Ad Block Plus Filter Maintainer "rick752" Dies At 56

A user on Reddit pointed out that Richard "rick752" Petnel, maintainer of one of the most popular filter lists for Ad Block Plus, has passed away at age 56. In an article last year Petnel described a bit of what he was up against in the ad world. "'I'm playing against some pretty big players,' he said, explaining his reluctance to step forward. 'I don't want to be harassed. . . . I don't want to be bribed. I started it because I was frustrated with getting my computer infected from ads -- malware and spyware and all that stuff,' he said. 'I kind of went overboard with it. But you have to admit, it's pretty amazing, right?'" Update 15:05 GMT by SM: updated to reflect Rick's status as maintainer of the most popular Ad Block Plus filter as opposed to Ad Block Plus itself.

Comments

And the REAL Question is [Was:Devil's Advocate]

[mdm42]

OK, so a whole bunch of stuff is funded/supported by ad-based revenue. Let's assume that enough of the rest of you start using Adblock+ and its relatives, and they all go under. (I've been using it as long as I can remember. It's occasionally a shock to use someone else's browser and realise what they have to put up with!)

So a bunch of big-ish website vanish. the real question is: who cares? Will we really, truly miss them? Or will Mom and Pop Sixpak get off their butts and start contributing content. Or will they simply ditch The IntarWeb and go back to watching TV.

Win, win, either way!