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motulist

motulist

macrumors 601
Original poster
I never installed an ad blocker before because I felt like I want to support the web sites that I visit by at least letting them display ads when I visit, but over the past year web ads have gotten ridiculously obnoxious and disruptive so I decided I finally had to install an ad blocker on my browser. And WOW! My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner! It's like the web is alive again!

I highly suggest that everyone out there install an ad blocker on their web browser.
 
Can you list some suggested ad blockers... and the browsers that they correspond to? That would be helpful
 
I just installed pithhelmet for safari, and so far it's flawless. I'm running safari 1.3.2 on OS 10.3.9 panther.
 
I have the same feelings as you once did, I feel I should "pay" the websites by at least looking at the ads.

Plus, some of those Crucial ads are pretty funny.
 
Ads don't bother me, actually.

If they're overly obtrusive ads, I just don't go back. Actually, you can tell a lot about a site's credibility by the type of ads they allow, so in that sense, they're quite useful.
 
EricNau said:
If they're overly obtrusive ads, I just don't go back.
Click to expand...
Well, take a site like Penny Arcade. I like reading the posts, then the comic. Problem is the ads (however relevant they may be) are annoying flashing images and colors than make it extremely difficult to focus on the content. I'm not bothered by low contrast, static ads (especially Google text ads), the problem is many GOOD sites are increasingly displaying horrible, distracting ads.
 
motulist said:
I never installed an ad blocker before because I felt like I want to support the web sites that I visit by at least letting them display ads when I visit, but over the past year web ads have gotten ridiculously obnoxious and disruptive so I decided I finally had to install an ad blocker on my browser. And WOW! My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner! It's like the web is alive again!

I highly suggest that everyone out there install an ad blocker on their web browser.
Click to expand...

Ads don't always bother me, like the one of the shaved britney spears on Myspace 😛 but here on macrumors the ads aren't quite big, and sometimes they don't show up..
 
Cassie said:
I have the same feelings as you once did, I feel I should "pay" the websites by at least looking at the ads.

Plus, some of those Crucial ads are pretty funny.
Click to expand...


that was a huge topic in NPR.

Is it unethical to block ads from the internet?
 
I don't mind ads. I actually like ads. Google Ads are, for the most part, actually more helpful than obtrusive. Blocking that kind of ads are, in my opinion, not only a stupid overreaction, but can also be harmful because it will reduce revenue of sites, and force them to reduce their contents and/or even be "forced" to add more "interactive" ads...

But I do hate flash ads. With all my heart. So I usually have some sort of ad-/flash-blocker installed. Adblock Plus (for Firefox/Netscape Navigator) or SafariBlock (which can import filters from ABP) with a general "*ads*.swf*"-filter seems to make the Internet a better place...
 
I don't mind static ads at all and sometimes even click on them to help a sites revenue stream, but some of the 'attention grabbing' ads of late (even Apple's) just go too far, so sadly I've re-enabled PithHelmet for the majority of sites that I visit.
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I usually have some sort of ad-/flash-blocker installed. Adblock Plus (for Firefox/Netscape Navigator) or SafariBlock (which can import filters from ABP) with a general "*ads*.swf*"-filter seems to make the Internet a better place...
Click to expand...

Do you know if there's a way to make pithhelmet do that? I like to support sites I visit, so I'm willing to accept text and static graphic ads, but I'm not willing to put up with animated ads and absolutely no flash ads. I don't see an obvious way to set pith up that way.
 
Yep, ad blocking is the way forward...

I use AdBlock for Firefox with the FilterSet G definition set on both my PC and Mac. Works a treat. The websites I visit already have way too much money - they don't need my 1 cent per click.
 
I dislike animated ads, having dyslexia, it is impossible for me to read!🙁 Other wise I really don't mine them.
 
I have adblock running on Firefox, but I always use the "disable on this site" button on sites that I visit regularly (so long as the ads aren't eye-burning). Moral issue solved 🙂
 
motulist said:
I never installed an ad blocker before because I felt like I want to support the web sites that I visit by at least letting them display ads when I visit
Click to expand...

Wow.

I never knew people did this. Amazing. I've used Adblock since I started using Firefox...4 years ago now. Haven't seen an ad in years. When one sneaks by, I use asterices to block whatever part of it I missed in previous sweeps. For some sites (tribalfusion, atdmt, etc), I block the entire domains. I don't tolerate ads on television, and I don't tolerate ads on the internet. I can't believe some folks deem it a moral obligation to allow corporations to play mind games with them. We've really been brainwashed as a society.
 
The reason i blocked ads on my browser is because i dont click on ads anyways. It serves me no point to have a flashing box of text next to whatever i wanna read if i will not click on it out of principle. I dont think i have ever clicked on an ad found on a website, and that includes Google Adwords.
 
Blubbert said:
The reason i blocked ads on my browser is because i dont click on ads anyways. It serves me no point to have a flashing box of text next to whatever i wanna read if i will not click on it out of principle. I dont think i have ever clicked on an ad found on a website, and that includes Google Adwords.
Click to expand...

same here, I have it so that I may not accidentally click on an annoying ad.
 
heatmiser said:
I can't believe some folks deem it a moral obligation to allow corporations to play mind games with them. We've really been brainwashed as a society.
Click to expand...

Um, I don't want to get into a ad blocking debate... but I feel I have to point out that MacRumors is not a big corporation. It's a fan-run site owned site run by one person (part-time) and with a number of volunteers. The site runs on 5 dedicated servers that cost in excess of $20,000 a year. Ads pay for the site to exist and for me to spend extra time on the site. Now, I'm not going to paint a sob-story saying that I need the money to eat, as ad revenue has been better the past couple of years. But there was a time (2001-2002) when ad-income brought in less than the site cost to run. During that time, I spent money out of my pocket to keep the site running.

So, yes, if you spend time on the site, its in your best interest to support the ads. Whether that is simply letting them display, buying stuff through them, or paying $25 to the site to turn off most ads.

I do what I can to eliminate the annoying ads, don't use pop-ups or interstitials. Ad revenue will be used to pay for a professional web designer and provide coverage at macworld amongst other things for the site.

arn
 
arn said:
...The site runs on 5 dedicated servers that cost in excess of $20,000 a year. Ads pay for the site to exist and for me to spend extra time on the site...
arn
Click to expand...
wow!! i didn't know that the servers cost so much..
 
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