back to article Dry those eyes, ad blockers are unlikely to kill the internet

There's worry out there that the spread of ad blockers will kill off the internet. Or at least, the idea that people are paid to create stuff for it but that people aren't charged to look at it. You know, like, umm, El Reg. This has all come up as Apple has allowed the technology in iOS9, and people started to offer the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    People who use adblockers...

    Don't use them because they don't want to see ads...

    They use them because they don't like to be annoyed by flashing, noisy and generally irritating crap on their screens while trying to read something...

    And they also use them to have at least a little privacy on the internet instead of being followed around from website to website by all those tracking cookies...

    1. Dave 62

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      As above.

      I'm perfectly happy to be advertised to, in fact sometimes I even like to be advertised to, provided it's succinct, contains actual product information, doesn't cause slow loading, doesn't cover stuff up, isn't overly showy, doesn't track me, isn't full of viruses, unfortunately none of any of that is ever true.

      But even perfectly innocuous not-porn sites can be vulnerable to malvertising, smart phones are still hugely vulnerable and harder to protect or clean, gigantic flash ads eat up your data allowance, take up your whole screen and any attempt to move around to get to the x ends up in clicking the ad, some people even still think ads with sound, at offensive volume, are a good idea.

      El Reg is one of the worst for intrusive flash ads, I tried disabling ABP for you once, it didn't last long.

      1. DaLo

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        Yes agree with this.

        A large proportion of web ads are poor (possibly as they are so cheap to produce compared to TV ads). There are many risks with malware as you have no way of trusting the source (even trusting the advertising agency). The ads are too intrusive and poorly placed.

        However a large number of people visit exhibitions and conferences each year specifically to be marketed and advertised to on all the stalls in the exhibition centre. They or their company actually pays (at least in expenses) to go there. Many of these people will also be using ad blockers.

    2. Stuart 22

      An advertiser confesses ..

      We serve ads on many of our websites. We do not attempt to block adblockers. I block ads myself.

      We assume that people who don't want to see ads won't click on them so its no great loss of revenue. These freetards are still good for business. They make are sites more popular getting better rankings and stuff and hence generate more business.

      Which brings me to my biggest bugbear - Channel 4 who insist that adblockers are disabled (in my case swop out my /etc/hosts file) before I can use their catch-up service. I can only be bothered unless it is a real 'must-see' programme and I take a mental note of the unskippable product/services I forced to watch and avoid using if possible.

      Their advertisers suffer, the channel's viewing figures suffer which must impact future revenue and viability and losing Channel 4 News would be a disaster.

      PS Anybody else having to complete a CAPTCHA to even edit their posts? Not seen it before and lost at least one crafted post as a result. Well perhaps that's a saving grace for you lot!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: An advertiser confesses ..

        CH4 catchup wont work if your device is rooted either!!!!

        1. nijam Silver badge

          Re: An advertiser confesses ..

          Are you saying that people actually watch Channel 4 by choice?

      2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

        At the moment we hve digital TV

        That is: 7to 10 channels showing 5 minute slots of painful adverts between 15 minute slots of John Wayne and Robert Mitchum films and Time-Team extravaganzas. That is a choice of people who act like wood and stone teaching UStory or people who act at digging up wood and stone, teaching us their story between over-long commercials.

        The problem is that in the interval you get tempted to see if it is worth switching to another channel and, having forgotten where they are hidden, you tend to end up waiting for adverts to end. I can't understand how TV companies get money but if there was such a thing as NoScript for TV they might get a few viewers.

        If the Register needs morale petting, get the staff to imagine its web pages going out in the afternoons before the quizz shows, fake auctions, food/fashion magazines and Topgears every day of the week.

        I dare say the comments section might make it past Jeremy Kyle. Would that be difficult?

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: At the moment we hve digital TV

          "That is: 7to 10 channels showing 5 minute slots of painful adverts between 15 minute slots of John Wayne and Robert Mitchum films and Time-Team extravaganzas"

          No problem. Everything goes onto the Myth box & the ads get FF at x60.

      3. MJI Silver badge

        Re: An advertiser confesses ..

