Do you think Adblockers should be banned?

MasterA Level 1

May 30, 2016, 12:02 pm

8

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I am sure that this is a very interesting topic to discuss. Adblockers. I am sure most of us here use adblockers because we hate all those annoying ads, especially, those pop up ones. However, as a webmaster, I hate adblockers because most of my revenue from my website comes from ads and adblockers are hurting my revenue.

There are a few ways to get past adblockers but there are some disadvantages with it.

Display a message to encourage people to whitelist your website. This may make active members whitelist your website. However, if you have too many ads, they may prefer seeing the message rather than the ads. This method is not guaranteed to work although it is better than doing nothing.
Disallow access for people who use adblockers. This is a method that is useful to some extent, especially if you have a very popular website. Forbes use this method, yet they have an alexa of 222. It seems to be working for them but if you have a small website, people may rather leave than remove their adblockers and you will lose traffic.

What are your thoughts on Adblockers? Do you think Adblockers should be banned?

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Beverly

Beverly

I've been on the Forbes.com site and that intrusive intro ad which plays when you first hit the site is very annoying. Not at all softened by the 'quote of the day'. An ad is still an ad, and I would think that ad finances a lot of pages. Still, there are two sides to this argument, both site owner and site user. As a site owner, I know it's important to finance the site by placing ads. As a site user, I don't want to see a site that is junked up with banner ad from top to bottom. That's especially true for flash game sites. It's just so easy to accidentally click on a 'game' advertisement which loads into an off-site page, sometimes riddled with malware and spam. For a legitimate site, you have the options you mentioned, which is to politely ask your visitors to disable ad blockers or to completely block the site user from seeing premium content until those adblockers are disabled. I can't think of other options for now, besides premium site supporters, which would negate the need for ads at all - assuming you can find them. As for your question about blocking members who use Adblockers, that's really up to you as site owner. And, possibly you show ads that can't be blocked, such as affiliate reviews/links, etc. It's all going to be dependent on your own specific situation and your goals for your site.

10 years ago

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samstone6688

samstone6688

Google is now explicitly banning ad blockers that prevent ads from being served in other apps from the Google Play Store, David Ruddock at Android Police reports.

Since 2013, the company has prevented ad blocking apps from entering the Play Store, under section 4.4 of the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement, which stated that apps should not "interfere with" or "disrupt" other apps.

However, an update to the Google Play Store Developer Policy Center on Wednesday makes that ad blocker ban far more clear.

Google outlines "common violations" of its policy, which under the "device and network abuse section" includes:

"Apps that block or interfere with another app displaying ads."

This update doesn't appear to be a change in policy. It looks like Google is just trying to make it more obvious where ad blocking apps stand: They can't stop other apps from showing ads.

Google sent Business Insider this statement via email: "We are constantly evaluating Google products and their policies. Mobile apps and Web browsers work differently with different levels of access and control. To provide a positive user experience, we remove apps from Google Play that violate our developer distribution agreement or policies. This includes apps that interfere with the operation of other apps but does not prohibit stand-alone or explicitly integrated apps that block ads as part of their designed functionality."

Nevertheless, it's still a confusing territory, not least because Google still allows ad blockingbrowsers in the app store. These apps don't interfere with other apps, but they still prevent the display of ads, squeezing publishers' — and, indeed, Google's — revenues.

10 years ago

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robertman11

robertman11

I hate ads so my vote goes for no, adblockers should not be banned. Additionally, it is my computer, my browser so I should have full control over what I want to see and do not want to see. Ads are intrusive, waste bandwidth and time. I understand the need for them but some websites have gone to far and they are too intrusive.

On another note, I hate those sites that detect when you are blocking ads and won't let you proceed. That means I immediately leave.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

I would probably never sit in front of my computer without my precious ad blocker. I hate ads and I couldn't agree with robertman11 more than I do. It's my computer and I'm in charge. I also do exactly what robertman11 does when a site detects that I'm using ad blockers.. I leave.

On the other hand, I can still understand why ads exist and I understand it's revenue loss for people when you're using ad blockers.. but still, no. Ad blockers should be free to use for anyone who wants it and I would seriously stop using internet without one. Long live ad blockers!

Best Regards,
hitmeasap

10 years ago

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Barida

Barida

I think it is right that some of the adblockers should be blocked. For goodness sake, those ads do not constitute an issue to anyone that comes online.

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

I have read one discussion in this site about adblockers being the bane of websites that share revenue from the ads. One is Adsense which will not have an effect in advertising if the website has adblockers. So what will happen to the current state of the online advertising industry? If all websites will have an adblocker that will be very effective in blocking advertisements, that means the end of the ads.

9 years ago

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