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Will Mainstream Media Embrace Adblockers?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-crazy-it-might-be-true dept.

Blarkon writes "Slashdotters are aware of and often use Adblock Plus," and notes that "if newspapers wanted to hit the online content industry hard right now, they would be running non-stop information about how to obtain and use Adblock Plus.' That a scorched-earth approach to blocking Internet advertising through AdBlock Plus might collapse free online competitors by starving them of revenue. If more people are aware of Adblock plus, it will be more tempting for other browser manufacturers to include similar ad blocking functionality. Might Rupert Murdoch's apparent 'traffic killing' move to paywall content be a desperate gamble to avoid the impact of a future crash in the ad-supported online business model caused by everyone's browser including something like Adblock Plus?"

3 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. I've been saying this for years... by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you're the type of person whose mind is so fragile that it will be damaged by advertising, you're probably getting screwed over in life in so many other ways that you're not even aware of. The attitude around here that a couple ads on a site are a personal attack on your well-being is child-like. Slashdot itself has a "disable advertising" button I can press to turn off ads...how hard are you guys trying to go out of business by pandering to these types?

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  2. Already being done by waspleg · · Score: 0, Troll

    There are already a lot of sites that detect adblock plus and won't display anything until you disable it and will tell you so. The best example I can think of off the top of my head is cbs.com which has all the star trek and twilight zone episodes. You used to be able to find both elsewhere but they've mostly been DMCA'd off. It will tell you you have ads disabled and as soon as you turn off adblock it plays. It also seems to scale commercials so the more you watch the more commercials it starts injecting. I've seen other sites give similar warnings because of NoScript.

  3. ad blockers are stealing by stwf · · Score: 0, Troll

    There is nothing that justifies putting up an ad blocker, and everyone knows it. When you come to my website you look at ads, if you choose not to then do not come to the site.

    If you didn't know blocking ads was wrong why does the ad blocking software go out of its way to be indetectable??

    If you want to use adblocker make it easy for a website to detect, then I have the ability to shut you down. Without that then the only purpose behind using the software is stealing. I also shouldn't have to say that if everyone blocked ads most of the free and useful sites would disappear very quickly.