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The Verge has a poll going today asking if you use an ad blocker:

"Yes, I want free content and I'll pay the ad blockers" and "No, I want free content and I'll pay the publisher through ads".

I'm with you. I didn't use an ad blocker for years. Then I installed a flash blocker because it kept my computer from trying to melt it's self and play video ads while I was trying to read.

Then we started to get so many ads that prevented me from reading content (the link-hover pop-ups, pop-ups that appear after the content has been loaded for 30s, ads that use JS to move parts of the page around) I started using one on the desktop just so I could try to read sites.

In the last year I've been using my phone/tablet a lot more. The experience has been DREADFUL because of ads. They take up most of the screen, slow loading to a crawl, kick other pages out of memory, make scrolling jittery, etc.

I don't care about ads, I just want to be able to read web articles. If the ads are relatively unobtrusive (i.e. not covering up content, not flashing, etc.) they're OK with me. I don't mind banners in between paragraphs of a story I'm reading.

But if I can't read your site because of your ads, you're not helping yourself. The creepiness of trackers only ads to all the other problems.

The ad companies need to be less abusive. In the mean time, I'll use an ad blocker.

(I also subscribe to sites I really like, which only seems fair).



> I don't care about ads, I just want to be able to read web articles.

FYI, I had the pleasure of installing an ad-blocker (in the spirit of no advertising, I will not mention which one) on my iPad this morning. It lets me turn off scripts and images. The device now responds like something out of Star Trek. Highly, highly recommended if you just care about reading words on the screen.


I just mostly avoid sites with crappy ads. If I go to a site with a non skippable video ad I just close the tab. It wasn't that important to begin with. That includes YouTube sometimes. Same with other types of annoying ads. No need for an ad blocker for me so far.


My guess is many people are just like you. Basically, they've already installed ad blockers in their minds. Open article, click x, read article. Or read article, don't look to the left and right. Or see 45 sec countdown video, quit.

That's basically how I browse. The only ads I'm ever interested in turn out to be reminders of things I've looked at, due to how cookies work.


I do the same while reading other websites, but have always designed mine with the goal of never using advertising methods I would be annoyed of. No popovers, no video ads, no full screen takeovers. I also recently removed Google Adsense because the ads it showed were not relevant to my content even though they may have technically been relevant to my readers via retargeting.

Interestingly enough, at least in my field, using these practices have actually had the effect of increasing ad revenue since I am now directly selling ads and cutting out the middleman.


> The ad companies need to be less abusive. In the mean time, I'll use an ad blocker.

I agree... a funny example: https://twitter.com/JonyIveParody/status/611482506400014336


Why does one of those responses assume that you have to pay for an ad blocker? I've never heard of such a thing.


The poll is based around discussion of the new iOS 9 ad blocking browsers, the most popular of which aren't free (at the moment).

The Verge is also no doubt trying to make the poll more divisive with this phrasing, given where their revenue comes from.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/18/9351233/poll-ad-blocking-y...


If the best ad blocking options for iOS continue to be non-free, and grow in popularity, well that would be pretty eloquent, wouldn't it:

People will pay (a relatively small amount I guess) to see no ads on most sites.

(disclaimer: I use a free ad blocker for firefox on android)


The burgeoning category of iOS 9 ad blockers has several popular non gratis options.




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