Blocking Addblock

[NorthSky]

Some forum members encourage their good fellow members to use Addblock for improving speed, surfing, etc. Most sites encourage you to explore adds of interest by clicking on them.
I usually click on adds and often buy the products I'm interested in, like Blu-rays, some TVs, many Blu-ray players, HDMI cables, computer equipment, phones, batteries, adaptors, connectors, power cords, etc., etc., etc. I spent easily in excess of half million dollars on buying advertised products from some sites that I am a member of in the last twenty years. I don't use Addblock when surfing 99% of the time with portable devices.

And yet, on one site where I am a respectable member with the utmost impeccable reputation and coordination and contribution, I got this:

"NorthGalaxy, because we have detected that you are, or have recently been blocking adverts, your account has been limited. Click here to find out how and why your account has been limited. While we respect your right to block ads, in order to make the funds we need to keep AVForums running, we encourage you to allow, and if they are of interest, click our adverts. Learn how to disable ad blocking on AVForums here.
Thank you."

I understand very well that my spendings help the community. And my contributions help to promote the site's philosophy. There are many websites, for audio/video products where members are encouraged to purchase the advertised audio/video products. That's why they have forums with many members, to expand the people experience and knowledge, to share and enjoy the camaraderie.

Knowledge is part of science, discussions and various opinions are part of forums communities.
Explorations, discoveries, analyses, experimentations...are all part of education, advancement, living in a better more informed world.

How many millions of dollars does it take to enjoy music and movies?

 

[amirm]

That's pretty unusual in a forum. I have only seen restrictions on news sites, not forums.

 

[Wombat]

I accept traditional advertising as a means to subsidise or pay for services but when my web browsing comes back at me as multiple targeted advertisements or email offers I am not pleased. Sites that allow these Ads. get blocked by me and unsolicited emails get unsubscribed, then deleted. Enough, I say.

Recently my mobile phone service provider sent me an email proudly announcing the activation of international roaming on my phone. I didn't ask for it, don't want it, told them so in reply - haven't heard back.. The same provider should be so proactive about their IP service problems.

 

[NorthSky]

That's pretty unusual in a forum. I have only seen restrictions on news sites, not forums.

What I quoted there in blue is the exact message I got each time I log in.
It feels like...unwelcome.

 

[Wombat]

I recently posted a DIY article on AUDIOKARMA. Because the article was about a particular product and information on pricing and sourcing of the product was included the post was relegated to the Dollars and Sense thread - lost in the for-sale and wanted items.

I then noticed the plethora of paid advertisements that are on the site - possibly because after stripping my PC and reloading it I haven't reinstalled the Ad-blocker yet. My observation is that forum sites that have advertisers become protective of them and members need to toe-the-line.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Gearslutz forums have a warning too. They don't block you, but just nag you to turn off the adblocker.

BTW, if you haven't tried it ublock origin and umatrix are better adblockers than Adblock Plus to me.

 

[NorthSky]

ASR is the only site that has zero advertising. That to me is something of high value, highly beneficial and a right emphasis on education, advancement. It's a good step anyway. I tend to support unbiased sites.

 

[esm]

I find the internet nearly unusable without an ad-blocker. Any site that tells me to go away if I use one had better have a high enough value for me to give them money directly, or I'll just do what they asked: leave. It turns out, forums aren't very useful without the people.

(I say this as someone who donates to ASR on Patreon, along with a lot of independent artists whose work I enjoy.)

 

[NorthSky]

It's the people who make the real value in forums, not the adds.
The adds are a business, a source of income, not a source of advanced information and beneficial education. ...In my view.

Adds slow down everything, adds want your private information, adds want to violate your privacy, and when sites don't want you to use add-blocks you know what you're dealing with. Adds slow down your education, your browsing peace.

There are members here who know how to neutralize adds without using add-blocks and without the site even knowing about it, by the way.

Privacy is the most important thing in a communication world; independence and freedom of speech. If we don't value that we don't value much @ all.
This balance we pay for it, the internet isn't free, I pay $1,200+ a year just to be informed. I don't need adds and all that soupuped pizzazz.

When people don't respect your privacy and way of living it's best to simply walk away.
No one gets hurt and everyone is happy. Adds are not human, they are robots, bots, they are there to sell you something, even if you don't need anything.

I have zero problem with adds, I can make them disappear without anyone knowing about it. My problem resides somewhere else, not with adds. But yes adds are annoying because they do indeed slow down the navigation.

And it's very true that some sites don't want you to navigate smoothly.
When friends come to visit no one is telling anyone how they should be living their lives and what kind of music to listen to and what movies and what food and what car and what anything. Friends know best, they respect everyone without adds.

You, I, we give our best. If our best is not good enough we just walk away without buying anything. Live and let live.

 

[maverickronin]

That's pretty unusual in a forum. I have only seen restrictions on news sites, not forums.

I had a post deleted over at ad-fi (head-fi) for advising people on adblockers.

I compared not using one to anonymous unprotected sex.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Gearslutz forums have a warning too. They don't block you, but just nag you to turn off the adblocker.

