The Devastating Effect of Ad-Blockers for Guru3D.com

Apologies, removed this site from the list and would look into donating if the ads annoy me as been on here for years and this is my main forum.

There are always going to the the idiots who think everything should be ad free, but they have no idea and are noting but leeches whose lives would crumble if no one got paid for their time and most online content eventually dried up.

 

I didn't see the post Hilbert was responding to, but I've seen a lot of BS in this thread. I understand Hilbert's position and I sympathize with him. Had I known of the "donate" button sooner, I'd have donated sooner. Hilbert does need to understand the position some of us are in, as well. With my work laptop, I'm forced to run adblockers because of the sites I have to access for work. I can't permit any unnecessary security risks. Since ads pose a security risk, they have to be blocked on my laptop. I access sites that contain personal information for both myself and my company's customers. Those sites also contain information for my employer. I can't risk malware getting onto that laptop. My personal desktop is used for paying bills, gaming, web browsing, etc. It also has access to one of my sites for work, which contains information for the company I work for.

I keep ads blocked on every site due to past experience....at least when I'm booted into Windows. When I'm in Linux, I really don't care about the ads. If I didn't need Windows for that rare occasion that I play a game, or for work, I'd run Linux 24/7 and just ignore the ads. Seeing the ads doesn't bother me. It's the risk involved with the ads. I've had my system infected by malware from ads...and my (ex)wife's laptop has been infected by malware from ads several times. Anyone that assumes that ads are safe just because of the site they're on is either incompetent or ignorant.

While I'd love to see an ad-free internet, we're beyond that point. Ads have become a necessary evil. However, the sites that are worth it, I will donate to. I frequent this forum and THG. I will gladly donate to this site. If THG ever gets writers that can do a little, simple research before posting a fact-less article I'd consider the same for them. However, based on an article I read there a short while ago where they claimed Windows was the only option for desktop operating systems....I have no faith in them. I will continue to donate to this site though because the community itself is well worth it. If Hilbert were to ever setup a subscription system, I'd gladly sign up.

 

I have to let G3D know - I did take onboard your request and white listed you but since a vodaphone ad just started playing a very annoying audio ad along with the visual everytime I visit the site I've taken your site back off the whitelist and reactivated Ad Block.

You want people to stop using ad block? Then don't have intrusive ads that pull this BS......

 

I suppose what is considered intrusive will change from person to person, the platform used will also be taken into consideration.
If browsing from my desktop PC then ad's are rarely a huge concern, if it's from a mobile device then it's a different story as it can pretty much kill the experience, and while i have no data limits, i'm sure people who do will consider it an issue.

I've already saw a few sites restricting access if adblockers are used, i wonder if that might have to be the next step for nearly all sites.

Is the subscription model a good one, or does the revenue from ads bring in more?

 

For me, an "intrusive ad" is one that intrudes on my viewing or use of the website or forum. The standard "banner" ads aren't bad, so long as they don't play audio.

If sites I visit start restricting access due to adblockers being used, I'll just look for alternative sites. I already have several ad servers blocked in my router config....I'm not scared to add a lot more....

 

What happens if those alternative sites start restricting access when they realise their own traffic is increasing massively from the fallout from the other sites?

It's not impossible that in the future most of the web will end up subscription or with forced ads.

 

My reliance on the internet will adapt to the trend as well.... If a site is worth the cost, I'll pay for a subscription. I won't frequent a site where I'm forced to view ads though.

 

There is anti-anti-ad blocker addon... :wanker:

Look, TiVo didn't kill television, piracy didn't kill gaming or movie industry, adblocker won't kill internet websites. Like I said, industry and users need to adapt. At this point it seems users adapt faster.

If you want to write articles and have an automatic revenue generation - well, good luck.

 

I agree with your last few posts. If I had to use the internet as it is now, without script/ad blocking, I would not use it at all, just like television/cable. I haven't seen it in 20+ years. I don't need it that bad. The way ads are being used now on the internet, in my view is just a bunch of people trying to cash in and "get rich quick" with it, not just pay their bills.

I would not mind ads myself if they just stayed within reason. As soon as things start moving around the page (damned flash), making any noise or slowing things down, it's too much. Intellitext is obnoxious and deceptive too IMO. It tries to trick people into thinking a poster made the link so others will click on it. Putting a link in someone else' text is just f raud!

Guru3d's main page for me is way too crowded in ads (straight up mine field) to use without blocking. It does start to stutter and sputter. I have clicked on an ad on accident before because the lagged page scrolled from a delayed tick of the mouse wheel and jumped under my cursor when I was clicking in a menu. When that stuff starts to happen is when I started hunting for ways to make it stop. Total ad blocking.

That said, I don't mind white listing sights I like, and I do...but sadly not here. Too many trackers and 'unpleasant' ads, and just way too many ads in general.

 

That is all dependent on most people not skipping ads or pirating something though.

Nearly everyone does what they do for monetary reasons, that will never change.