        I gave up with shITV since they check for the installation of ABP, but I do understand, the first thing you see is an advert, then it tells you off for blocking ads.

        We actually stopped watching a couple of series as they made it too difficult. Comedy in a job centre was one, missed an episode, blocked us on PC so gave up.

        ITV are rubbish though, at least C4 have a console client.

        Easier to use TPB than ITV

    3. Nick Kew

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Exactly.

      I'd be happy to see ads. I just object strongly to things that move on my screen without my asking for it.

      Sadly that applies just as much to a scrolling news ticker as to a tasteless animation advertising games or sex. So adblock is only a partial solution.

      Oh, and to ad-flinging sites like El Reg. If you got rid of the animations, I'd be happy to unblock your adverts. Indeed, not merely happy but keen, as your articles occasionally feature media I might choose to see! Now, bear in mind, that's coming from a geek: I expect I might be core target audience for some of your (currently blocked) advertisers.

    4. AndrueC Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Don't use them because they don't want to see ads...

      For some of us that's the main reason. Some of us have read The Space Merchants and taken the warning to heart.

      1. The First Dave

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        From the article: "Blockers are simply signalling that they're not the ones who would be interested in, or influenced by, advertising anyway."

        Actually, blockers signal that the end user is savvy enough to know about ad-blockers. Nothing else.

        Everyone in the entire universe says that they are unaffected by advertising, if you ask them...

        1. nijam Silver badge

          Re: People who use adblockers...

          > Everyone in the entire universe says that they are unaffected by advertising, if you ask them...

          Well, I'm fairly sure that nothing I have ever bought has ever been advertised. At least, I've never seen an advert for anything I've bought in the last couple of years.

          Or maybe it's because I don't watch/read/hear adverts, who knows.

          For advertisers, ad-blockers bring the great benefit of not having their product blacklisted because the advert annoyed a prospective customer.

    5. Filippo Silver badge

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Well said. I'm fine with ads. I could even tolerate animated ads. What I don't tolerate is ads that cover content, ads that include audio, ads that slow down page loading (either by being larger than the page itself, or by using heavy scripts), ads that open more pages (bonus points if they attempt to prevent me from closing them), ads that track me, ads that expose me to vulns, and ads that outright lie to me (e.g. anything that contains the words "you won", "click here to claim", or "virus detected").

      When *that* got intolerable, I installed AdBlock. Frankly, I don't see any way for the ads industry to persuade me to uninstall it; if they cleaned up their act, I wouldn't see it. But if they do clean up their act, then one of the next time I have a new computer I may decide not to bother installing it. There's their path to regaining me as a product.

    6. Solanum

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      I use ad blockers because I don't want to see ads.

      In fact, I don't ever want to see ads in any shape or form on any media, they annoy the cr@p out of me. When I want to buy something (and I love buying new stuff as much as the next person), I go look for the information.

      Admittedly, that means I might the last to learn about some amazing new innovative device I haven't even thought might exist. What's that? You can buy an apple made from a watch? Eh?

      1. SineWave242

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        This: "When I want to buy something, I go look for the information." Amen.

      2. MJI Silver badge

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        One forum I use had safe relevant adverts, I used them, I liked them, no problem at all, got to see what they were bringing out new for me to buy.

        This is for a particular hobby, and all advertisers were suppliers to that hobby.

        Now they have moved to "Unable to connect" "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at adserver.adtech.de."

        Which will NOT be let out of HOSTS.

        Now I don't get to see them and I actually wanted to.

    7. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Bingo.

      The register is an example of one of the worst offenders. If you do not use at least flashblock you get loadavg of 1.5+ by opening any page on the reg. There is always at least one ad that is looping some crap at full CPU throttle.

      By the way - I do not mind seeing a few static ads here and then and I do not mind some level of tracking provided that it is strictly anonymized and restricted to a geography/legal domain which has appropriate legal safeguards on customer data.

      I do mind, however, if the ads are getting in the way. I also mind the admen who are refusing to obey the law and issue nastygrams that the world is coming to an end for nearly anything that is restraining them starting from AdBlock and finishing with actually obeying the data protection and privacy laws.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        The advertising is not just wasted, it's worse than that.

