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My name is Iyerbeth, and I block adverts on my Internet browsers.
To some people this statement is meaningless, after all pretty much everyone does it. To others, it's an admission of a life of E-theft. An admission of stealing content from sites and not giving anything back. An admission of doing something morally wrong.
The first time I came upon this view I was surprised, after all who doesn't hate adverts? On my TV if I want to watch something I'll record it and watch something else I've already recorded, and fast forward through the adverts. But doing the equivalent on the Internet, is slightly different. The space for adverts on the TV has already been paid for, on the Internet the payment comes if I click or if I see the adverts, but not often if I block them out entirely.
Businesses and organisation both small and large complain of the lost revenue when people use their site, access their content and deny their income. So then, why do people block adverts if all it does is harm those whose content we enjoy?
The primary reason that people block adverts, is that they're annoying. They're in the way, some use sound(!!!) some are bright or flashy or distracting or innapropriate or simple irrelevant. There are too many adverts on the Internet, and unlike with a TV a user often can't just switch over the channel if they don't like the content. It might take quite a significant time investment to find useful content again, and just because a user has clicked on to a page, should they have to immediately support that page financially without any idea of what it's providing or if it's worth supporting? Often the fact of views = money results in split up content for more income, or just spamming tag associations to divert more users on to the page. There are a lot of ways adverts can be bad.
But - adverts do have a role to play in supporting our favourite sites, and ensuring we can get the best content, but it has to be a two way thing. In my opinion, it is perfectly right to block adverts, but I also think users should be prepared to compromise.
Websites should use adverts responsibly, TeamLiquid is a perfect example of this. As you can no doubt see, this site has one advert at the top of the page, which is never intrusive and never in the way of content. Further, the content on this site is useful, informative and original. For that reason I think everyone who uses the site should disable adblock programs for sites like this.
Websites which I'm vistting in passing though which don't provide original or useful information, or which have annoying or intrusive adverts or try to milk me for more adverts through splitting up content, I don't believe are offering a service worthy of paying for and as such, I don't think it's morally wrong to say I'm not paying for it. There is no contract, social or otherwise, that obligates me to pay to support every website on the net I might click on, it is up to content providers to make their product worth supporting.
So my conclusion is, it's not morally wrong to block adverts, but that one's own principals should allow for exceptions when good content is available. What do you think TL.net people?
Also, if anyone is interested, I do actually have Adblock Plus allowing adverts on TeamLiquid, except for on stream pages because I want to see if a stream is worth supporting before I individually allow adverts on those video's. If you're interested in allowing TeamLiquid.net adverts, or all except streams which are judged invdividually like I have, here's how you do it. There are faster ways if you know what you're doing, but this method should work for everyone using Adblock Plus on Firefox.
+ Show Spoiler [How to disable Firefox Adblock Plus fo…] +
On the menu bar at the top click "Tools".
On the Tools drop down menu click "Add-ons"
On the Add-ons Manager tab that loads, click "Extensions"
Click the "Options" button on the AdBlock Plus line
At the bottom left of the window, click "Add filter..."
In the text box that will appear type in (or copy/paste) one of the following:
For allowing adverts on all of TL.net:
@@|http://www.teamliquid.net
For allowing adverts on all of TL.net except streams who you can allow later:
@@/http:\/\/www.teamliquid.net(?!\/video\/streams).*/$document
 
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5/5, nice blog, I've always found ads an interesting debate, as they basically pay for our Internet usage, but can be blocked. I don't block myself, but then I hear of things like the less-than-ethical idea of Facebook I think it was, selling 1 pixel ads so the 'advertisers' could track your browsing habits etc.
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5/5, I personally stopped blocking ads when I started watching a lot of youtube videos when I switched from SC2 to console games because I watch a lot of videos and the people who make them deserve that revenue.
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I don't mind giving money to websites that I think deserve ad revenue. The only reason I use Adblock is for live streams, where the ads are as obnoxious as it could possibly be.
I'll disable adblock on a lot of other sites though.
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People that provide a certain internet service that uses adds just have to find that middleground.
I personally don't use an adblocker, I never have actually used one, because I don't care that much.
I can even live with sites that have a certain pop-up when you go to the site that you have to click away, it doesn't bother me.
On the other side, over the last couple of weeks I have really been doubting to get ad-blocker purely for justin.tv, because they now have ads for my country + their completely stupid "get an add when you load a stream".
