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Last post Author Topic: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By  (Read 19992 times)

Tinman57

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Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« on: July 08, 2013, 06:40 PM »

Advertisers can pay AdBlock Plus to look the other way

07.08.2013 9:53 AM

Large companies like Google can pay the popular ad-blocking extension AdBlock to let their ads through.

http://www.techhive....k-the-other-way.html

superboyac

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2013, 07:05 PM »
I know this is a stupid thing to say, but I'd like to see the day when lame things like ads don't generate so much revenue.

Tinman57

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2013, 08:01 PM »
I know this is a stupid thing to say, but I'd like to see the day when lame things like ads don't generate so much revenue.

  Between over-saturation of ads, misleading ads and ad company spying, the ad industry has only ruined it for themselves.  They deserve anything negative as a result....

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2013, 04:36 PM »
It's hard to see how any user can reasonably complain. All the ads that Adblock Plus permits have to meet the criteria here, even the companies that pay. Moreover, if you don't want to see any ads, you can still block all of them, even the whitelisted ones, as explained here. Only someone who hasn't bothered to inform himself of the facts, or a hopeless churl, would complain that free software isn't made exactly as he would make it. Perhaps such people should rechannel all the energy they expend on expressing their unjustified pique into producing something that suits them. Or else perhaps they should just....
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 05:08 PM by CobbleHillGuy »

Tinman57

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2013, 04:58 PM »
It's hard to see how any user can reasonably complain. All the ads that Adblock Plus permits have to meet the criteria here, even the companies that pay. Moreover, if you don't want to see any ads, you can still block all of then, even the whitelisted ones, as explained here. Only someone who hasn't bothered to inform himself of the facts, or a hopeless churl, would complain that free software isn't made exactly as he would make it. Perhaps such people should rechannel all the energy they expend on expressing their unjustified pique into producing something that suits them. Or else perhaps they should just....
-CobbleHillGuy (July 09, 2013, 04:36 PM)

  Spoken by a true adblock fanboy, ad company or adblock associate?  I find it hard to believe that anyone would make such a rant unless they have either personal association with the software, or are just trolling.

mouser

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2013, 05:11 PM »
Tinman, please don't attack people because of their views.

In this world full of companies paying people to post on their behalf, it's fair to ask people if they are affiliated with a company.  But this is a diverse forum and people are entitled to hold different views and shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable for posting them.

This is especially true when a poster takes the trouble to post links and facts that explain and justify their position.

Even if CobbleHillGuy was affiliated with Adblock, he would be entitled to post his views on this thread -- though we would ask him to make clear his relationship with the company.

wraith808

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2013, 05:18 PM »
I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right :)

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2013, 05:18 PM »
It's hard to see how any user can reasonably complain. All the ads that Adblock Plus permits have to meet the criteria here, even the companies that pay. Moreover, if you don't want to see any ads, you can still block all of then, even the whitelisted ones, as explained here. Only someone who hasn't bothered to inform himself of the facts, or a hopeless churl, would complain that free software isn't made exactly as he would make it. Perhaps such people should rechannel all the energy they expend on expressing their unjustified pique into producing something that suits them. Or else perhaps they should just....
-CobbleHillGuy (July 09, 2013, 04:36 PM)

  Spoken by a true adblock fanboy, ad company or adblock associate?  I find it hard to believe that anyone would make such a rant unless they have either personal association with the software, or are just trolling.
Sir, I am neither a "fanboy" of Adblock Plus nor am I an ad company (nor an employee of one) nor an associate of its author. Rather I have used it for some years now with complete satisfaction and, grateful to its author for providing it, I see no reason why he should not make a little money off it from the ad companies. The post of mine to which you object is not a rant; rather it proposes reasons why users ought not to find the developer's action in whitelisting some ads objectionable, reasons that you either cannot, or can't be bothered to, refute. I ask who, then, is the ranter.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 05:25 PM by CobbleHillGuy »

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2013, 05:19 PM »
Tinman, please don't attack people because of their views.

In this world full of companies paying people to post on their behalf, it's fair to ask people if they are affiliated with a company.  But this is a diverse forum and people are entitled to hold different views and shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable for posting them.

This is especially true when a poster takes the trouble to post links and facts that explain and justify their position.

Even if CobbleHillGuy was affiliated with Adblock, he would be entitled to post his views on this thread -- though we would ask him to make clear his relationship with the company.
I am grateful to you for your intervention, mouser.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2013, 05:24 PM »
I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right :)
I thought that the expression "hopeless churl" was rather funny. If someone should call me that, I'm sure it would make me at least smile, but if it struck a nerve with Tinman57 and so offended him, I regret it.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"

mouser

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2013, 05:46 PM »
I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right

fair enough -- i stand guilty of skimming Cobble's post and should have called him to task as well for not being respectful and arguably starting the insults.

on this forum we expect everyone to be treated with respect.

