employee a choice of doing things the old way or the new way, and they will want to stick to the old way. 

 

The win-win solution is to find less intrusive ways to advertise. But intrusive is a subjective term it seems. some people I know think ad banners are intrusive.

[othertomperson]

Ads track your web activity, download stuff automatically to your pc, play sounds automatically while you're trying to do other stuff. Is it any wonder that people turn them off when they can?

 

We need to stop villifying people for objecting to shitty businiess practices and pay for content in less obnoxions ways.

[Lewellyn]

Barring the fact that advertising is 'content' that no one wants to look at anyways and that even the way amazon tries to cater to your wants is completely asinine, intrusive advertising and hideous website tactics (such as encouraging users to load an entire new page for each piece of content in an article) are big reasons why I use ad block shamelessly. An advertisement on the sidebar is ugly enough (with generally flashy + distracting animation) that I don't need YouTube plastering ads during (with clickbaiting pop ups) and IN THE MIDDLE OF a video that I'm watching. Seriously, right in the middle of viewing something and it abruptly cuts to an ad. Television shows are edited specifically for that format of ad placement but most videos on YT are not, and it's a huge disconnect.

 

I support TotalBiscuit through a Twitch subscription because Google can't be asked to design proper ad placements. I don't have the funds to do this for every content creator or website I like, something something income effect. Pay-walling content was recently shown in the works for YouTube channels to implement, and quite frankly that's simply viewership suicide. YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, and other forums exist with the popularity they do now because of being free access. Nexus Mods is one of the view large websites I can name offhand that runs itself almost solely off of premium membership subscriptions, and also with a one time 2 dollar payment for ad free. Other sites aren't able to offer that premium membership because there is very little the site actually does besides host content and ads while the Nexus is an actual hosting/downloading service that can be deemed quality enough to pay for. It's a value concept that people have yet to properly address.

[anders_b]

the only reason i use adblock is beacuse of sites like youtube that is just haveing to manny ads and it is disabled on ltt