Why you MUST not use an ad blocker - unless you want to pay for content

[kokirisoldier]

Well I use generic un-modified Firefox and well I'm not sure it it blocks just what everyone is talking about. But I do understand the premise behind Kathleen's original post. I watch the commercial like I always have and I understand the principle behind marketing/exposure. The Slim Jim shorts are a little annoying for me because I was gone for a year and couldn't see most of my favorite shows here. But the best part is that they are FREE! I love the fact that these great people make some of the best quality humor for free. I will subscribe to them shortly because I have planned on it for some time but wanted to get more of a background and my bearings back since being gone for so long.

 

[Simalacrum]

I agree completely with this message - people need to be payed, afterall, an advertisements are an excellent way to do that.

However, I think some website's are being very inconsiderate when incorporating adverts into their site.

Take Game Trailers, for an example: although I love their content, as it's an excellent source for videogame trailers, reviews, etc, I honestly hate the way their adverts work. Why?

Because the animated adverts around the video cause it to slow down, until it gets to the point where it's literally unwatchable (like, 1 frame per second, or even worse).

If these adverts were simply image banners, then I'm sure it would be fine. However, having advanced, animated ads in a website which is focussed almost entirely on movie content, doesn't make practical sense - in this case, adverts completely ruin the experience if not done properly. Heck, even pre-vid adverts are better than the laggilicious crap that I have to deal with on GT vids these days because of the animated banner ads.

Basically, I say that adverts are fantastic, so long as they don't hinder the enjoyment of the content the site is trying to provide.

 

[Racecarlock]

Do you know why I block ads? I can put up with picture banners, sure. But then they put in high quality flash animated banners that take up all of my system, so I block them. I don't have a problem with an ad if it's out of the way, silent in a corner. However, when it PLAYS A LOUD SOUND ON MY SYSTEM OR FORCES ME TO WAIT 30 MORE SECONDS TO PLAY A FLASH GAME OR WATCH A STREAM, that's when I fucking block that *****. I don't want to have ads forced on me like that. I want them out of the way, tucked in a corner, and not freezing my whole fucking computer. How hard is it to make a banner ad with a still picture? Seriously! People can still see banners, it's not like they're invisible. And for the people that do look and click, that's fine. But I personally would rather not have to sit through a google chrome ad EVERY TIME I WATCH A YOUTUBE VIDEO. That's one of the reasons I use youtube and other sites, to avoid that shit in the first place! It's annoying as hell and screws up what i'm actually trying to do.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I take absolutely no notice of ads on the net anyway. I come on the net to avoid the shit TV gives me. Ads included.
But recently I've had some graphic images comer up as ad bars over my usual sites, VG24-7, gamestm, etc. This is advertising some sex facebook site.
I have a five year old who's not afraid to ask questions.
Adblock has been downloaded.

Do be surprised to get a probation notice because you mentioned you did. They don't care how legit the reason you might have done it. If you did, it is a capital offense in their eyes. They don't care if you got it to protect against viruses, keep your kids from seeing porn, or because it fills your computer with tracking cookies.

See that is the problems. If web ads were family appropriate and didn't have a nasty habit of ruining peoples computer, then we probably wouldn't complain as much. That is why it is dumb to compare internet ads to tv ads or paying a plumber like Kathleen did.

You hear that Kathleen? I might not need a plumber any more than I might not need your site. But paying a plumber isn't going to fill my house with plumbing supplies, set fire to my kitchen or expose my children to stripper the way internet ad fill my computer with tracking cookies, give me virus and have raunchy porn.

Until the internet ads can be harmless, you will have people using ad-blockers to keep their computers and families safe. Now the asses that just refuse to pay for thing because it isn't good enough for them. Well they are just asses and deserve the full wraith of moderation and the site policies.

If he doesn't use it on the Escapist, then it won't be a problem to my knowledge and no, it isn't that it is a capital offense. All ads on the Escapist are harmless, if you're seeing naked woman on your screen then you probably have a virus from another site. Try to find and remove the virus, don't punish the Escapist just because you took the easy way out and downloaded an Ad-blocker.

 

[MassiveGeek]

I am well aware adds do stick in the back of our heads regardless if we want them or not, but really the only ones I pay any attention to are game adds. Like, they had these HUGE posters when they released Assassin's Creed 2, and recently for FO:NV, and I can't stop staring because they're beautiful.

But I do get thoroughly annoyed at the adds at youtube. Don't block any adds though, and I really support this article, it has tons of truth in it. I am personally an aspiring game/concept artist, and as I get better at drawing, my art is taking more of my time. A lot more of it. So I can see how this could turn into an issue.

I'm going to bed now, tired, sorry if post is messy.

