Adblock - Is it moral to use it?

Yep fair enough I'll give you that, you are right. As long as there is an ad the user MAY click on it, that's for sure.

 

Funnily enough I also thought it was MY bandwidth these ads were sucking up (stealing)? Now it's 'immoral' to prevent this I may wish to reconsider membership of the neighbourhood watch and tell everyone I know that it's 'immoral' to stop thieves. What do you think?

 

WE internet surfers have every right to block anything being downloaded into our browser just like we have every right to disable images.

Once you upload your site into the public domain your inviting anyone and everyone to visit. Its up to YOU that YOUR web pages don't load if ads are blocked.

BS....many sites have no ads so there is proof that they are NOT needed for a site to exist. Dont forget those who are in it for profit only...

If your business suffers because of ad blockers and you go bust, you are shite at internet marketing and should stick to flipping burgers at Mickey D's.

 

As a webmaster I use Adblock to block AdSense simply to protect myself from accidental clicks. I would never click my own ads or anybody else's due to the paranoia being branded onto my brain with the hot iron of google's relentless banning.

The main place where I can see ad blocking being immoral is on high bandwidth websites that need the ad revenue to continue offering the services it offers. For example, one of my server clusters for a forum that I host at SoftLayer costs $1,050/month and adsense just barely covers that. If I lost that revenue I would have to close my forum or ask for donations since it doesn't exist to make me a profit, believe it or not.

Personally, I'd support a webmaster movement to block access to their sites for those who are using Adblock, despite my own reasons for using it. It's within the webmaster's rights to do that.

 

I completely agree. If the webmaster choses to do this then it's their right, as it is the right of the surfer to block the ads.

 

You could try to block access for people using Adblock, but eventually you'd really start ticking people off. But as I doubt I've ever visited your site I say go for it, I won't notice nor miss the chance to visit in the future I'm sure

 

In my opinion, adblocking an ad is the same thing as ignoring one, which I always do.

The only time I can recall clicking on an advertisement is when it was a text link in a blog or when my sister told me that KDuk had a link to a Harry & David's application and I needed to get there.

 

I am sorry but some of this talk about adblock being ok is really strange to me. I always like to explain things with analogies.

If there was a easy free way to block TV or Radio ads would you thin k that was moral? Using adblock is litterally like going to the local grocery story and ripping the posters off the windows just because you think that it is annoying and is your right to take things off of there property.

 

I'm not ripping anything off of a website, I'm not looking at it. So it's the same thing as going into a store and not looking at any of the posters. It's also the same thing as changing the channel when an ad comes on.

 

Let me ask you these questions:

1. Are you in favour of popup blockers and do you run one yourself or do you allow all popups?
2. If you weren't a webmaster would you have a problem with adblocker?​

Here's what I think your answers would be:

1. I hate popups and I use a popup blocker.
2. Um, no, I wouldn't have a problem with adblocker if I wasn't a webmaster. It speeds up my surfing and gets rid of all those ads that suck up all my bandwidth and take fives times longer to download than the page I'm trying to view.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

1) I do not use a popup blocker so yes I allow them. I still hate sites with popups/unders, sites with a load of ads, slow loading sites, ads that are in unatractive places, etc. If a sites I visit has any of those or a really ugly design/layout I leave and try not to come back. I also don't like to trade links or promote sites like this.

As a part time college student with no job other than my sites I spend an average 12+ hours surfing the web and working on my sites. I come across several sites that annoy me every week. I just keep searching and find a better resource.

I actually installed AdBlock Plus last week to test some scripts I was working on trying to bypass in in a non hacker way. After I installed it web pages took almost 2x as long to load mostly due to images loading slowly because the add-on had to check them.

2) I would have to say it would bother me that people are blocking ads from loading that earn the site owners money for every impression. It wouldn't bother me as much because it didn't effect me. Also back about a year ago ago my friend gave me his computer after mine died. It had AdBlock on it and I didn't like it because many websites were completely screwed up for having a filtered word in the URL. Personally I find some websites to be more appealing to the eye with ads than without. Unless they are flashing or say "winner!"

As said above many websites use CPM banner. Some only use them. By blocking ads on those sites you are preventing them from earning the money they should have gotten for your visit. Yes that is a few cents at most but If a website has 1000 UV per day and 300-500 Impressions are blocked by 50-60 visitors using ad blockers that is preventing them from earning a few dollars. Over time that will add up.

 

I'm curious. What browser do you use that you don't have a popup blocker installed?

I'm not disputing this is the case. All I'm saying is it is ridiculous for some people in this thread to claim using an adblocker is 'immoral'. They might not like it if they use cpm or adsense or whatever but frankly, that's their problem, not the surfer's.

 

I only use Firefox. I agree it is not 'immoral' but i do think it is very disrespectful. And if you use a website frequently they deserve your respect.

 

Firefox has an inbuilt popup blocker - are you telling me you have disabled it?

 

Analogies are like politicians - there's always another one that says the opposite. In this case, its more like the local grocery shop delivering to me, then sticking up posters in my living room and telling me its "immoral" to take them down.

In reality: this is my hardware and my bandwidth. I choose what code executes on it, including the code that displays adverts - period.

Same for your server - choosing to deny access to your hardware and bandwidth if adverts are not displayed is an option a few go for. It will suck for them long run, because they'll lose advocates and genuine backlinks - but that's a decision that's most wisely based in economic interest and hard stats, not some bogus "morality" argument.

 

Well it must suck because I get popups all the time.

You only own the physical computer and what is on its hard drive. Everything on the internet is not on your computer but on a computer somewhere else. It is like looking out your living room window and not liking what is on the other side. You can close the blinds but that blocks every thing not only what you didn't like. Why not look out a different window.

If you see something annoying through the window of the internet either go to a different site or deal with it.

 

Since my subtle dig about analogy isn't working, I'll beat you over the head with it: analogies are generally misleading and absurd, and are best ignored.

"Everything on the internet" that I can see has to execute something on my computer before it displays - and I'll reiterate, *I choose* what executes on my hardware.

And it pays not to overlook the advocate vs. detractor issue. Comparing page views to ad impresssions, one of my better performing sites has a high proportion of ad-blocking readers. Yet its traffic is high and CTR is good. Why do you think that is?

 

I just installed Kasperksy Internet Security...and, what a surprise: it has banner blocking software and it's enabled by default...
Many users use kasperky now...and this is lowering our earnings....damn suckers!

 

I'm not against the adblock. It's very distracting when the website is overflowed with the pop-ups and advertisements. It's visitors' own choice.

 

Yeah, but us, for the real webmasters, that only have 1-2 ads per page...no pop-ups etc, it's a fraud!
Those ads make us survive, you use adblock, you shound't be allowed to get those info...