        People who don't want to see ads yet have to tolerate ads being forced on them will get annoyed. If it is your ad that has annoyed them, then you will lose goodwill with that person and probably a potential customer too, because your company / product is associated with irritation and annoyance.

        If your ad runs scripts that cause my web page to freeze, jump about while images load, or places a big panel over the top of what I want to look at with a difficult to find X to close it, then you can fuck right off and die and take your products/services with you because I will never want any business with you.

        1. Graham Marsden
          Thumb Up

          @werdsmith - Re: People who use adblockers...

          > If it is your ad that has annoyed them, then you will lose goodwill with that person and probably a potential customer too, because your company / product is associated with irritation and annoyance.

          Hear hear!

          A parallel example: I have a big sign on my front door that says "NO Flyers, Menus, Junk Mail", yet still some idiots shove their rubbish through my letter box.

          I take great delight in phoning up the companies involved and informing them that, because of this, there is no way I will ever use their services since their employees have so little respect for my wishes.

          1. AndrueC Silver badge
            Meh

            Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

            A parallel example: I have a big sign on my front door that says "NO Flyers, Menus, Junk Mail", yet still some idiots shove their rubbish through my letter box.

            I have a plastic engraved plaque on my letter box flap with the same message and also 'no cold callers'. Like yours it has only partial success. I have seen people hesitate then take their leaflets elsewhere but there's still plenty of them make it through (along with countless refuse sacks for discarded clothes).

            On the plus side the older I get the less inclined I am to worry about what people might think. If someone does knock or ring I'm quite comfortable in catching their eye and then just looking away with complete disinterest. If they appear to be Jehova's lot I'll even throw in a sarcastic head toss and eye roll.

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

              I'd ask you to be kinder to leaflet delivery people. They are paid for the number of leaflets that they deliver and because of the time it takes to deliver that number of leaflets, they are effectively working below minimum wage. Each "no leaflets" message they see costs them more time and is one less drop they can make. To do this job you would be fairly desperately in need of some money, but still prepared to earn it with hard work and honest means. Your problem is not with these poor cold and wet guys on the street, it is with the advertisers. So be charitable, take the leaflet and drop it in your recycling, its barely any effort at all. The deliverer gets paid a tiny bit more for his mileage, and it costs the advertiser a tiny bit more. Even asking them to put it straight in your recycling helps them.

              There's a stat somewhere about the number of people in need of medical help that have been rescued, insecure houses that have been reported, crimes prevented and other good deeds that the leaflet droppers have done.

              Oh, and you know those chalk marks that hoaxers were rumouring were indicating houses to be burgled? They are just marks that leaflet droppers make so they know where to start again after running out of leaflets (before kids started making the marks for a laugh).

              *disclaimer: I have no direct connection to leaflet droppers.

              1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                Each "no leaflets" message they see costs them more time and is one less drop they can make.

                They have 1000 leaflets, and see 100 "no leaflets" signs. So they deliver 900, drop the other 100 in the recycling bin. Who will know, and who will care? They've covered the 1000 houses they were paid for.

                1. werdsmith Silver badge

                  Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                  I guess they are generally honest people, and the distributors expect them to keep a record of non-delivered addresses and monitor them with a "secret shopper" type network.

                  I actually did this, for a friend who was sick, couldn't do the work and needed to keep going in case they stopped giving him work. Three of us helped him out for 2 weeks. Damn hard work.

                  Things you notice:

                  Those signs (lists) on doors that say "no leaflets, no charity, no canvassers etc are generally usually found in scummy neighbourhoods and on untidy unkempt properties. The residents are usually grumpy, miserable gits. Houses that have welcome mats and decorative flowers etc outside, generally don't have these lists but have happy residents who will take the leaflet with a smile and a thank you.

                  Just an observation.

                  1. big col

                    Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                    Those signs (lists) on doors that say "no leaflets, no charity, no canvassers etc are generally usually found in scummy neighbourhoods and on untidy unkempt properties. The residents are usually grumpy, miserable gits. Houses that have welcome mats and decorative flowers etc outside, generally don't have these lists but have happy residents who will take the leaflet with a smile and a thank you.