 

[bdcjacko]

If he doesn't use it on the Escapist, then it won't be a problem to my knowledge and no, it isn't that it is a capital offense. All ads on the Escapist are harmless, if you're seeing naked woman on your screen then you probably have a virus from another site. Try to find and remove the virus, don't punish the Escapist just because you took the easy way out and downloaded an Ad-blocker.

Better safe than sorry, and my anti-virus strongly urged doing so across the board. I make up for it by supporting sites I like. I joined the pub club and stuff. Anyhow I'm tired of this now

 

[Pilkingtube]

I was under the impression that paying for the Publisher's Club here at The Escapist was my contribution, as such I have indeed contributed, or was this rant directed at the non-paying portion of the community?

 

[Rpground]

thats a good point you got there,but alot of ads have spyware,adware,ect. and im personally does with getting crap from a save site i visit nearly every day to get ads on said site that harm my computer.i would rather not take the chance and ruin my computer.thats why i only let ads threw that i know and whole-heartedly trust.and thats a rarity...

 

[Racecarlock]

Once again. Unobtrusive banners. Simple. For example, when the escapist is advertising a big game, they do so by putting big banners on the side and making the videos pop-up in a mini player surrounded by banners. I admit it took some getting used to, but I settled with it. Pre-video advertisements are an entirely different story. They are intruding on my activity, so I block them. Just put those who are using the video adverts on banner design instead, so they can make a nice, unobstructing banner. Like cold storage said with his billboard analogy. I don't mind billboards, they're nice, out of the way, I don't look if I don't want to, and banner ads have the added benefit of a load being counted as a view even if I didn't look. But when something takes over my screen or freezes my computer, I take action. I haven't, however, blocked the banners, because the escapist is quite honorable to advertise in that way that isn't intrusive. I don't want to be forced to watch ads on the internet, that's like if the billboards in cold storage's analogy had robot arms and grabbed people who set foot on the playground, brought them up to the screen, and forced them to go through a flashy nike ad or whatever. And the billboard would also sometimes infect the forced watcher with syphilis or something, like the malware the "flashy" ads try to put on my system.

 

[ultimateownage]

Because people are all pricks. Like I said on my tweet to you, people are narrow minded and never see how refusing to have a small piece of Flash load on their screen is directly affecting all the websites and shows they love. The only advert I would refuse to load is the intrusive ones, like that advert for the smilies which plays a loud sound constantly. If I had an option to run one or two adverts on the side, even with the Pub Club, I would take it. If enough people did that, then it would generate more revenue, which would generate more shows, and more of what I love.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I personally Don't block any ads any more.
On my old laptop where an extra flash movie in the corner was enough to cause videos to lag I used ad blocker.

I love 'free' content and am happy to sit through a 30sec ad to watch a 5min video.

Might join the PubClub anyway, the Escapist has always amazed me with its ability to provide quality content for free.

 

[JSDodd]

I got probationally suspended for posting my view on this particular topic, have to say that in all honesty i have lost a good deal of respect for the people in charge of the escapist. I thought this place was a lot more open and friendly than a lot of other websites, apparently i was incorrect. And for this i am genuinely saddened.

 

[Indignation837]

I completely agree, I don't think having an ad blocker is wrong but at the same time if it hurts the people whose content I enjoy I'm willing to put up with a bit of annoyance. I have and use an ad blocker, but not on sites that I especially appreciate (the Escapist being one of them). If watching slim jim ads here and burger king ads on Hulu is the balance that keeps me from having to pay for content (or alternatively, pirate it and break the law) then I'm willing to take that deal. Although, Escapist, I would appreciate if you could get a little bit of variety in your ads? I don't even like slim jims, so nice as Kroxinjitsu sounds, it's not really selling me anything. Why not have more game ads? I'd think that would get you better sales and me some more interesting commercials.

 

[Guttural Engagement]

The beauty of adblockers; is they don't actually "Block" an ad on a website - they just hide it so you don't have to look @ it.

Picture it this way, a black screen that pops up instead of commercials.

The advertisers are still making money and so are the people advertising for them; but you don't have to see the advertisement.

Simple as that.

 

[cobra_ky]

The beauty of adblockers; is they don't actually "Block" an ad on a website - they just hide it so you don't have to look @ it.

Picture it this way, a black screen that pops up instead of commercials.

The advertisers are still making money and so are the people advertising for them; but you don't have to see the advertisement.

Simple as that.

That's not how (good) adblockers work at all. They actually do block the ad, which is what you want if you're worried about bandwidth or malicious code being downloaded onto your system (and that's what you should be worried about).

In other words, they prevent the ad from loading at all, which is why The Escapist is so pissed off about them, as apparently they have an advertising deal that's dependent on the number of pageloads the ads get.