BTW, if you haven't tried it ublock origin and umatrix are better adblockers than Adblock Plus to me.

Thanks, I'll have a look at those.

I'm currently using AdBlock, which is a different entity from Adblock Plus, but which also gives users an "acceptable advertising" option.

What do you all make of this? Without researching it in depth, it's hard to know whether it's a racket by which adbllockers derive revenue from advertisers, or an (at least partly) well-intentioned attempt at balancing the desires of web users to avoid advertising against the needs of websites to make money.

My instincts would have told me it was the former, but after having enabled this option for some time with AdBlock, I haven't felt the ads I've received have been at all intrusive (when they've even been noticed at all).

Anyone got a better informed view on this?

 

[amirm]

I started using adblock when a forum I used to frequent all the time had so many dynamic (flash) ads that my computer would come down to a crawl. The fan would run and it would get so hot I could not leave it on my lap! They really abused the computing power of every visitor that way. It is one thing to show ads, it is another when it kills the performance of the computer viewing it.

 

[maverickronin]

I'm currently using AdBlock, which is a different entity from Adblock Plus, but which also gives users an "acceptable advertising" option.

What do you all make of this? Without researching it in depth, it's hard to know whether it's a racket by which adbllockers derive revenue from advertisers, or an (at least partly) well-intentioned attempt at balancing the desires of web users to avoid advertising against the needs of websites to make money.

I tried it for less than a day before I saw an animated gif flashing through a couple different panels and decided it either it was a racket or they didn't have any idea what "acceptable" should mean.

I currently use uBLock Origin in advanced mode with everything blocked until I specifically allow it. Even if the ads weren't intrusive it's just as much a security issue as a usability issue.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I tried it for less than a day before I saw an animated gif flashing through a couple different panels and decided it either it was a racket or they didn't have any idea what "acceptable" should mean.

Haha. I certainly haven't had any gifs that I recall.

Could you explain a bit more how it's also a security issue? This is news to me.

 

[NorthSky]

I started using adblock when a forum I used to frequent all the time had so many dynamic (flash) ads that my computer would come down to a crawl. The fan would run and it would get so hot I could not leave it on my lap! They really abused the computing power of every visitor that way. It is one thing to show ads, it is another when it kills the performance of the computer viewing it.

I know one forum like that. It's a turtle paste to navigate. It is owned by a Canadian company based in Toronto. And they have been hacked couple years ago, with members passwords and personal info.

It's probably one of the most obtrusive adds related forums of the audio/video internet world. ...The slowest too.

 

[maverickronin]

Could you explain a bit more how it's also a security issue? This is news to me.

Well...browsers aren't perfectly secure. Various vulnerabilities are continuously found and patched in everything still under active development.

Even if you trust the primary site, almost everything is farmed out to an advertisement network. The actual ads that various networks accept have very little review to see if they contain, or link to, any malicious code. The site owners who use those services don't usually have much control over what ads show up either. In the end, random people are essentially paying for the right to execute arbitrary code on your computer which isn't a model that should inspire trust in anyone.

The relative importance of this depends on your security model. If you apply security updates (or let them be forcibly applied...) as soon as they come out then this is less important (though still something I'm surprised it's rarely mentioned in cybersecurity discussions...) If you're a power user and only apply updates when you're good and ready (i.e. once you know they won't screw up anything else) then it becomes more important to block anything which isn't trustworthy.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Well...browsers aren't perfectly secure. Various vulnerabilities are continuously found and patched in everything still under active development.

Even if you trust the primary site, almost everything is farmed out to an advertisement network. The actual ads that various networks accept have very little review to see if they contain, or link to, any malicious code. The site owners who use those services don't usually have much control over what ads show up either. In the end, random people are essentially paying for the right to execute arbitrary code on your computer which isn't a model that should inspire trust in anyone.

The relative importance of this depends on your security model. If you apply security updates (or let them be forcibly applied...) as soon as they come out then this is less important (though still something I'm surprised it's rarely mentioned in cybersecurity discussions...) If you're a power user and only apply updates when you're good and ready (i.e. once you know they won't screw up anything else) then it becomes more important to block anything which isn't trustworthy.

Good to know, thx

 

[maverickronin]

Also, the weird thing about IT and cybersecurity is that despite its objective appearance, pretty much everything besides hardcore cryptography is just opinion.

Various companies and groups put together collections of "best practices" but they're just opinions. They're usually opinions of smart and experienced people, but there's rarely hard data to back them. Unfortunately you can't really expect any better either. Technology generally changes too fast to properly study a specific question and even then, no one's cyber liability insurance policy would let them be the control group.

 

[restorer-john]

ASR is the only site that has zero advertising. That to me is something of high value, highly beneficial and a right emphasis on education, advancement.

I wouldn't know, I use ABP too, and DuckDuckGo's privacy essentials plugin- it's fabulous.

ABP says two ads are blocked on this page, so I allowed the 'ads' to see what it was. It was this:

 

[restorer-john]

Privacy essentials says there is a tracker on this page it blocked too. Probably that 'share' thing.