I watch a lot of streams, and I usually end up switching between some of them, maybe just checking out a stream that comes online, see what that person is doing etc.
If you combine this with people using the /commercial function, honestly it is getting so annoying, I can watch 30mins of streams and see 5-7 adds, and it doesn't help that it is the same two adds everytime.
Sometimes probably a lot more of I'm just checking out some new streams.
Reminds me when there was an IEM (I think) and they had like multiple stream, but there were stream issues, and you had to reload them a lot, and every single time again I had to look at the same irritating add, this for a whole weekend, eventually I just gave up and didn't watch anymore.
So yes, I agree, it's a bit of a two-way street in that we have to understand that these adds are what keeps sites running, provides revenue to do certain things, and so on.
But at the same time company's/etc have to understand that having the same goddamn thing flashing up or just trying to milk it as hard as possible isn't helping your cause and is probably gonna piss people off/make them get an adblock.
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On September 03 2011 23:58 Lightwip wrote:
I don't mind giving money to websites that I think deserve ad revenue. The only reason I use Adblock is for live streams, where the ads are as obnoxious as it could possibly be.
I'll disable adblock on a lot of other sites though.
True that. I have adblock disabled on couple streams as well as tl, but thats about it.
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I should have adblock on for anything not related to esports (damn Youtube ads for useless videos!!!)
But I'm far too lazy so nothing is blocked and I'm fine with it, even though I don't watch many livestreams anymore (except tourneys) and I remember that was annoying to wait 30 secs each time and when the loading failed you would get another 30 sec and be like "hmm ok I won't watch the stream then".
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Is it at all possible to block ads on the streams with chrome? Ad block plus doesn't seem to be working for me.
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Ads make me feel angry. So i block them, then i feel better.
Thats my moral.
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Honestly i don't overthink Adblocking,i always have it on.Ads are such an annoyance i have no regrets on blocking them ;p
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Great blog. I block all ads because I hate them with a passion. At the same time, I wish that didn't negatively effect my favorite sites and the people behind them. Someday I plan to rectify my deeds by donating some of my future-disposable income to those who I think deserve it.
On a related note, does anybody know a way to unblock the advertisement at the top of TL while still blocking the advertisements of the streams on TL?
Edit: I fail for not reading the full OP before posting. Thanks OP!
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I don't know why you would block adds on a site like team liquid. Or on streams. Sure, it costs 30 seconds of your day, but it doesn't actually "cost" you anything, and you are helping someone, for free, to make money. Mute the add if you don't like it.
Frankly i am sad to see so many people saying that adblocking is fine on TL, how do you expect people to do well if they can't sustain a living playing this game? Think about for example mrbitter, he made a show in which he paid pros for tutelage, and then used adrevenue to pay for the coaching, it is a win win for everyone. So you lose thirty seconds of your day, for someone to give you something for FREE. And i bet it cost them more than 30seconds to set whatever it is you are watching up. Stop being so greedy and actually help out other humans. What is wrong with that?
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Norway28621 Posts
I don't visit websites with annoying ads. any banner at the top is fine, but popups or ads that make sounds annoy me. as such, I don't have any adblockers turned on.
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Surili there were pro's before internet streaming was born.
If they wouldn't stream anymore, so what, i will watch replays of pros or do other stuff.
I dont like ads, so i don't watch them. Easy
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Personally i have never blocked ads but some websites that over use them i just leave. It reminds me of telemarketers just trying to get all p in your face :/
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I block everything on most sites, TL + it's streams is one of the few sites I don't block. However, when a tournament starts adds in the middle of interviews or matches, I'll block it immediately. That shit is just so annoying.
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On September 04 2011 00:41 Surili wrote:
I don't know why you would block adds on a site like team liquid. Or on streams. Sure, it costs 30 seconds of your day, but it doesn't actually "cost" you anything, and you are helping someone, for free, to make money. Mute the add if you don't like it.
Frankly i am sad to see so many people saying that adblocking is fine on TL, how do you expect people to do well if they can't sustain a living playing this game? Think about for example mrbitter, he made a show in which he paid pros for tutelage, and then used adrevenue to pay for the coaching, it is a win win for everyone. So you lose thirty seconds of your day, for someone to give you something for FREE. And i bet it cost them more than 30seconds to set whatever it is you are watching up. Stop being so greedy and actually help out other humans. What is wrong with that?