I got probationally suspended for posting my view on this particular topic, have to say that in all honesty i have lost a good deal of respect for the people in charge of the escapist. I thought this place was a lot more open and friendly than a lot of other websites, apparently i was incorrect. And for this i am genuinely saddened.

Exactly. I'm not sure how effective the "no adblock" policy is at generating revenue, but it's certainly coming at the expense of the site's integrity. Once again i feel the need to point out that I do not use an ad-blocker on The Escapist, nor am i advocating the use of one, as i haven't found the ads here to be particularly dangerous or intrusive. I simply feel that the Escapist's policies towards them are harmful to the community, as evidenced by the fact that i have to write stupid disclaimers like this one for fear of probation.

 

[niceguy191]

I was under the impression that most ad blockers needed to analyze the content (and therefore download it) before it could be blocked... Wouldn't this mean that it is counted as a "view" even if you don't view it? I'm not sure how that works so I could be wrong, but maybe this whole issue isn't ad bad as it seems?

This is a very tricky topic. I don't pay for TV specifically because of the ads. If I like a show, I'll wait for it to come out on DVD and pay for the whole season that I can watch whenever I want with extra features and no ads. The amazing thing here is that TV ads are HIGHLY regulated as to their content/length/ratio to other content and it's still enough to sour many people from the medium altogether.

The main problem with Internet ads is that there is no such regulation. In my opinion the regs used for TV are the very bare minimum that should ever be tolerated by a consumer base as far as advertising goes, and the Internet falls embarrassingly short of even this standard. Even the more scrutinizing sites such as The Escapist don't meet all of the criteria that TV ads must fall under (usually they break the ratio of ads to content), and these are the sites that CARE! The vast majority do very little to filter what can be an essential form of revenue for them, viewers be damned.

I believe EVERYONE should be compensated for their work weather it is considered art or not, weather it is online or not, weather it is tangible or not. The method of payment is where it gets iffy. I understand the need for advertising as a medium (heck, one of my favorite radio shows is The Age of Persuasion on CBC :3) but with the literally hundreds of ads that I'm bombarded with every day I do often wonder how effective many of them are. The only Internet ads that have EVER gotten my attention in any positive way have been the ones that I actually CHOSE to view instead of being forced into it (the so called "viral" ad campaigns) and I have spent a considerable amount of time online for quite a few years.

I guess the easy thing to say is that the current advertising/funding model simply doesn't work very well. It labels potential customers as thieves or alienates them through often invasive techniques, and this doesn't tend to make people want to spend money. I tend to prefer product placement as a relatively non-invasive means of making extra cash (as long as it's tastefully done) and would argue that it's more effective than most other forms of ads.

I get really ticked off by repetitive/dangerous/lengthy/large/obtrusive ads and have been driven to an almost murderous rage at times because of the sheer number that are "all of the above" online. (One of these instances was, believe it or not, the Publisher's Club ads that would play before EVERY video on the site for awhile. It's actually the only reason keeping me from joining since I can't stand the dirty feeling I would get knowing I was successfully exploited/bullied into it. Basically a pop-up ad for a pop-up blocker is the worst type of marketing)

My usual method of supporting something I like? Buying something from them. Most of the time this is merch, but sometimes it could be an extra service or special something, almost never a subscription for some reason... On a related note: Kathleen when are you guys gonna sell more of those creepy dolls?!??! How am I supposed to build my creepy doll army without any creepy dolls???

TLDR--> Online ads suck unless they aren't force fed, creators deserve compensation for their work, product placement is better than interruption, buy swag to support stuff you like.

Most importantly!! Vote with your wallet. If you like something, send some money in that direction. Something tick you off for ANY reason? Don't support it and it will need to adapt to survive.

 

[RvLeshrac]

*snip*

No, ad-blockers work by blocking known ad servers. They don't "analyze code," as there's no "code" unique to advertisements.

 

[Eikoandmog]

Kathleen when are you guys gonna sell more of those creepy dolls?!??! How am I supposed to build my creepy doll army without any creepy dolls???

Those started being handmade by Tally months ago and she finished only a short while before they became available so I wouldn't expect more for quite a while.

On topic, I'm a pubclub so I do directly support The Escapist and thus, LRR, Yahtzee, Rebecca Mayes etc. but I can also see where the people who do block ads come from, especially when the ads become malicious in nature or seeing boobs when I'm not actively searching for them. For places the The Escapist or Youtube where the advert content is regulated, at least add these sites to your whitelist. Yes it's annoying to watch a 30 second advert but you're getting cool stuff for free and I can see where Kathleen is coming from. That said, I'm only using base Chrome so I don't really have a blocker beyond the blocking of those that are deemed malicious which is written into the coding of the browser.