Forum Rules: Ad Blocker? WTH?!

[Sakuji]

OK, if you haven't noticed, there are new forum rules. They all make sense to me except one. I am looking for clarification on Ad Blockers. Here is a cut and paste from the forum rules.

Use Our Forums Appropriately
Our forums are a place to talk with like-minded people, not a place to advertise your blog, webpage, YouTube channel or commercial enterprise. Your profile has a place for such things, and that is where it should stay. If you fail to do this, you will automatically get a 1 month suspension.

Similarly, posts including, advocating, or linking to illegal or adult material are a very quick way to end your time as part of The Escapist community. An example of these are:

* Piracy
* Ad Blockers
* Illegal Drugs in the United States
* Illegal Acts in the United States
* Pedophilia
* Pornography
* Sexist, Racist or Perverted Remarks

So is The Escapist saying Ad Blockers are a illegal, and if I say I use one, I am advocating illegal behaviour?! Are they illegal in the US, Canada, Australia, or wherever? Or just in a certain country?

Are ALL Ad Blockers illegal? I use AD Block Plus Plugin for Mozilla Firefox. I actually called my local police deptartment, and the officer who answered could not answer my question, and refered me to the FBI. I have no idea how I would contact the FBI, and frankly, the idea of calling them freaks me out anyways.

If I could get some clarification, I would love it. I want to follow the rules put down by The Escapist, but I am very unclear on this.

Thank you.

 

[Proteus214]

Advertisements are the revenue stream for a site such as The Escapist. Their ads pay for the salaries of the staff and their contributors and for the hardware that runs the actual site. Ads are valued by the "hits" they get. The more hits, the more money the site can charge for ads, increasing revenue without the users having to pay a dime. If you block an ad, that denies the service "hits" and devalues the space. By using an ad blocker and encouraging others to do so, you are essentially encouraging people to deny any compensation to the people who allow this community to exist and content to flow.

It is not illegal, no, but it is a kick in the nuts to the people that run the site. That's why it is frowned upon.

 

[Sakuji]

Thanks for the advice, I'll send them a PM and see what they say.

 

[Lionsfan]

The Escapist is very picky about Ad Blockers. I've seen people who say they have them/advocate their use get suspensions. And rightfully so, Ad's are how the Escapist makes money. Take it from me, the ad's here really aren't that intrusive, not enough that it's worth losing posting rights

 

[BabyRaptor]

Yeah, the adds here aren't that bad...The only ones I ever have issues with are the ones that take up the page background and turn it into a link for something else. I always end up opening another page when switching from whatever I'm playing to the internet.