Why adblocking is devastating to the sites that you love

[Mike Fishcake]

I know this has had discussions on here before, but I found this article on Ars Technica (via HardOCP) that explains their point of view in great detail:

http://arstechnica.com/business/news...s-you-love.ars

[Salazaar]

That reminds me, I must remove the block on the Hexus ads (which were stopping us access the site from the LAN).

[shaithis]

I do not agree with it.......you put a FREE page on the net for all to view, slap ads all over it and then get arsey when ppl block the ads out?

Make it premium or nothing if the revenue is that important but don't make the site seem free and then get pissed when the revenue does not get generated from the ads.

This reminds me as well, I haven't installed adblock for ages, need to get around to it soon......and as someone who NEVER clicks on an ad, I cannot see why I should be forced to see them

[0iD]

It's what finances these here forums

Necessary evil I'm afraid.

[Rob_B]

I read the Ars article last night & actually disabled Adblock for Hexus.net just so they get the views. I occasionaly click the odd ad anyway (when at work as no adblock there)

I do think some ads are intrusive though (looking at you Hexus.net homepage) but I don't have an answer to the problem of financing otherwise, doubt I'd subscribe if that was an option to be honest as there would always be somewhere that was free!

I was intrigued about Ars blocking some content for adblockers, good idea but I'd imagine it'd cause more trouble than it would be worth.

[Stringent]

So are Hexus ads a pay per view or pay by click out of interest. The Ads here are not that obtrusive to be fair, if they were, then I would get a bit annoyed by them. Sites as big as Hexus need an income to pay for all the electricity and servers which hum in the background. So either its ad based or pay based.

[shaithis]

It's what finances these here forums

Necessary evil I'm afraid.

So you get no money from the various other deals with scan etc?

[scaryjim]

I wouldn't mind the ads if there was a lot less flash going on. There's been more than one advert on here that has basically ground my laptop (a 2GHz Core 2 Duo) to a complete standstill just because it was badly implemented in flash. As I type this, flash is consuming 20MB and ~ 4% of my CPU - and that's with just 2 small ads. I understand the need for advertising revenue but does it have to be intrusive flash? Why can't we just have nice simply animated gifs?

As for the mouse-over popup ads on hexus.net - they will drive me to murder one of these days. I find those incredibly intrusive - often you mouse over them completely by accident and suddenly get a blast of loud music and the article you were reading is completely obscured by some inane advert. I don't think Hexus would work as a subscription only service, but there has to be a less intrusive way of generating revenue than those things...

[Steve]

I'm all for detecting adblock and pointing out to people that, erm, HEXUS has people and bills to pay.

I won't be developing anything that denies people access to primary content any time soon, although the result of Arse's experiment was interesting, even though the outcome was exactly as I'd expect

Also, we don't commission ads we think are annoying and get them fixed wherever possible. If a 3rd party ad is doing naughty things we can request it be taken out - recent ad serving changes have made it easier for me to locate these.

[Nick]

*sigh*

Ok, for not the last time, (though I wish it were ), here's the score on adverts on HEXUS.

The vast majority of income for HEXUS is from adverts on the site.

Yes, we have other commercial deals in place, such as the care forums, but adverts are the big one for constant income.

Some adverts are based on the number of impressions, so it's about how often they're displayed. Others are based on the number of click-throughs on the advert itself. Some are a bit of both.

I hope that's clear now.

Now, on the topic of adblocking - I could get all preachy, as I've done in the past, and decry those adblocking HEXUS as thieving the content, a bit like reading a newspaper in WHSmiths and then putting it back on the shelf.

But I'm not going to do that. I'm a bit older, wiser and less hot-headed.

So I'll just pose this question... What are you going to do with that minor bit of bandwidth you're saving by adblocking HEXUS? Not much... I'll bet that none of you are on the same poor connection I am at home (sub-0.5Mb at times), so bandwidth is hardly an excuse.

The money we get from the ads doesn't come from your pocket, so what's the difference?

You *could* always add HEXUS to your whitelist and give us the bit of revenue we get from keeping you informed and enetertained to allow us to keep you informed and entertained.

That's it. My piece is said. I'll let you and your conscience decide what's best.

Edit to reply to sacryjim:

We have a thread for reporting dodgy ads like that. As Saracen says, we have new ad servers in place to speed up the loaidng from stuff we host, but we can't control external hosting. However, if there is a problem with an advert, we do get on it straight away as we know full well what a pain a badly coded or intrusive ad can be.

[kalniel]

I wouldn't mind the ads if there was a lot less flash going on. There's been more than one advert on here that has basically ground my laptop (a 2GHz Core 2 Duo) to a complete standstill just because it was badly implemented in flash. As I type this, flash is consuming 20MB and ~ 4% of my CPU - and that's with just 2 small ads. I understand the need for advertising revenue but does it have to be intrusive flash? Why can't we just have nice simply animated gifs?

Report it/them. Any time I notice an ad getting in the way I put in a note at hexus.suggestions and Steve usually investigates - it's not in hexus' interest to have people unable to view or post in forums due to adverts which are breaking their contract conditions.

[TheAnimus]

The problem is that immediately he has made a bad comparison.

A restaurant to a website?

Perhaps an Art Gallery would be more apt, the content has a cost to produce if its anything more than monkies playing with paint.

Then there is a cost of keeping the place open, heating lighting etc.

It would be no different to people not paying the entry fee because they can simply walk past the security guard.

The problem is that sometimes, some sites the 'security guard asking for the money' is too offensive, to the point that you just bypass them completely. The example been rollover adds, badly written flash adds etc.

Personally I hate the hyperlink adds hexus has on their content, but the content is normally good enough to read for me to want to endure them. If however they where putting offensive advertising on the forums, where its not really their content, I would be pissed (I got in trouble at another UK tech forum for been a very vocal rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish on this subject).

I don't browse with addblock, but I frequently browse without flash enabled as it gives any ultraportable longer battery life. I consider that somewhat like my right, to have NOTHING made available to the host, the same way if I was using lynx. As this way, if they want to make money, I've not done anything to stop them.

[scaryjim]

... a bit like reading a newspaper in WHSmiths and then putting it back on the shelf.

Wait - you're not meant to do that?

We have a thread for reporting dodgy ads like that. As Saracen says, we have new ad servers in place to speed up the loaidng from stuff we host, but we can't control external hosting. However, if there is a problem with an advert, we do get on it straight away as we know full well what a pain a badly coded or intrusive ad can be.

Thanks, I'll look out for that. It's certainly been a lot better recently. The ads in the forums generally don't bother me too much - as I said, my real beef is those pop-up ones in the main articles. I've learned to be very quick to the mute button on my work laptop

[MadduckUK]

some kind of approval system where a site can be rated for its advert obtrusiveness, and the ads automatically blocked or unblocked in their entireity as appropriate would be an idea - rather than a plea to 100,000 users not to block adverts it would only need one webmaster to get their ship in order.

[kalniel]

Personally I hate the hyperlink adds hexus has on their content, but the content is normally good enough to read for me to want to endure them.

What hyperlink ads? You are signing in to Hexus proper aren't you?

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, I've just had a pootle round the main articles and there don't seem to be any of those pop-up ads on any of the articles. I'm pretty sure I've not done anything to block them: does this mean Hexus has pulled them?

EDIT:
Blech - after reading Kalniel's cross-post above I just went and logged out of trust and sure enough, hyperlink ads. That would explain that then.