Ask HN: Why use adblocker?
I'm having a debate among friends: if websites wouldn't display ads and other website owners wouldn't buy ads, how would end-users find out about products, content, apps, etc? Wouldn't that take us to a "medieval age" of browsing the internet?
Why do you block ads?
Please don't include answers like "saving bandwidth" or "keeping my ram unused", i'm looking for ^real^ reasons for which ads are bothering.
Disclosure: I'm launching a product which monetizes through the use of ads.
9 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 30.1 ms ] threadIn my neck of the woods I have a 2Mb/sec DSL line, and ad blocking makes a visible difference in how fast pages load, what my blood pressure is, etc.
Word of mouth?
> Wouldn't that take us to a "medieval age" of browsing the internet?
I would love this.
> Why do you block ads?
I don't.
> Please don't include answers like "saving bandwidth" or "keeping my ram unused", i'm looking for ^real^ reasons for which ads are bothering.
The main reason many people block ads is because it's hip to do so.
I wrote some of my thoughts regarding advertising on my website: https://GNU.moe/thoughts/ads.html
If you accept that there is anything "real" about the $10 a GB that Verizon and AT&T charge for LTE data, zero rating doesn't make sense at all. That is, there are very few services that make anywhere near $10 a GB. For instance, it costs maybe $10 of mobile data to watch one movie on Netflix and that is what a monthly subscription costs.
In particular, if you add up all the money spent on advertising it is a fraction of what the customer pays for mobile data (less than 5%) and if the carriers just rebated 5% of the data charges to the web sites they'd be doing much better than they do now.
I've never, in my life on the internet, seen an ad and said, "Hey, I'll check out that product." I've been conditioned to see them as scams, and I don't think that will ever change.
The great thing about the web is that it's a "pull" system. When I want something, I'll go look for it. The days of throwing random things in front of my face in the hopes that some basal impulse will sucker me into buying your product are, thankfully, going away.
So, "saving my bandwidth", "keeping my ram free", and "personal sanity".
Also, I pretty much never click an ad, so no point displaying it.
Also safety.
Also privacy through reduced tracking.
Also just plain curmudgeonly contrariness. Harumph!
But after doing so, I've seen an unanticipated benefit. It's a much quieter internet. I really dislike being bombarded with messages to "Buy! Anything! Just buy it!"
And you know, the internet and web were here long before advertising took hold. I acknowledge sites' right to publish whatever the hell they want, including advertising. But I don't have to listen or watch.
I could just ignore the ads, as I used to do with magazines, and I'd be fine with that, even fine with the subliminal awareness that ads inevitably bring.
But I absolutely reject the intrusiveness of what makes ads really valuable, tracking. And I will not take the risk of ad-delivered malware. And if it costs a site money or existence when I view their site but not their ads, well, good. They're fucking things up, being complicit with the dangerous nature of current ad practices.
If ads were static, served by the site and not an ad network, I'd be less resistant. And if there were something like an Underwriters certificate that a site wasn't passing on viewer data to static ad sellers, then this argument would be over for me.
Reform or die. The internet will still be here.
Good luck with your monetization.