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2013, 05:53 PM »
I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right

fair enough -- i stand guilty of skimming Cobble's post and should have called him to task as well for not being respectful and arguably starting the insults.

on this forum we expect everyone to be treated with respect.
It is more than arguable that I started it. Still, I can't understand the attitude of entitlement that some users of free software seem to exhibit, not to mention the cynicism they appear to display with regard to the motives of someone who might come to the developer's defense.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"

app103

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2013, 06:13 PM »
We could take a lesson from the ad companies and pay to have the ads blocked. Choose a software with an actual business model that doesn't include accepting bribes from ad companies...perhaps Ad Muncher, which will work with any browser (without a plugin), any desktop RSS reader, any non-browser software that pulls in ad banners from an external source.

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2013, 06:40 PM »
We could take a lesson from the ad companies and pay to have the ads blocked. Choose a software with an actual business model that doesn't include accepting bribes from ad companies...perhaps Ad Muncher, which will work with any browser (without a plugin), any desktop RSS reader, any non-browser software that pulls in ad banners from an external source.
It's more than a little unfair, to characterize your remarks very leniently, to insinuate that the developer of Adblock Plus is taking bribes from ad companies. A bribe is something of value given to a person with the intention of inducing him to act contrary to his moral obligations or to refrain from acting in a way that he is morally obliged to act. Please explain to us how it can be justly suggested that the developer of Adblock Plus is accepting bribes.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"

Tinman57

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2013, 07:04 PM »
I would also call for a bit of respect from the other side.  The post was written with pejoratives (hopeless churl) in it also, which could have prompted the response, even if two wrongs don't make a right

fair enough -- i stand guilty of skimming Cobble's post and should have called him to task as well for not being respectful and arguably starting the insults.

on this forum we expect everyone to be treated with respect.

  Except for when it comes to me, it seems......

mouser

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #15 on: July 09, 2013, 07:24 PM »
Except for when it comes to me, it seems......

Sorry Tinman, I jumped the gun.. I think my bias is always to criticize the longtime dc members when i see the insults flying -- mostly because i expect that the more time you spend on DC, the more you can be expected to know the protocol.

CobbleHillGuy

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #16 on: July 09, 2013, 07:29 PM »
Well, Tinman57, you did say that I posted a rant, which I didn't, and you did suggest that I posted it either because I had an undisclosed interest or because I was simply a troll. The former suggestion was simply not true, and as for the latter, it was certainly not true at the time that I posted my first comment, though I'll leave it to the judgment of others whether or not it is becoming true. On the other hand, I confess that I said that an entire class of people must be either intellectually lazy or hopelessly churlish, a class of which I rudely implied you were a member. I apologize. So, what to think? Shall we call it quits now?

mouser, is it possible for me to change my display name to "Hopeless Churl" (or "HopelessChurl" if one can't have spaces)? It's kind of grown on me. I can't see a way to accomplish that from my end.
Cobble Hill Guy, the "Hopeless Churl"

wraith808

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #17 on: July 09, 2013, 08:04 PM »
Can we just leave that part behind, and continue onward.  It was an unfortunate choice of words- more than one person took it as a negative, and the definition is *definitely* negative.   It was an unfortunate response.  Let's just forget about it, leave offense by the wayside, and go from there.  No need to continue it in any fashion.

app103

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #18 on: July 10, 2013, 05:04 AM »
We could take a lesson from the ad companies and pay to have the ads blocked. Choose a software with an actual business model that doesn't include accepting bribes from ad companies...perhaps Ad Muncher, which will work with any browser (without a plugin), any desktop RSS reader, any non-browser software that pulls in ad banners from an external source.
It's more than a little unfair, to characterize your remarks very leniently, to insinuate that the developer of Adblock Plus is taking bribes from ad companies. A bribe is something of value given to a person with the intention of inducing him to act contrary to his moral obligations or to refrain from acting in a way that he is morally obliged to act. Please explain to us how it can be justly suggested that the developer of Adblock Plus is accepting bribes.
-CobbleHillGuy (July 09, 2013, 06:40 PM)

I am not sure what else to call it when the developer of a free ad blocker accepts money from advertisers, to not block their ads.

If the developer of a free antivirus application made its money the same way, and accepted cash to treat certain malware in the same way that Adblock Plus has treated certain ads, would it be much different?

40hz

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #19 on: July 10, 2013, 08:32 AM »
It would be nice if AdBlock was a little more upfront and candid about how their white listing and "pay for exception" policy works. They didn't go out of their way to call attention to it.

When a product calls itself "AdBlock," naive little fools like me tend to assume (at least at first) that that is exactly what it does. And that it does it globally. When it doesn't - or the publisher switches horses in the middle of the stream - I think it's incumbent on them be more upfront and public about their policy change, "lest disappointment ensue" as a badly translated set of instructions once said.

Perhaps it's because I have a big problem with the whole "monetization" concept itself that I get so irritable about things like what AdBlock is doing. I think it far more honest and dignified that somebody who wants to make money from their works simply put them up for sale to the people who are using them - as opposed to putting in some sneaky semi-hidden revenue stream while hoping that most people won't notice or care about it.

