Ads are how people who provide free content make money. Yes, they are often offensive (visually, not necessarily the content), slow to load, and contain or utilize some of tracker or retargeting mechanism. But if you can remove those and you basically just have a PNG telling you about a product or service, that is the very definition of acceptable.
But to freely consume content from someone (whether a single blogger or a massive company) then bitch about unobtrusive, nontracking, inoffensive advertisements is a pretty good example of entitlement.
I do actually pay for content. And I do so gladly.
But the fundamental problem with ads is that, even when they are unobstrusive, don't invade my privacy and don't compromise my security, they still are inherently manipulative and therefore unethical. The Internet was designed to exchange information. How I then choose to display that information is up to me. Ad-based businesses are tolerated, but have no claim to the internet. I will continue to block every ad I can and businesses will have to adapt, or die. I won't shed a tear for them.
It's not my responsibility to avoid visiting websites that have ads on them. If ad-supported businesses don't want me to read their content, they shouldn't send it to me.
Hehe, I guess that's why one would use an ad blocker, right?
I hear you, but this isn't about helping sites survive, it's about ads in an ad blocker that is keeping their money for themselves, and is used mostly by people who dislike ads.
Spam is defined as content the receiver is not interested in (turns out some people really do want cheap viagra), acceptable ads can then be said to be the person viewing them considers acceptable. By that token there maybe no ads op considers acceptable.
I blanket block every ad (or whatever the list currently has). If a site has ads, I'll manually block those too. I'll go into their code and find their ad service url and add it into my list. I'll do whatever it takes to remove them, regardless if its simple or not. I do not want to see them and I will continue to visit those sites. I just wish a good adblocker would come to mobile because I'd use it there as well.
