Why Do You Block Ads?

flyingember asks: "With ad blocking becoming ever more popular among users, why do you block ads? And with what? Do you view internet ads as different from say, TV ads? What about in a magazine? Do you not buy a magazine because it has too many? I'm specifically talking about the ads in a webpage, but even popup blockers can cause problems with me using a site."

Magazine Ad Overload

[RaguMS]

Recently in Barnes & Noble, I remarked to my friends, "I won't buy magazines because they're all full of ads. Why can't they make a magazine with no ads?", to which one friend responded, "What you want is a book."

Well, besides porn

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I have never seen an internet ad that actually made me interested in a product.

why do...

[UnanimousCoward]

...dogs lick their balls?

My health.

[The Ancients]

I'd rather not find out I suffer from epilepsy due to a simple bout of web surfing.

That would just be plain unfair.

Paging Dr. Freud

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr. Freud to the front desk please...

Re:Computer Shopper

[Lemmy Caution]

You may not understand fashionistas, but they aren't simply idiotic. They are simply playing an entirely different game than you are - one that has its own rewards and advantages.

Re:Google Ads

[AuMatar]

I block google ads. They're less annoying, but thats like saying someone who punches you in the face is less of an asshole than someone who kicks you in the nuts.

Re:My reasons

[JesusCigarettes]

7. Profit?

Re: Re:the ad fight is worth it

[DoorFrame]

Nobody even made fun of you. You should have just let it go and nobody would have noticed.

Re:why do...

[Barnoid]

...dogs lick their balls?

because they can.

and don't tell me you have never tried... ;-)

Re:My reasons

[mpn14tech]

Also just as annoying or amusing is when I do searches and get google ads to find bessel functions on ebay, quarks at pricegrabber or other irrelevant nonsense.

Re:Computer Shopper

[luna69]

Cultural relativism! Woohoo!

People engaged in insipid, useless, self-referential activities are not just 'playing a different game'. They're playing a dumb game, demonstrably.

Re:My reasons

[freaktheclown]

Jews
Looking for Jews?
Find exactly what you want today
www.eBay.com

Re: My Reasons

[lordofthechia]

But if you don't look at the ads it's like you're stealing the internet!

Re:Mentally or Technologically?

[KillShill]

be careful. they just might.

Re:I block and avoid as much as possible

[dzurn]

It's rare that I have a day where I don't end up using a urinal that forces ads into my face.

Uhh, then you might be using it incorrectly.

Re:My reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

You're getting paid for your slashdot comments? Where do I sign up?!

Re:if not ads, who should pay for content?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you "subscribe" to a website?

Not this website 'cause it treats my favorite poster - the AC - like dogshit in order to increase its more trackable, sellable, registered user base. This is to the detriment of discussion and moderated information exchange.

Re:My reasons

[StikyPad]

Some people will laugh with you, but the rest of us are laughing at you while we get bargain prices on quarks and bessel functions.

Re:My reasons

[StikyPad]

...or cover some part of the house while you're painting :) Try that with Flash ads.

Actually, the Flash ads worked fine, but removing the paint from my laptop afterwards was a bitch.

Re:My reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

google ads are not that bad as the ones that say "YOU HAVE SPYWARE DOWNLOAD THIS!!!"
or "YOU ARE A WINNER CLICK HERE AND SUBMIT YOU EMAIL ADDRESS"

there normaly plain text and have something to do with the website your viewing.

what i hate the most is adverts that claim they scanned your computer/registery and found spyware. when your not even using windows.

I block ads to help the advertised products

[dalangalma]

See, if I see an ad on a web page (especially a large / moving / flashing / content-obscuring one), I think less of the advertised product. There's no chance I'll shop at Orbitz, and I don't even know what they are! I just know I dislike the company from their ads. So by blocking the ads, I'm doing the companies that placed the ads a big favor by increasing the likelihood I'll buy their products.