I'm not sure who you're addressing this to; basically everyone above has stated that they block ads on sites excluding Teamliquid.
Personally I block ads on everything except TL; usually the streams I watch have no ads, so it's not a problem.
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On September 04 2011 00:56 XXGeneration wrote:Show nested quote +On September 04 2011 00:41 Surili wrote:
I don't know why you would block adds on a site like team liquid. Or on streams. Sure, it costs 30 seconds of your day, but it doesn't actually "cost" you anything, and you are helping someone, for free, to make money. Mute the add if you don't like it.
Frankly i am sad to see so many people saying that adblocking is fine on TL, how do you expect people to do well if they can't sustain a living playing this game? Think about for example mrbitter, he made a show in which he paid pros for tutelage, and then used adrevenue to pay for the coaching, it is a win win for everyone. So you lose thirty seconds of your day, for someone to give you something for FREE. And i bet it cost them more than 30seconds to set whatever it is you are watching up. Stop being so greedy and actually help out other humans. What is wrong with that? I'm not sure who you're addressing this to; basically everyone above has stated that they block ads on sites excluding Teamliquid. Personally I block ads on everything except TL; usually the streams I watch have no ads, so it's not a problem.
That is not the case, a few people said that they do not disable them for streams for instance.
Even so, why should TL be so much more important that other websites? What is wrong, morally (as the OP put it), with making other people money FOR FREE? If i see a website covered with ads that i don't want to see and i don't particularly value it, i will close it, they still made a tiny amount of money from me seeing it, and i don't have a problem with that. I am sure a lot of people DO use it, or it wouldn't be top of the google search for instance. So i am helping a community somewhere.
My main problem is why people object to helping other people in general.
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I've never blocked ads, ever. I just dont see the point, they dont really annoy me. I dont think it's morally wrong or whatever, but i'm just too lazy to do it.
Never understood why ads piss so many people off, i never really notice them : /
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I very much like the idea of this blog but, I would ammend that if you don't think a website is worth viewing for the hassle of its advertisements, which is definitely sometimes the case, you should be willing to stand by your assessment of the site's value, while respecting its decision to advertise, and not showing respect for any part of the whole package of its presentation any longer. If an administrator has made a bad decision in your view, don't correct it for him, let him suffer for it completely; grant him no attention at all and save yours for someone who deserves it.
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Until ads become 100% honest and objective anyone arguing for ads automatically loses the moral high ground. If you're in the business of deceiving people you don't get to tell them they're doing something wrong.
Unfortunately the business model for websites is what it is so for now I leave them on. But in an ideal world we'd have subscription or donation based models where you'd have to opt in to receive ads.
Annoying ads are a whole new level. I just try to steer clear of sites that have them.
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Well except for a couple of streams, I say FUCK ADS. Seriously ever since my birth I've been harassed by ads. So now that I have the ability to block them, man I fucking block them.
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Canada5565 Posts
What a spoiled world we live in.
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I don't block ads, if I like a site that I visit often enough that the ads become an issue then the least I can do is let them earn some money off my eyeballs.
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I block ads for the reasons mentioned in the OP, although I whitelist all the pages I usually visit since I enjoy their content. Internet ads are generally far more obtrusive and deceptive and some pages are completely swamped by them, making navigating random sites I may enter annoying.
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I think you have to look at this from a semi-historical basis. When I first started using the internet was when I went to University and back then the only advertising was banners on major websites and search engines like Yahoo etc.
Then after a short while Pop-up Ads started to appear, and these were annoying to most people. Especially the ones that pretended to look like a normal window but in fact were a picture so that when you clicked the close X button it just opened another Ad.
Ever since then internet Ads have been coming up with different strategies to get in your face, like launching if you happen to roll over them, or you being unable to watch a video without watching a 2 minute advert every time.
This is why people started to use Ad blockers. If it all went back to simple banners and wasn't too intrusive then people wouldn't bother with blockers.
Now sites like TL suffer because of this historical misuse of the internet, and that is a shame.
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On September 04 2011 03:18 deathly rat wrote:
I think you have to look at this from a semi-historical basis. When I first started using the internet was when I went to University and back then the only advertising was banners on major websites and search engines like Yahoo etc.
