[Nick]

Good lord, is it really that bad?

I think not.

HEXUS is a commercial operation, we all know that and the revenue from adverts is solely what pays my wages...

I'm getting kind of fed up with all the moaning every time we run an ad campaign, do you guys not realise that this is how we make money to be able to afford to bring HEXUS to you?

We're not a pay to view site, we rely on adverts, page impressions, click-throughs etc to bring in the cash to not only run the servers and pay the bandwidth costs but to also employ the guys, like me, who bring you the content.

Without some source of cash there'd be no CeBIT coverage, no HEXUS.tv blowing holes in stuff and no forums.

Blocking ads is cutting your nose off to spite your face, pure and simple. If you block the ads, we lose the page impressions and that affects the revenue generated by the ad.

Sure, you can sit back and say that well, it's not everyone that blocks ads so it's ok, but judging from the replies here, the general consensus is that everyone either is or should be running an ad blocker.

If that were the case, which fortunately it isn't, HEXUS would have to find more direct ways of generating revenue, such as subscriptions, or we could just do as many sites do and stick in page redirects forcing you to view an ad before continuing on to the content you want to see.

The system we have in place now is as fair as we can make it and yes, sometimes we do run distracting ads, that's the point of them, to grab your attention. But we also DO listen to constructive criticism, such as Spud's.

But, if Im honest, I'm fast losing patience with what seems to be a large 'minority' who feel that ads "steal their bandwidth", "screw up their apps" or "aren't what I come to HEXUS for"

To those readers I say this: Balls. That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard as a flimsy defence for what you see as your right to a free web. HEXUS IS free and the adverts we run on it aren't going to bother even the most miserly of bandwidth caps or broadband speeds.

I worked on HEXUS for two moths earlier this year on nothing more than a 56k dial-up and the ads didn't bother me so the 'eats my bandwidth' argument can eat my shorts.

You want to view HEXUS without viewing the ads, that's fine, but until the boss sees this post and reins me in, I'll start excluding those selfish members dumb enough to crow about it.

Edit: I just thought of something else. The ads we run here aren't just any old ads from Cillit Bang or Glade Air Fresheners... these are ads that we feel are relevant to the readership and something that they'd be interested in. I know the bosses work hard in making sure that what ads run on the site are targeted to the readership... it's all relevant stuff, perhaps even a benefit to you guys.

And I agree, if there was sound running as default, I'd be hopping up and down about it too, like that bloody annoying mosquito one that some sites ran ages ago, so we do listen to what you guys have to say... but those that ad block... well, that's just low.