Ad blocking is despicable.
As a webmaster and a person who would like to earn a living from his websites one day, I place advertisements on my sites. I personally believe in doing things a certain way, which includes serving unobtrusive ads. So, I serve a few graphic/banner ads and some text link ads and that is about it. I don’t serve popups, invues, interstitials and the like. However, I understand that some webmasters serve those types of ads and that is their right, I am fine with it.
I understand popup blocking. I don’t agree with it. But, I understand it and it is forgivable. I don’t feel visitors have the right to block ads. They have the right to protect their computer from harmful things that would seriously alter the function of their computer - but that is not ads (or all/most ads), nor is it cookies. If a site serves ads I don’t like and I feel that visiting the site is not worth seeing them - I don’t visit the site. That is my right.
You cannot block all ads because a few are bad. Good sites don’t display ads that are bad in this way. You shouldn’t visit sites that serve you these types of ads. You shouldn’t penalize good sites because of bad sites, anymore than your boss should cut your pay for your co-worker falling asleep at the job. I only serve ads from reputable ad networks. These include Tribal Fusion, BURST! Media, FastClick, Casale Media and Google AdSense. I am a “good site” as most appropriate (read: non illegal, non porn, etc.) content sites are.
Worse than blocking popups are people who are blocking ads displayed right on pages. This is horrendous. Despicable. Disrespectful. Comparable to theft. How would you like it if you didn’t get paid for doing your job? There is simply no excuse for blocking ads that are displayed on pages. If you do this, don’t visit my sites. I want visitors and I work for visitors - don’t get me wrong - but I don’t want visitors with such a disregard for everyone else in the world. I don’t want anyone that selfish, that disrespectful. Whether it is Yahoo! or me, many websites need to make money. That is one of my goals in this. I want to do things the right way, I want to build quality properties that I can be proud of and I want to make money. I spend too much time on my network not to. If I had to get a job, my network would suffer greatly. This is a full time job. Like your job or any other job and I will need to support myself. Everyone should care about that or at least understand that not blocking ads on pages is a basic common courtesy, a basic sign of respect, of appreciation for the fact that the site exists.
If you visit a site, you should look at - or at least tolerate - their ads. Your choice is not to visit the site with or without ads - your choice is to visit the site, or not visit the site at all.
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February 26th, 2005 at 9:15 pm
Well put Patrick. As you know, I’m also trying to make money via ads and I mostly agree with you here. But these days, ads are getting so prevasive in the user experience, it’s no wonder they are tyring to block them. Luckily for us, the technolgy isn’t perfect and tends to only be used by more tech savvy people who would likely not click anyway. Also, This is a lot like TV. I can skip any commercial I want by getting a drink or switching the channel. Now with Tivo, I can skip them entirely and as a consumer, I LOVE this. It’s not that I don’t want to watch the commercials, I just want my tv NOW! ;)
But I agree that users should have to see the ads. It’s a small price to pay, really. And as a consumer of many websites, I pay it gladly. I would rather view ads than to have to pay for my favorite websites. It hink most users will feel this way.
Down the road I see new pay models emerging. I see cable network style "subscriptions" where you can pay $10/mo and get access to premium content from dozens of sites and such. It’s coming, but for now the ads will have to do. And hopefully they’ll continue to support us. Some webmasters are ruining it for the rest of us by making sites that are 90% ads and 10% content. These kinds of sites are exactly why ad blocking softwae exists. I don’t think people would mind the ads on a normal site.