Besides that, the one time I browsed without Adblock recently I was amazed that so many news sites I liked to read were so crowded with ads I could barely read the text! No thanks - the website is much more pleasant without ads.

Re:My reasons

[aichpvee]

The ones I hate the most are the ones not caught by my current privoxy setup. Though the ones you mention are a close second.

Send them a bill

[ChaosMt]

If you were american, you'd send a bill to accounts payable for consulting hours.

Re:My reasons

[Rob_Warwick]

Once eBay's ads told me that they had all the Evil Monkeys I'd need.

Now I shop at eBay.

Re:Send them a bill

[Associate]

If he were American, the original web developer would sue him and win.

AdBlock is a BRITA for your computer

[Anonymous Coward]

I filter my internet for the same reason I filter my tap water. Just because there's crap in it i don't want.

Re:My reasons

[rcbarnes]

I propose the following punishment for all internet advertisers who use invasive ads:

1) Strip advertiser naked.
2) Nail his (odds are he's male) penis to a tree.
3) Hand him a butter knife.
4) Set the tree on fire.

You know what will happen

[benhocking]

All they'll have left are the bottom and strange quarks, and the bessel functions of the second kind. Good luck with those - can't even build a decent nuclear generator with that.

Re:My reasons

[dr_d_19]

A little while ago, my Mum was having trouble convincing one of our older family members to eat properly. I had recently stumbled across a new type of food in the supermarket that my cats really enjoyed, and so I thought that the old cat might enjoy it too..

Typical geeks. Your mum has to eat cat food, and your concern is the HTML vs Flash conflict.

Re:Send them a bill

[Wade Tregaskis]

If he were American, he wouldn't be using an ad-blocker because it'd be illegal under some obscure clause of the DMCA.

Re:My reasons

[Fred_A]

What's the matter with you, what do you have against trees ?

Re:Send them a bill

[Plugh]

If he were American, he wouldn't be using an ad-blocker because it'd be illegal under some obscure clause of the DMCA.

If he were a Real American, he'd Break the law!

Re:Invasion of privacy issue

[aug24]

There is one reason, and one reason only to watch ordinary TV in America.

You and your flatmate take turns flipping channels. First one to hit a car ad makes the coffee. You never wait more than 90 secs.

Justin.
(With thanks to Mark Williment)

Re:My reasons

[permaculture]

Yes. Once I was researching studies on second hand tobacco smoke.

Ebay offered me 'great bargains on 2nd hand tobacco.'

Uh huh?

Re:My reasons

[muzzmac]

15 Naked advertisers. You?

Re:My reasons

[Petersson]

10. Because I can. Seriously - if there was a way to delete all ads from TV, wouldn't most people do it?

Remove all ads from TV and couch potatoe generation will suffer from bladder rupture. Sure someone will sue you for that...

Re:My reasons

[ArsenneLupin]

Yea but you go in trying to buy just 1 quark but they allways sell you 2...

Actually 3.

If you find a package that has just two quarks, one of them is certainly an antiquark, so you better bring that back for a refund!

Re:My reasons

[Shawn is an Asshole]

Ebay also claims to have all the Plutonium [google.com] you need..

Re:My reasons

[HaydnH]

Slashdot take note: I am happy to put up with banner ads if they don't consume too many resources, but I simply will not see anything that uses Flash. Perhaps you should make it a condition of advertising on your site - you and El Reg are the only sites I've noticed missing out from this policy.

There are ads on /.??

Re:My reasons

[Phisbut]

There really should be a plugin that lets you limit the amount of CPU usage that a plugin can use.

But if that plugin would require quite a bit of CPU usage to prevent the other plugins from eating up your CPU, we'd be pretty fucked now, wouldn't we?

Re:Because I'm not that sort of consumer

[alan.briolat]

I thought you made a good point, and took everything you said seriously, right up until the PowWeb advert in your sig. Thank that people can't put invasive advertising in their Slashdot sigs!