                    Just an observation....

                    Or maybe they are people who have other responsabilities such as caring, and are sick to death of people knocking or calling, desterbing the much needed 5 munutes of rest they get each day.

                  2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

                    Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                    "I guess they are generally honest people"

                    And the ones who stick leaflets under windscreen wipers as well?

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                Yes, the delivery people are not the culprits.

                Anyway, usually the ads left in my inbox, especially those from supermarkets, are very useful to clean the cat litter box (especially since newspaper are read on tablets), thereby I don't block them. Internet ads are far less useful... I still have to find really informative ones that brings to an informative website.

                Today even if you are looking for information about a product you usually end in a "branding website" that tries to make you believe your life will change and you feel better if you buy that product, usually using images totally unrelated to the product (often using a lot of young women) - as soon as you try to find specification and prices, you're soon lost in non working links, links bringing you to more images and videos, pages with three lines about specs, and so on...

                There's a real problem in marketing, informing a prospect customer is not their main business today, they're just trying to lure you into believing you have to buy their product just because of the "feel good factor", the less you know about the product the better.

              3. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                Nope. Sorry, not with you at all.

                My human sympathy for the leaflet-droppers is no greater than that I feel for the overworked, underpaid fools who cold-call me trying to sell me crap I don't want. In both cases, they're wasting my time and resources, and they have reason to expect me to dislike it. My sympathy for them as humans does not extend to tolerating or facilitating unwanted intrusion on my time and resources.

                I have equal sympathy, but a great deal more respect, for the elderly Asian man who methodically (and neatly!) combs through the bins near my office for returnables each week; HE is supporting himself by his own efforts without littering anyone's doorstep, harassing them at dinner time, or trying to sell them crap they are unlikely to want and have never asked for. Keeping the returnables out of the waste stream is socially useful, to boot.

              4. Graham Marsden

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                > Your problem is not with these poor cold and wet guys on the street, it is with the advertisers.

                FYI, in the past (long before the advent of MW) I have delivered leaflets, so I do know what is involved.

                But you're right that my problem is with the advertisers because if they paid more than the minimum wage, the guys on the street would not be working below it if people put "no flyers" signs on their doors. Of course the advertisers won't pay more, because they'll argue that "if we pay more than the minimum wage, it will mean we have to charge more for our services and that would mean we couldn't employ so many people, so it would be *your* fault they're out of a job" (which actually means "I wouldn't be able to pay myself so much...")

                However the point is that it's *my* front door and just because I have a letter box and a doorbell does *not* mean that everyone is free to shove their rubbish through it or disturb me when I'm working (I work from home), meaning I have to drop everything and find out it's some idiot wanting to sell me something I don't want and wouldn't buy at the front door even if I did or push their religious BS onto me.

                This is no different from my browsing a website and someone's advert being stuck over what I'm trying to read or jumping up and down and flashing in my peripheral vision or unexpectedly blasting out sound from my speakers and if you do that to me, I *WILL* be a grumpy, miserable git!

              5. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                "So be charitable, take the leaflet and drop it in your recycling"

                Why should I have to dispose of other people's junk? Ultimately this must cost the local authorities - I doubt mine has the acumen to run recycling at a profit - so we're all expected to pay for crap we don't want.

              6. JimBob01

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                "I'd ask you to be kinder to leaflet delivery people. They are paid for the number of leaflets that they deliver and because of the time it takes to deliver that number of leaflets, they are effectively working below minimum wage. Each "no leaflets" message they see costs them more time and is one less drop they can make.”

                Are you suggesting that they are observed at every single door? How else would a “paid per drop” scheme work? I would assume they are paid to deliver to specific area and provided with a bundle (and reward) based on the approx number of letterboxs - actual delivery just being assumed.

                Many moons ago I had a job delivery free papers and that is how it worked then - used to end up with large piles of undelivered newsprint to dispose of as more and more people realised they could complain about unsolicited papers - and that was in the days before recyclng infrastructure was a thing.

