RIP Adblock Plus

**ZedIsDead** · 09-24-2015, 07:08 PM

Adblock is going to start letting the ads of about 70 companies through in exchange for money. Yup, they sold out. I'm not really surprised it happened, but it's sad to see nonetheless. I'm glad I switched to uBlock Origin.

Adblock Plus is letting companies pay to get their ads through its tool.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-24-2015, 07:16 PM

Lol, good bye Adblock, you had a good run. Honestly I'm not sure I've heared of a company/product doing something so retardedly self destructive.

**ZedIsDead** · 09-24-2015, 07:22 PM

I doubt they had much of a revenue stream before. The benefits of selling out will probably outweigh the backlash they'll receive.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-24-2015, 07:25 PM

Wait, that's a good point, they probably didn't have any revenue at all... Unless they were installing more than Adblock and selling info.

**Uter** · 09-24-2015, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZedIsDead

I doubt they had much of a revenue stream before. The benefits of selling out will probably outweigh the backlash they'll receive.

Except this should be it for them. It might pay off for a couple months. But if a better blocker exists, why would anyone bother with Adblock? And if it's possible, even as new blockers engage in the same practice, there will always be a new one to replace the inferior ones.

I can't see how this can possibly work out for them in the mid to long term.

**Kong** · 09-24-2015, 07:49 PM

I think it's great news. Blocking non-intrusive text ads like google ads is short sided and stagnates the internet.

Viewing ads is the trade you make for free content.

If a site is providing entirely free content then blocking their only revenue stream is a vote against that site improving.

Google text ads are now unblocked which is great news for RU.

@did adblock plus just kill themselves? No way. They have a huge lead on competition and will be able to keep it for a long time. Their software is open source and they will have to compete with their old version but people are clueless and slow to adapt. It will be a long time before they lose their monopoly.

But that doesn't matter. Look at this from their point of view. It's a huge victory. They had zero revenue stream before and now buckets of it. This is probably a bigger win than they imagined possible.

**Dudebro** · 09-24-2015, 08:41 PM

If they only allow non intrusive/obnoxious ads then I'm fine with it. If the shit ones get through then I'll be on the lookout for a superior ad blocker. I wanna support sites but if they use shitty ads I lose all sympathy.

**Slime Slayer** · 09-24-2015, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kong

I think it's great news. Blocking non-intrusive text ads like google ads is short sided and stagnates the internet.

Viewing ads is the trade you make for free content.

If a site is providing entirely free content then blocking their only revenue stream is a vote against that site improving.

Google text ads are now unblocked which is great news for RU.

@did adblock plus just kill themselves? No way. They have a huge lead on competition and will be able to keep it for a long time. Their software is open source and they will have to compete with their old version but people are clueless and slow to adapt. It will be a long time before they lose their monopoly.

But that doesn't matter. Look at this from their point of view. It's a huge victory. They had zero revenue stream before and now buckets of it. This is probably a bigger win than they imagined possible.

I'm completely sympathetic with your situation Kong, and for the most part I agree. I will turn off adblock for sites I care to support.

I think you might be misjudging the users of adblock though. I think the vast majority of them are tech savvy enough that they know the ins and outs of their service, and will act swiftly and accordingly. Although there are probably lots of cases where people installed it on their parents computers and stuff... But yeah, they developped the incredibly successful plug-in, and they deserve to see revenue.

**Kugyince** · 09-24-2015, 09:09 PM

Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

**Seahawk** · 09-24-2015, 09:21 PM

Hopefully this forces ad companies and websites to take a good look at what they're serving up and tone them down a bit.

Giant autoplaying banners are ridiculous now. even though I just block Flash outright. It's like the age of 2000s pop ups all over again.

**Dudebro** · 09-24-2015, 09:41 PM

Currently I'm using a loaned laptop with no ad blocker and it is torture. Even simple stuff like scrolling through my FB feed is a chore because of ads clogging it up and slowing it down. Some sites I can't even visit because it acts so strange. The internet without adblock is a scary place.

**CrispyChicken** · 09-24-2015, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevencassidy13

I'm completely sympathetic with your situation Kong, and for the most part I agree. I will turn off adblock for sites I care to support.

I think you might be misjudging the users of adblock though. I think the vast majority of them are tech savvy enough that they know the ins and outs of their service, and will act swiftly and accordingly. Although there are probably lots of cases where people installed it on their parents computers and stuff... But yeah, they developped the incredibly successful plug-in, and they deserve to see revenue.

I do this as well. Whenever I'm watching Youtube or Twitch, I turn it off since its going to people I want to support. If I go to a site that's overloaded with ads, yeah I'm going to turn it on.

**ZedIsDead** · 09-24-2015, 10:11 PM

Yeah, that's really the best way to go about it. I whitelist RU and a handful of other websites, but that's it.

I don't feel bad about adblocking YouTube, though, fuck commercials.

**Kong** · 09-24-2015, 10:32 PM

About 25-30% of RU users have adblock plus running.

I imagine you are right that annoying ads are horrible but I wouldn't know since I've been blocking them for about the past 10 years.

AB+ is saying they will continue to block annoying adds while taking an opportunity to pay themselves and pay websites that choose to have less annoying ads.

I see that as a positive step.

Windows 8 & 10 Phone/Tablet and iOS 9 all have built in ad blockers. This might have been a response to that. AB+ might have seen competition and thought their chance to cash out was now or never. Also Google's main revenue stream is ads. AB+ was eating 25% of it and ios 9 will take another big bite. I don't know how much Google paid AB+ but I imagine they were willing to pay 100s of millions every year if that's what it took.

**Mareeps** · 09-25-2015, 12:25 AM

Non obtrusive ads like text are one thing. Ads that flash, pop up, or appear before short videos are horrible.

**fungusman** · 10-14-2015, 11:48 PM

Adblock still tracks you :P

Just edit your host file to totally block all that garbage. No tracking for real!
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