The Devastating Effect of Ad-Blockers for Guru3D.com

shared, keep up the good work, this site is awesome! If people don't like the adds on a site, just don't go to it, don't let a piece of software take that control away from you!

 

This article comes at very good time, i was thinking on PM or creating topic about this, so, this is good place and time to write what i wanted to write.

I'm user ofa dblock since recently, didn;t used before, but the trend of invasive adds on meny websites simply forced me to do so. G3D does not include those adds and I'm well aware of it, so i prefer to unblock G3D website (i like G3D obviously, but even websites i do not like i unblock if adds are acceptable, since it is important to have other opinions etc. availalbe on the web).

That being said, i have to point out at some potential problem on G3D with adds, more often than not, page loading times are literally killed with adds, not due to the G3D servers, but due to the add servers, loading time goes from 1x (without adds) to up to even 10x sometimes, but usually in ~4x range, and that is 400%, that is huge problem in my opinion, and something you might need to address, it is in G3D interest after all, i might have patience and wait till page loads (because i understand why it is needed), but meny casual readers might not have that understanding and/or patience. That's why i think it is important thing to look at.

Hope this post would be constructive and helpful to the G3D team.

 

Ooops! All fixed now!

 

I have experienced performance hit on main page (articles etc.), not on forum tho, while adds are not blocked, even tho tehre are no visible adds that could result in such performance hit (it really doesn't happen often on my PC, in fact, no website i visit have that behaviour).

From very smooth website (with only tearline visible, since i do not use vertical sync), it goes to stuttery page, and that puts developement of the page and all hard work you guys put into it to nothing. That's another reason people tend to use adblock, hope you don't mind and it can be helpful to your team.

 

second that, a couple of genuine top sites.

 

First site I've ever whitelisted. Very much enjoy the articles, and so I am no longer blocking ads.

 

Removed from my ADB ,Thanks for the explanation and hope things goes better after this pledge.

 

I use an Adblocker

Hi, while I understand your concern, why not using one or both of these solutions other websites do :

- use zero pub ( detects when ad is blocked and asks the user to show him a video, and not bother him for a week, or a month, ...) pour an alternative similar service. FML uses it and it feels totally ok :
zeropub.net

- create a paid subscription for premium users with an progress bar. Next Inpact is using this and it works for years, now : nextinpact.com

 

Whitelisted.
Thanks for reminding me

 

Sorry. White-listed right away. Thanks for www!

 

I use adblock, Ghostey, Privacy Badger, etc, mainly because I pay for my internet subscription, to use it, not have it overtaken by a bunch of Adverts.

I have a really slow line, and its not going to get any faster, anytime soon.
I wouldn't mind static banner ads, things that are small, lightweight, and don't take up too much bandwidth.
Animated flash videos with sound, are very heavy for a single webpage, and multiple flash videos are extremely heavy.
Add to that that a lot of infections are though Flash vulnerabilities, and you may understand why its blocked.
I whitelisted your site, and one of the first adverts i see is "Free Converter Software" which is basically voluntary malware.
You don't control which ads are being shown to your users.
Anandtech infected PC's a while back with some bad ads, it can happen to anyone.
If you don't control your own ads, you are a security risk, and I can't have that.

As for NextInpact/PCInpact, have you seen how many subs they have had, compared to how many they need to keep the site going ? They are nowhere near.
TechReport had a donations drive, and they publicly show the top donators. People donate once, and thats it. There is very rarely multiple donations.
All you get is people who have paid for something, which you now owe.

-If you want a good site, get rid of the large bandwidth hog ads, and replace them with much lighter ones.
-Make sure you ad partner shows you every single one of the ads he will be showing, allowing you to veto which you accept, or not. Otherwise we will decide, and its your money going down the drain.
-Put your ads in sensible places, top banner, side banner. Middle of page banner just above comments is the one I hate the most, and its that f-king "Free Converter" crap, with a big DOWNLOAD button.

If you want to block users, this is the internet, the information will be found elsewhere.
It seems today, that you either have to sell your soul to the big publishers (Toms, Anand,...) or spam the F-k out of your clients with ads.
Guru3D is one of the nicer sites, and its the advert companies that are to blame, for gradually giving us

KISS : Keep It Simple Stupid.
Simple, uninvasive, lightweight, adverts = Heaven.

I May still put adblock back on if they become too annoying/"Free Software Converter" type...

Sorry, but thats the way it is. Love the site, hate the heavy ads.

You should deliberately limit a PC to 1Mbits/s (and even that is considered fast by a lot of people), and check to see how well the pages load.
Also check to see how much of the "weight" on KB of your webpage is in ads, and how much in actuel content. Get a correct ratio set up.
No one should be downloading more ads than content.

edit : I would quite happily donate, yearly or whatever, but not a subscription. Its also not the only solution, because by itself it would not work.

Edit2 : My criticisms of Ads, are general for the Entire Internet, not just Guru3D. This is in fact one of the better sites out there, just needs a few tweaks to make it the best site out there

 

What a bunch of hypocrites!!!

All of you people using adblockers are doing this to every site you visit not just Guru3D. I don't use an adblockers and never have. If a website is good enough for me to visit then they deserve add revenue (that's how they provide a free service to me), if not or I find the advertising annoying I stop using them.

You people that just whitelisted Guru3D should take a minute to think about all the sites you visit and what you're doing to them too whether it's Guru, bittech, Kitguru, Toms etc etc.

 

@Stairmand : Haven't you noticed that even the ad companies are starting to notice that their bandwidth usage and abusiveness has gotten out of hand ?
They have publicaly stated that they will try to do better.
its up to them to stop spamming the entire internet with abusively large and intrusive ads.

I've seen the internet grow up. I've seen it get worse and worse.
Its time to change. Its also why Apple started allowing Ad blockers.

 

I never have either, its bloatware and probably sniffing your info, each to their own though, and the people on capped lines probably need something like this.

 

For me it takes 1.62ms to load this site with ads and 3.3 for the main page... Lel wanted to see what privacy badger thing does slowed my page load times 150% what.

 

QFT FF has been a buggy pos for a long time.Chrome once you do a little customization is stable and fast.Edge still has it's problems but it's getting better.

 

I am using Chromium (based on/exactly same as Chrome), i know FF is nota s good now, tho, on Win 10 it works very well actually (for example, on noobslab both Chrome and Edge in Win 10 have relative problems to keep up at high frame rate, for 60fps/Hz it wouldn't be a problem, FF does not have that problem, it's smooth as silk).

Just wanted to share my experience, and how adds can ruin hard work invested in page (since page itself is not a problem, it works very smoothly).


EDIT: With ads, FPS tanked to 35-40FPS.

 

I never use any ad blocks and I know good sites like guru3d.com only displays ads worth giving attention.