Then after a short while Pop-up Ads started to appear, and these were annoying to most people. Especially the ones that pretended to look like a normal window but in fact were a picture so that when you clicked the close X button it just opened another Ad.
Ever since then internet Ads have been coming up with different strategies to get in your face, like launching if you happen to roll over them, or you being unable to watch a video without watching a 2 minute advert every time.
This is why people started to use Ad blockers. If it all went back to simple banners and wasn't too intrusive then people wouldn't bother with blockers.
Now sites like TL suffer because of this historical misuse of the internet, and that is a shame.
I agree with this for the most part.
The biggest problem I have with ads is movement and sound. For movement: If you have seen any of the Netflix ad banners you will know what I am talking about. The flash multiple times and have large amounts of movement and is super distracting. Banner Ads built into a video player literally just get in the way of actual content and block out the screen you are supposed to be looking at as opposed to regular banners where it doesn't (always) get in the way of the actual website interface.
Sound is the biggest problem by far though. It's just way too fucking loud!!!. When I use the internet I usually put any audio players to 50-80% so that if I come across a quiet video I can use the built in volume control on the player to turn it up instead of turning up the volume on my actual speakers, and then get freaked out when I do something else and forget to turn it back down. Since every ad in existence wants to smash the hell out of the waveform in order to fit as much noise available into as small of a space, its just unfair. It's like watching sleeping tigers on the discovery channel on TV and suddenly BAM that damn fucking ad for those fruit cups wakes up my cats and they run from the room (Exaggeration). Except on the internet it's 5 times worse in the volume difference. And also, if I mute the player and the ad pops up it should be muted as well, I have more than 1 tab up thank you very much -_-
I have ADD as well so ads are even worse for me goddammit :S
Makes me want to falcon punch my monitor sometimes. Often, actually.
P.S. Anyone know of a reliable way to block video ads on Opera? There are extensions specifically designed for youtube that work well but other ad blockers tend to only block video ads sometimes and sometimes even block out the player itself. IMO it's literally the only weak link in Opera.
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
I block everything, except on a few select sites that I a) use a lot b) I know rely on advertising a lot and c) don't have very intrusive ads. Any site that uses flashing or moving and what's worst ads that include sound can be certain to never ever have its ads unblocked.
Ads are one of several reasons why I don't watch TV (ok, I don't even own a TV atm) or listen to the radio, too.
Morality is... if you get in my face I'm gonna shut you down. That is all.
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I block ads everywhere but websites that I 1. Like and use regularly and 2. Don't have stupid pop-outs or ads with sound.
Streams are tricky, as I want to support the streamer, but I also don't want to watch their annoying ads. Usually depending on how much I like their stream I disable the blocker.
Also, I have an advertisement for Google AdWords at the top of this page
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i just ban anyone that says they have adblock on stream chat, if you have it on thats w/e but "bragging" about it on the broadcasters chat is a douchey move
In reality an ad is 30 seconds of time every 5-30 minute game, its not a huge deal to watch it since it really doesn't cost you anything if you think about it
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Ads are propaganda that try to exploit our in build irrationality. Ads try to abuse the flaws in human nature. They are immoral in themselves.
Ads are one of the strangest aspect of our society. How can you be a free society when every 15 minutes on tv some super powerful corporation tries to brainwash you into buying their products?
It is really a rotten part of our society.
Internet ads suddenly appear on your computer unasked and unwanted. Preventing them from violating your computer experience is theft? Ads are the most North Korea-like segment of our society. Especially tv ads. Those are the most sinister of them all. Never seen a tv ad the last few years that offer 1 tiny bit of useful information about their product to potential customers. Instead, they are extremely disrespectful by appealing to emotion and acting like the customers are idiots. And apparently they are because advertisements are extremely advanced and well researched in their methods.
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Blazinghand
United States25550 Posts
I used to have my adblocker on, but then the TL Mascot's adorable eyes were staring at me and I couldn't keep it turned on for this website. How could I possibly deny a personal appeal from the TL Horse Mascot?
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Call me crazy, but I don't use AdBlock. Probably because I was an early switcher to Chrome pre-AdBlock and got used to it, and also most sites I visit have manageable ads.
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Websites earning money through ads is a privelage, not a right. Same goes with users visiting a website.
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On September 04 2011 08:22 Suisen wrote:
Ads are propaganda that try to exploit our in build irrationality. Ads try to abuse the flaws in human nature. They are immoral in themselves.