              7. thomn8r

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                Those innocent leaflet droppers are also known to be a cover for casing houses, getting intel on who's not home, whose house has the nicest bits, etc

              8. Munzly The Hermit

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                So what about the climate? All that paper is adding to the world climate problems. Recycling it is not enough, that costs energy as well.

              9. eesiginfo

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers & Leaflet blockers

                While it may not be the case in all countries... certainly in the South of France. accepting leaflet drops is critical to gaining more disposable income OR eaking out a reasonable existence on limited funds.

                Meat is sold everywhere in small quantities at very high prices, for the wealthy... but for everybody else, it is released to the supermarkets in enormous bulk quantities (when herds/flocks are slaughtered).

                One doesn't buy a kilo of liver, one buys 3 or 4 entire livers (or a dozen hearts) @ €1 per Kg.

                Or Duck @ €1.30 per Kg, or pork @ €2.25 per Kg. etc.

                Each type of meat is released at a different time, and is available until it is sold - usually over a 3 day period.

                Therefore the only way you that you can buy meat without stupidly burning your money, is to check through the leaflets.

                It takes no more than 30 seconds to discover if meat has been released onto the market, because the 'meat sale info' is very prominent, and clear (always same format).

                One also, naturally, can choose to glance longer at other leaflets, during the rapid scan.

                When one prominent supermarket stopped having their leaflets in our drop... I just stopped going there... and others must have done the same, because some while afterwards their leaflets began to appear again.

                So the moral of the story is: make your advertising relevant, clear, and easy to identify, and therefore easily avoided.... perhaps an advertising section, effectively allowing you to opt in.

                This would provide the advertisers with a platform, that would be self-targeting; as compared to the current car crash system that forces one to run unthinkingly with adblocker enabled.

                BUT; that will not suit everyone... one woman I know doesn't use adblocker, cos the adverts are part of her lifestyle.

                Perhaps then... an opt in for page ads, otherwise put the ads in an advertising section.... Wow... that sounds a bit like old style newspapers..... oh well... sometimes we go backwards.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

              "If they appear to be Jehova's lot I'll even throw in a sarcastic head toss and eye roll."

              I had a novel experience with them recently. I noticed someone was approaching the front door so I opened it. The elderly gentleman said he was just about to push a leaflet through. He held it up so I could have a glance - then he said "I don't suppose you want this". I politely agreed - and he trotted off.

              1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                "just about to push a leaflet through"

                Years and years ago Belfast was a haven for various denominations handing out religious tracts - it may be yet for all I know. One day someone managed to hand me one - I mustn't have been paying enough attention. Just round the corner another of these nuts came up to try to hand me another. So I held out the one I'd just been given. He blinked a bit but took it. It's nice to get one over on these types now & again.

              2. John Tserkezis

                Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

                "I had a novel experience with them recently."

                An aquaintance once mentioned how he (inadvertantly) dealt with JoHo's.

                He lives on a rural property, hears the doorbell ring, but was busy butchering chickens at the time round the back of the house. He didn't want to trample chook blood through the house, so he walked along the side of the house, wearing a plastic apron, covered in blood to the elbows holding a knife in one hand.

                He peeks around the front, says "yeees?".

                He said they ran pretty quick.

            3. DwarfPants

              Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

              What you don't like the free bin liner delivery service, I have not brought a bin bag for a few years now.

            4. Graham Marsden
              Unhappy

              AndrueC - Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

              > I have a plastic engraved plaque on my letter box flap with the same message and also 'no cold callers'

              For brevity I didn't include the full version which is printed in big letters on an A4 sheet and says:

              NO

              FLYERS

              MENUS

              JUNK MAIL

              SURVEYS

              COLD CALLERS

              RELIGIOUS PERSONS

              YES, THIS DOES MEAN YOU!

              There are still those stupid enough or arrogant enough to ignore it :-(

            5. MJI Silver badge

              Re: @werdsmith - People who use adblockers...

              charity bags

              We love them

              Free bin nags

        2. Fortycoats

          Re: People who use adblockers...

