Why adblocking is detrimental to the entertainment you love.

I wonder how many corporate apologists aren't commenting here.

What he said. Ads were pretty damn harless 10 years ago. You kind of even wanted to click on a couple of banners because they actually offered something interesting, like those Opera Mini/Clean Master ads that you see on some free Android apps nowadays. Once they started making sounds, talking, yelling, making some websites nearly unbrowsable and FORCING you to watch videos and crap like that just to get to the content you wanted, it was over. Anyone who offered what Adblock seems to have gotten right before everyone else would have been crowned king/queen of the interwebs forever.

Disagreed. I will not stop using adblock until advertisements stop being ridiculously full of bullshit.

Adblock is one of those things I use every now and then. Not because I don't give a **** about supporting the websites I visit regularly but because of malware. I don't mind a commercial before a Youtube video because that commercial is the reason I'm not paying a monthly feel like I do with Netflix and I paid the $36 it costs to take the ads out of Pandora and get the higher quality streams rather than downloading the app that takes the commercials out but still sticks you with lower quality streams.

To say it is ruining our favorite websites is probably an exaggeration. However, I could totally see certain webpages using it as an excuse to going to a paid model, with them saying advertisers aren't buying ad space anymore because 90% of the users are using Adblock. Of course that brings the question, if Gamespot said either stop using Adblock or they will go to a pay-only service I wonder how many posters here would disable it and how many would say **** it and go to IGN?

I use the internet as a tool to do the things I wish to do as an individual. If I dont wish to see advertising then it is my right to remove it.

If I like a product I will buy it legally and pay a reasonable price for it. What I wont tolerate is people throwing advertising in my face without my ability to control it. Adblock is fantastic.

The key is creating interesting, engaging and non intrusive advertising rather than shameful banner ads based on your amazon cookies.

Blah blah, I hope everyone doesn't use it. Than they would try to find ways to sneak ads through. Ads are le annoying and le viruses, so yeah.

Same here. I also disable ad-block on CGR and pause it when I watch someone I like on YouTube (eg ProJared)

@Kevlar101: I used to not mind ads, when they were on the top, bottom or sides of the page I was visiting. One of the major problems now is that ads are now in the beginning of an old 80s song I want to listen to which has already sold millions back in the day and has no need to make much money now yet still has an ad in front of it because youtube says so. I also mind ads that constantly pop up and install things or attempt to install things such as malware and viruses. If ads would restrict themselves to the way they were in the past, perhaps I'd go back to not using adblock as I used to.

I don't see it as much different than people using DVR and then skipping commercials. It's a catch 22...I don't mind some ads, but others are very intrusive. For example, I watch PPV events on streams and they often have ad windows in the video screen. You can close them, but it's difficult and they often redirect you to sites that end up infecting your machine with Malware. Also, I hate the ads that have audio, particularly when I'm surfing at work.

If it weren't for many of these malicious sides that use advertising to infect your PC, I wouldn't use adBlocker.

i'm not THAT passionate about my entertainment that i'm willing to subject myself to the onslaught of advertisements to support it. if one show/movie/website doesn't make it because of insufficient revenue brought in via their advertising, meh, i'll find another. one entertainment widget can be replaced with another easily enough.

also

I have never clicked or bought a product from ads on the internet so me using adblocker really has no effect.

I adblock sites that have annoying ads and will continue to do so.

They should've through about that before they allowed irritating ads on their site. Nobody used it when they had a couple of banners on the side of webpage, Now you have Ads that pop-up on your screen when you enter a site and in some cases even if you browse a site then you're presented with an ad that you need to click away every time. And then you have those that insist on using sounds to draw attention. And as a final little thing, and this is primarily towards Youtube. Commercials on every video, some of which lasts 2 minutes you must watch before you can see something that lasts maybe 45 seconds.

If there is a irritating element and you have the possibility to remove it then people will. The fact so many have done so should tell sites that maybe they ought to find other ways to get revenue or better and less intrusive ways to broadcast ads.

I actually sorta agree. I've had this discussion before with my friends. I don't mind most ads. There are some that are crazy but usually not on the sites that I use.

i went without Adblock for years until the beginning of this year.. ill never go back