Ads are one of the strangest aspect of our society. How can you be a free society when every 15 minutes on tv some super powerful corporation tries to brainwash you into buying their products?
It is really a rotten part of our society.
Internet ads suddenly appear on your computer unasked and unwanted. Preventing them from violating your computer experience is theft? Ads are the most North Korea-like segment of our society. Especially tv ads. Those are the most sinister of them all. Never seen a tv ad the last few years that offer 1 tiny bit of useful information about their product to potential customers. Instead, they are extremely disrespectful by appealing to emotion and acting like the customers are idiots. And apparently they are because advertisements are extremely advanced and well researched in their methods.
Hell yeah man, keep that shit out of my brain.
Can't even drive to work without seeing god damn ads all over the place, pretty soon we won't be able to shit without seeing them all over the place. So I welcome any chance to keep them out of my head.
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On September 04 2011 08:22 Suisen wrote:
Ads are propaganda that try to exploit our in build irrationality. Ads try to abuse the flaws in human nature. They are immoral in themselves.
Ads are one of the strangest aspect of our society. How can you be a free society when every 15 minutes on tv some super powerful corporation tries to brainwash you into buying their products?
It is really a rotten part of our society.
Internet ads suddenly appear on your computer unasked and unwanted. Preventing them from violating your computer experience is theft? Ads are the most North Korea-like segment of our society. Especially tv ads. Those are the most sinister of them all. Never seen a tv ad the last few years that offer 1 tiny bit of useful information about their product to potential customers. Instead, they are extremely disrespectful by appealing to emotion and acting like the customers are idiots. And apparently they are because advertisements are extremely advanced and well researched in their methods.
To be fair, advertisements in theory are not bad at all. They are simply a way to get your product known by anyone relevant. I'm sure that more than once in your life you stumbled across an advertisement for something really cool that you didn't realize you needed, but you did (Like say you have a super shitty vacuum cleaner, but you don't realize that until you see an advertisement) The problem is that in our current society ads try to be as loud and obnoxious as possible
No ones gonna buy your box of cereal if there's not enough lasor beams, lights and ninjas on the front. Razer in particular seems to capitalize on this fact quite a bit o:
On September 04 2011 08:29 Blazinghand wrote:
I used to have my adblocker on, but then the TL Mascot's adorable eyes were staring at me and I couldn't keep it turned on for this website. How could I possibly deny a personal appeal from the TL Horse Mascot?
Even with all ad blockers off and everything I always get the TL Mascot, lol. Makes me sad so I want to block that too :S
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it can be argued that the TV ardvertisements are the same its just handled differently. I mean the goal of the people paying to put their ads in the shows is to market their product to a specific demographic, they spend lots of money doing research and paying for the time slots. TiVo, DVR, etc. can totally ignore ads so you are stealing from the company marketing just the same. While on the internet it works a bit differently and you're stealing from the 'tv show' (website) instead of the 'sales ad company'.
Ads are basically a calculated risk, they know they can possibly spend lots of money and make nothing at all from it (its very unlikely but they do know its a rare possibility). Ads are like gambling, in fact even phil hellmuth has a chapter in his book about advertising which basically advocates showing a bunch of shit to opponents and changing gears to capitalize on what their image of you is.
Anyways, I wouldn't call it stealing. If everyone blocks ads then the system obviously doesn't work and it will fail. There will be some other way for them to make the ad revenue instead. Don't blame yourself, blame the system. That's usually a good philosophy anyways haha
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I block most ads because if I accidentally click one, I may get a virus.
It happened to me once on an older computer.
I don't block some other ads such as good ones on TeamLiquid!
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Canada11340 Posts
I honestly would never have thought to find such things as adblock if they had stuck with banners and sidebars or other non-intrusive ways of advertising. But as more and more things became, hop on our page and we'll blare loud music into your speakers or take control of what you can click on in the browser, or start when you accidentally hover over the ad, why then I became more and more frustrated with the intrusiveness of the ads. (And of course my original hatred came from those old pop-ups that irritating bright lights telling you, you won something, and goodness knows which button actually closes the dang thing rather than launch you onto some other webpage.)
But I think the final straw was watching the same 17-30 second ad whenever you have hit refresh on a video screen or try to move to a new part in the video, or the auto launcher started some new video, when you wanted to watch a different on. So you sit through the first ad, until you can click on the video you really want and possibly watch another ad when you switch and watch another ad before you start the one you wanted in the first place and maybe if you were having troubles buffering, you want to skip ahead 10 minutes, why then there's another ad to watch!