I agree that the industry and users will adapt, even if that means subscription based sites or even subscription based ad blockers.
Maybe even ad funded ad blockers that show you less ads compared to not using it.

 

look, if someone invents the way for the ad company to think that the ad was shown but in reality something else is shown instead, like a white space ( hehe) I will use that gladly. Everywhere. I am all for milking the cash cows of companies that disregard how much are they intrusive or can be harmful to users/internet. We "leechers" also leave our content for free for other to leech and we don't complain. There is a lot of good stuff in G3D forums for instance. A lot of investigative journalism, a lot of tools and drivers and mods made by users for free and given out for free. That content attract users to G3D and G3D profits of off that.

But I don't appreciate being told that I am "leeching" because I choose not to be tracked by companies. I didn't sign anything that obligates me to allow them to do that. I am well within my rights to choose. On the other side, someone who doesn't know that much is automatically opted in to be tracked, it's forced upon him until he/she learns how to turn it off.

 

I'm not saying one way or the other in regards to using adblock or not, however that mindset is backwards.

This website is not yours, so what exactly does "signing" something have to do with anything?

If Guru3d decided to block all access to the webpage, as some sites have done, for blocking ads, that would be within THEIR rights. You, me and others do not have the "right" to access this page however we see fit, that's completely 100% backwards thinking. It's Guru3D's website, not yours.

Again, i'm not saying what you should do in regards to adblock, but that mindset is wrong.

 

Now it's getting interesting. Devils advocate mode = on:

That is a good point and I agree it's their sight and they can run it how they like, even locking out ad blockers. But do that, and watch your sight die a rapid death when hardly anyone shows up to your party any more.

Also, I'd say it's my bandwidth, I am using and my PC and I should choose what it downloads or not by what I click on. No one but me has a right to connect my PC to 47 ad servers that I did not actively click a link to, especially if some of them are security risks...and they are. I see that as hijacking. Especially when some of them see fit to stalk you after you leave this sight and follow you somewhere else.

The url in my address bar and the shortcut I clicked to come here is http://forums.guru3d.com. Not http://forums.guru3d.com and google and yahoo and doubleclick and twitter and extremeoverclocking and googlesyndication and google-analytics and facebook and akamihd and 30 others.

What's next? Is Amazon.com going start making purchases for me to "help me get the products I need" and just drain my bank account since I gave them my CC number once? Did I "agree" to that since I used their service that they have the right to run however they like too, and freely gave them my credit card number? Where do you draw the line?

 

That's the thing. By going to a website that you do not own and do not control, you did give that website the right to connect your PC to whatever that website, legally, is allowed to do. People keep coming up with "no one has the right but me" statements and i seriously do not understand these statements as you are going to someone elses PROPERTY and telling them what they can and can't do?

Do people go into their local stores and tell them they have no right to have Beer in their store because they don't want to see it? Or that they have no right to have video surveillance because they don't want to be recorded? It's their store. Websites are no different. I'm just really not sure why people have this idea that it's "their" right rather then the websites right.

Again, please 100% understand i'm not saying what someone should do in regards to adblock, disable or keep enabled, that's up to you, and it's up to the website, Guru3D, to allow it or not. I just don't understand the mindset of going to someone elses property and telling them what they can and can not do while you access it, legally.

 

Not a big problem for me to endure those commercials if it means that I can continue to enjoy this site.

Commercials does'nt kill you you know...

Commercials on Guru3D - 1st world problems !!! uke:

 

Reading the new mobo review, I noticed totally random words underlined and coloured in a weird manner. I guess I could accept ads as long as they are mute and stay in their own slots (and don't spread malware), but if the articles themselves are turned into ads by some robot, wasting Hilbert's efforts to write them professionally, I'll have to reactivate Adblock once more and start to drop some euros to Guru3D via donation. I'll have to see how this develops.

 

the problem generally is ads are soo intrusive and have been for years that most techy people just used ad block to blanket avoid the problem. I use ad blockon my pc( disabled on guru3d now ) but dont bother with my work PC's, tablets or phones.
When im using my android tablet and browsing forums( particularly boards.ie ) those ads midway down the forum( havnt experienced this on guru3d i dont think ) are an absolute head wreck because and im sure this is deliberate by google but scrolling normally will end up opening the ad.

At the end of the day if the advertisers didnt f**k the whole thing up in the first place there wouldnt be an issue, its more users pushing back until the ads themselves are at least acceptable. If you disable ad block and browse the net going to random sites its absolutely horrible with flash trash everywhere.

Im just saying and this isint directed towards issues with ads on guru3d, just the abuse of ads on the net in general is horrendous and needs a balance, glad everyones moving away from flash trash.

 

i mostly surf via mobile devices. they no have ad blockers. but guru is not mobile friendly

 

AdBlocked is disabled for guru at home, ads dont bother me as long as they stay fixed, dont float and muted. I have to enable add blocker at work since work policy.

Also thanks for turning off "underlined" words Hilbert, that was very annoying. Either way im happy, ads or subscription. Season pass anyone?