          Agree with you werdsmith. And not just internet ads, either.

          Some radio ads can be really annoying, and those companies end up on my "Do-not-buy-anything-from-these-gits" list. In fact, I don't even change the radio channel, I switch it off. Silence is better than that rubbish. So the ad-men have achieved the opposite of what they wanted.

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: People who use adblockers...

            Radio ads - Admiral caused me to not listen to the radio for about a year, high pitched whistle nearly caused crashes. Now use BBC local radio since our ILR got Borged

            TV ads - entertaining ones get watched, and if it is for a game I like the look of watched multiple times. But otherwise skip skip skip

            Internet ads - only viewed on certain forums when ads are related, and are of things I am actually interested in, otherwise blocked

    8. big_D Silver badge

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      I don't have Flash installed and I run NoScript and only allow the main domain I'm visiting to run scripts. The advertising sites are blocked from running scripts. They can serve me static images and text if they want, but not nothing interactive.

      The biggest problem is the bandwidth. I think the advertising shouldn't add more than about 30% to the volume of traffic being loaded from a page. The problem is, it is often 300-400%... And then you have all those damned libraries that are linked to and add yet more MBs to the "bill", just for a couple of hundred bytes in one function!

      1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        "I think the advertising shouldn't add more than about 30% to the volume of traffic being loaded from a page."

        UK commercial teleivsion is restricted to 12 minutes of adverts per hour, so that's a limit of 20%.

        Ok, a better comparison is if you look at it as 48mins of content having 12mins of adverts added on, then that's a 25% increase in bandwidth use.

    9. Martin Kirk

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Some of us don't want see ads at all. Period. End of story.

    10. Zane

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      Agree.

      I'm not only fine with ads, I will even click ones that are interesting. It's also ok if they're personalized, although that can be embarrassing in a lot of ways.

      Hate everything that disturbs me or gets in the way. Please - no overlays, no stuff that hides the content I was looking for, no autostart vids, no vids that delay access, even worse: vids with sound - especially if you have lots of tabs open. I wonder when the people using these adverts understand that this works backwards - if at all, it's an indication to avoid the company.

    11. Anonymous John

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      I don't mind them as such, but if I buy a newspaper, I don't have to wait while the newsagent goes next door for the fliers to put in it. And when reading it on the train, nobody has yet walked down the aisle and pasted an advert over the article I was reading.

      Yet some websites see both as acceptable.

      1. Fink-Nottle

        Re: People who use adblockers...

        ... sign up now to GoCompare's new ad blocker comparison site.

    12. This Side Up

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      "Some of [advertising], a great deal of it in fact, really is information about what's available out there."

      True, but the essential difference is that if I need information I'll go and look for it. Unwanted ads are those that are stuck in my face when I'm trying read something else, or distract me. Those ad-slingers aren't doing themselves any favours. At best I'll just close the pop-up window; at worst I'll make sure that I never consider buying the offending product or service.

      To be honest, EL Reg isn't a problem. I use a platform and browser that doesn't support much of the functionality they require (including Flash). I have ads, pop-up windows, animated gifs and javascript normally disabled. Static ads at the side of the page don't bother me.

    13. JDKelley

      Re: People who use adblockers...

      I would be less bothered by advertisements online IFF:

      - They would stop trying to make me spend money I don't have on things I neither need nor want.

      - They would stop being insulting to my intellect

      - They would stop being insulting to the meanest of intellects

      - They would be appealing to more than the basest of intellects

      - They would make much LESS use of flashing graphics

      - They would /not/ autoplay sound and/or video and interrupt whatever I was doing

      - They would /not/ pop over or pop under in the middle of my screen, in the way

      - They would /not/ pollute my system with tracking cookys, malways, Trojans, or other crap that causes firewall hits

      - They would /not/ have virii riding sidecar with them.

      Me? I use an adblocker? I don't need the adverts I don't want to see, "monetizing" every damned email account I have, clogging up my bandwidth. Perhaps if everything weren't so busy being "monetized" (another neologism that needn't exist,) the economy wouldn't be in the shambles it's in?

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