So I said screw it, I'll get adblock.
And I'll only unblock it for things like Team Liquid and Shamus Young and other websites with non-intrusive ads that I really support. I was actually surprised to learn youtube got ads as I was happily oblivious to that fact with adblock.
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I've been adblocking since netzero. It was funny too because the ad used to show while in an SC BW game haha. And your free hours per month were timed within the banner so bannerzapper not only blocked the shitty ad but it extended your monthly limit lol
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My neighbour came crying to me one night due to a bloody jtv add that popped during a strea. Not taking into account selected volume for the stream is stupid. I don't care about anything else but I'd rather not wake people up.
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Talking about advertising in general, in the UK you have the right to opt out of recieving junk mail through the door, cold calling phone advertising, and also mailing lists by e-mail. What I would like to see is the right that nobody can send you advertising unless you opt in.
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On September 05 2011 17:22 SpoR wrote:
I've been adblocking since netzero. It was funny too because the ad used to show while in an SC BW game haha. And your free hours per month were timed within the banner so bannerzapper not only blocked the shitty ad but it extended your monthly limit lol
That's brilliant, haha!
I also turn off AdBlocker for TL.net and other sites I want to support. Honestly, I wish I didn't have to use the blocker at all, and if they all were as unobtrusive as the one on TL.net, I definitely wouldn't. But they aren't.
They almost invariably suck. Hard.
Half of them are so insulting that I feel angry when I look at them. The rest flash brightly, impossible to ignore. There are good sites with well-written articles where it's impossible to actually peruse their content because some ad in the middle of the page is going, HEY! HEY! What are you doing?! LOOK AT ME! I CAN STAND ON MY HEAD!!!!!! PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS
Chances are, if you read my post, or even skimmed through the rest of this page, your eyes were immediately drawn to the red penis.
And that's why I block the fuckers.
But by far the biggest reason I use AdBlocker is for the same reason that I use Mozilla Firefox: Because nothing else will stop my streams from playing advertisements that are 38 times louder than the actual stream content. That shit is illegal on TV for a reason. I don't always mute my TV or change the channel whenever ads come on (mostly because I can't be arsed), but most of the time, for streams or internet channels, it's not even an option. Most ads you can't even mute in the window, and you can't volume control them. That shit has got to go.
You hijack and monopolize my sound card to engage in ear rape in order to sell me insults and shoddy products? Fuck you, and eat my NoScript.
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I have ad block turned off for a couple sites that I visit a lot. I cant stand ads in videos though.
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aylear makes a good point about the TV ads. They are a little louder than the TV programs sometimes but they used to be SO FUCKING LOUD. Then they changed the laws where it can't be that much louder. It's the same shit on websites and streams right now, really annoying.
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I block all ads. I hate them.
I'll support esports when I feel like it, for example by buying a GSL ticket. But I'm not going to deal with fucking ads. No way.
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I disagree with the part of stealing. i basicly block all ads due to the uncertainty of the methods used to display them, seeing a lot of them give out way too much information of me to the creator of this banner.
I don't think stealing is the right word, as you're on public domain, with a public website, offering information on a "free' medium. The only way to make it stealing is if you make the website locked down and paid access. That said, I will definatly think about allowing TL's ads, once I figure out which ad-carrier they use.
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I disable Adblock for TL and some HoN streamers...and that's about it.
TL ad's are entirely non intrusive so I really don't mind them.
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On September 07 2011 08:41 Aelonius wrote:
I disagree with the part of stealing. i basicly block all ads due to the uncertainty of the methods used to display them, seeing a lot of them give out way too much information of me to the creator of this banner.
I don't think stealing is the right word, as you're on public domain, with a public website, offering information on a "free' medium. The only way to make it stealing is if you make the website locked down and paid access. That said, I will definatly think about allowing TL's ads, once I figure out which ad-carrier they use.
If you're concerned with privacy, almost all the "legit" ad providers are part of the Network Advertising Initiative. You can opt-out of any tracking at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
You should also consider disallowing 3rd party cookies in your browser as this blocks the majority of cross-site tracking mechanisms. Note that this is only possible in FireFox, Google apparently don't want you doing this  .
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EPT