But that's probably just me. 8)

---------------------------------------------

Note: another popular blocking product called Ghostery now also has a hidden revenue stream. Ghostery was bought by Evidon in 2010. MIT's Technology Review covered that debate in an article that can be read here.

From the MIT article:

That makes Evidon, which bought Ghostery in 2010, something of an anomaly in the complex world of online advertising. Whether in Congress or at the Web standards body W3C, debates over online privacy typically end up with the ad industry and privacy advocates facing off along clearly demarcated lines (see “High Stakes in Internet Tracking”).

Evidon straddles both sides of that debate. “This is not a scheme,” says Scott Meyer, Evidon’s cofounder and CEO and formerly a senior figure in the New York Times Company’s online operations, when asked about that dual role. He says there is no conflict in offering a tool that helps users hide from the ad industry while also helping that same industry.

“Anything that gives people more transparency and control is good for the industry,” says Meyer, who says it’s fine with him that most Ghostery users opt not to share data with Evidon. Meyer points out that those who want to block online advertising are unlikely to respond to it, making Ghostery use good for both sides. Meyer also says that Ghostery users are presented with clear disclosures about how the company uses their data if they opt in. However, MIT Technology Review found that it was possible for a user to opt in without seeing the disclosures.

Which is another problem with monetization. It can be implemented at any time with scant notice, whether by the original developer (often), or by some company acquiring the product (always).

As time goes on, the truth in the saying "if you're not the customer - you're the product" becomes more and more inescapable when it comes to closed-source software.
 :-\

wrbird

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #20 on: July 10, 2013, 08:38 AM »
I personally am extremely thankful for Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox and I'm neither their employee, hired for contract, troll, or whatever else, just a user who has found the plugin outstanding and would recommend it to everyone.  How do you like that for a run-on sentence :)

40hz

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2013, 09:02 AM »
I personally am extremely thankful for Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox and I'm neither their employee, hired for contract, troll, or whatever else, just a user who has found the plugin outstanding and would recommend it to everyone.  How do you like that for a run-on sentence :)

As a grandmaster of run-on and meandering sentences, I like it just fine. ;D :Thmbsup:

I'm also grateful for AdBlock. So much so that I've contributed to it regularly since I first started using it. Right now, I don't consider what they've done to be a complete show-stopper. (I'm not that much an ingénue.) But now I'm watching them much more closely than I used to. Which is a shame since trust is such rare and fragile thing these days.

Suffice it to say I'll kick AdBlock to the curb in a heartbeat if I so much as suspect they're abusing what remaining trust I have in it. For the moment, I'll give them some benefit of the doubt. But the ball is definitely in their court going forward.
 ;)


TaoPhoenix

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #22 on: July 10, 2013, 11:08 AM »
I'm also grateful for AdBlock. So much so that I've contributed to it regularly since I first started using it. Right now, I don't consider what they've done to be a complete show-stopper. (I'm not that much an ingénue.) But now I'm watching them much more closely than I used to. Which is a shame since trust is such rare and fragile thing these days.

Suffice it to say I'll kick AdBlock to the curb in a heartbeat if I so much as suspect they're abusing what remaining trust I have in it. For the moment, I'll give them some benefit of the doubt. But the ball is definitely in their court going forward.
 ;)

What remaining trust is there? Isn't the point of AdBlock to ... block ads? I've spent money on chunks of value (if sufficiently vetted! One Un-Named Soul has fallen on bad luck!).

So I'll submit the newspaper pages as my signature example of the Anti-Adblock movement. They employ these *awful* javascipt monstrosities that eat your entire page until you click them to go away!!
 >:(

So see my other posts on the "javascript blockers".

On the mobile front (blah blah yes it's mobile but it matters) one app puts ads right where your finger actions are supposed to be, so then you mis-click and hit the ad 20% of the time.


wraith808

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2013, 11:21 AM »
Truthfully, I don't mind ads- done a certain way.  I think that's what 40 means by trust.  If they vet, if they don't let abusive or obnoxious ads through, I'll be fine with it.

Tinman57

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Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By
« Reply #24 on: July 10, 2013, 04:11 PM »

  Normally when dealing with people, it's "fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."  But when it comes to ad-blockers or malware blockers, I run on the sentiment of "Fool me once, I blow you off my hard drive".

  I really do expect that the fox "will" raid the henhouse when left in charge of guarding it.

  On another note, I've noticed over the years how some great free software will be bought out by a large company only to be turned into adware or spyware.  They do this legally by changing the EULA posted on their website, which states "in" the EULA, that the EULA can be changed at any time and you should check it daily to see if there are any changes.  Yeah......Right......People are going to check the EULA's on all of their software, every day, just to look for changes....  The way I look at it, if they didn't announce these "little changes" somewhere besides the modified EULA, obviously they're being sneaky and can't be trusted.....