Website Mass-Bans Users Who Mention AdBlock

An anonymous reader writes to recommend TechDirt's take on the dustup over at the Escapist, which recently tried on banning users from their forums for the mere mention of AdBlock. In the thread in which the trouble started, a user complained that an ad for Time Warner Cable was slowing down his computer. Users who responded to the poster by suggesting "get Firefox and AdBlock" found themselves banned from the forums. The banned parties didn't even need to admit they used AdBlock, they simply had to recommend it as a solution to a troublesome ad. The forum's recently amended posting guidelines do indeed confirm that the folks at the Escapist believe that giving browsing preference advice is a "non forgivable" offense. After a lot of user protest, the forum unbanned the transgressors but heaped on the guilt.

Comments

Re:the way i see it

[Ash-Fox]

This is my computer, and I am going to run whatever software I want on it including adblock & noscript. websites have abused their users with popups, popunders, animated gifs so dazzling that would make some people have seizures, so fuck the entire internet (nothing personal) just that they lost the privilege of being able to put just anything in my browser.

Playing devil's advocate...

This is my website, and I am going to deny whatever freeloaders try to abuse it. Freeloaders have used up website resources without compensating for it. Rather than not rip me off, they run special software to fuck me over, driving up costs and taking away resources from legitimate users. So fuck the ad blockers. They just lost the privilege of being able to browse my website.

Re:Fuck ads

[Ash-Fox]

I am going to block ads, full stop. That's it.

If all your shitty web site has as a means of revenue generation is ads, consider revenue to be zero. It is or it will be. Don't complain that your users are blocking ads, get another revenue model.

If you don't have anything worth selling, something that I want to buy, then your web site can go and die (or you can maintain it at a loss). If that sounds harsh, tough titties! I am not here to be an eyeball for your web site. Either take it down and shut up, or find a way to make a profit without being a whiner.

Playing devil's advocate...

I am going to block people who block ads, full stop. That's it.

If you can't even display a shitty advert, then consider your access to be zero. Don't complain if you don't have access to the site when you are blocking ads.

You aren't paying for a subscription, you're blocking the ads, then you can go and die (or you can just live without it). If that sounds harsh, tough titties! I am not here to provide free content for you. Either don't block the ads and shut up, or pay for a subscription without being a whiner.

Re:They pay the bills, so STFU

[Ash-Fox]

Playing devil's advocate...

I pay for my bandwidth I'll choose what I serve, including page elements. If you block ads, then I will block content.

Re:They pay the bills, so STFU

[Ash-Fox]

Playing devil's advocate...

Not my bandwidth bills they don't. I can choose to revoke access to my website however I choose, and if that means blocking people who use ad blockers, then tough shit.

Re:They pay the bills, so STFU

[Ash-Fox]

But they don't pay for their visitors' CPU power or bandwidth. The site is well within their rights to show ads, but visitors are well within their rights to block them from their screens.

On the other hand, the site also is well within their rights to block people blocking their ads.