Stop, Thief! Why Using an Ad Blocker Is Stealing

[The_Trutherizer]

I agree with this. However Youtube's add every 5 minutes is a bit lame when you get the same add over, and over, and over. I would prefer to watch add(s) at the beginning of the video, or at the end.

 

[cats_Paw]

Obviously this is not only a biased article but a very, very propagandistic one.
This is the same argument as "piracy is stealing" one, that has been debated for so long.
There is a reason the word Piracy exists. there is a reason ad-block as a word exists.
You dont see any news saying "Hackers managed to draw funds from..."
Its always "Hackers stole".
We understand very well the definition of the word "to steal", and its illegal with jail time penalty.

So write all the things you want, you are just showing us your real cards.
I don't need a girl telling me what to wear, society telling me what to like, politicians telling me what problems I have and I certainly don't need a website to tell me what they consider stealing.

People might be stupid enough to believe this article, but not those that frequent Tomshardware.
I am impressed that someone has the balls to write an article like this....

I gotta hand it to him, this is some first class, major league BS. You have to stand in AWE as George Carlin would say.

 

[Scorpionking20]

I read this days ago, was just as pissed as everybody else, and came across it again today. Your a jerk for calling me a thief. I hate your ads.

 

[Alec Mowat]

There's a big reason people use Google and not Yahoo. It should be pretty obvious when you go to their home pages.

 

[ajwhitlock]

I find this article ironic as it was the Toms Hardware site that pushed me over the edge to install AdBlock Plus in the first place. Adverts that take over the entire page, that can't be stopped/skipped until they've finished, do not attract my attention in any form that comes out well for either the product being advertised or the site running the advert. It was either install AdBlock Plus or simply stop visiting Toms Hardware completely. A chose the former.

 

[cats_Paw]

I wonder if the guy who wrote this article uses ad-Block himself .

 

[Cotea]

I use windows hosts file to block connections to ad servers. plain and simple. just keep it updated and it will not let your browser(and pc) connect to any unwanted servers.

 

[alexgarza]

And if you have a site blocked and it is running mostly high-quality ads, you would never know.

Umm.. which sites are those? Cause I'm looking at the sidebar here, and it's not tom's.

Duh! he's talking about those almost-uncompressed, full HD, crisp and clear ads that play smoothly right before you start watching the video you actually want to on youtube and stutter every 5 seconds.

 

[backoffmanImascientist]

You could have argued your points better, but given the position taken I doubt it would have convinced anyone even then.

One huge gap in your logic, and a key piece of the ad revenue puzzle you ignore is the responsibility of advertisers (and the websites who do business with them) to first and foremost make certain that all content, especially advertising, is actually safe and free of malware, viruses and any other exploits that would place a web visitor at risk.

Until advertisers find a way to adequately police themselves, I am not "stealing" when I place a wholesale stop to potential attacks on my systems and confidential data.

Another glaring omission of this article is the complete ignorance it implies of the most basic tenet of advertising: make it INTERESTING and make it RELEVANT to me, the consumer the advertiser would like to reach.

If something meets these criteria, then there will be no need to jam them down my throat, and in fact, I might actually decide to take the bait and click.

 

[jn77]

Cable TV started because people were irritated by watching ads on TV, now Cable TV is even worse then over the air TV. Why not just stop making TV shows and bombard us with Ads 24-7.

I don't want to see your ads. If I want to buy something I will search for it and read reviews.

These ads at the beginning of videos are even worse.

 

[Neeseius]

A website chooses to operate based on ad revenue, not the user. The user has no obligation to view them. I can see that Tom's Hardware has practically disabled the back feature, a clever way to increase actually clicking on the webpage to navigate which also increases the chance of clicking on the numerous ads instead. The ads are also placed strategically so they may accidentally be clicked. This article is just another 'clever' way Tom's Hardware is trying to get more ads into your experience, though it may have backfired.

I don't blame Tom's Hardware for doing what they do, but at least call it like it is. Deceptions and slippery slopes like not being able to feed mouths is just patronizing to your readers.

 

[r1Master]

I think if a site is free and i have to watch a 15 second clip to spend time on that page, that is fine... but not every single page, or every time i press next... or the sidway arrows... one ad per site visit per... *shrugs* hour is good enough for me.
You tube, I don't mind "watching" a 15 second clip per video... but any longer and i will usually skip it...

 

[giantbucket]

explain to me how am I the one who is the thief and how am I the one who is stealing when YOU are the one jamming your own agenda (ad, service, product, pop-up, audio, video, etc) down my throat?

am I supposed to ALLOW you to jam your crap down my throat?

am I supposed to ALLOW you to club me to death in my own home because that's what you want to do?

why does YOUR choice trump MY choice, when the activity is happening on MY premises?

if your ads are junk, why am I responsible for watching them? why am I responsible for ensuring that you or whoever makes awful obnoxious intrusive unsafe ads CAN CONTINUE TO WORK TO MAKE THOSE ADS?

my money being spent is a REWARD. I reward those who do the right thing at the right time. you don't get to complain that I am withholding my reward to you because you make junk content.

 

[Moohooya]

"And there's no place for ads that spread malware — a problem easily avoided if you use antivirus software" - you've got to be joking. Malware is *not* easily avoided for the majority of the population who is not technically minded. Try spending your afternoon removing malware from a computer 4,000 miles away over a landline that you are unable to remotely access whose user struggles with "right click".

And stealing - find yourself a dictionary; there is no property unlawfully taken. I agree with many of your points but we find ourselves where we are due to bad advertising practices in the past, the consumers are not to blame. I believe websites will find alternatives means of income and retails will continue to sell and will stay in business. Relax, the sky is not falling.

 

[Freedom against]

If you believe that blocking adds is stealing you need a psychiatric isolation.

It is my PC, it is my Internet data transfer for which I am paying either with cash or my time, and it is on my time!

What "we" do blocking adds is, we protect ourselves from an invasive trespassing in to our heads!

I never pay attention to any adds, I can live with no adds, I will never buy any products interfering with my personal freedom of choice!

By using ADDBLOCKER(s) I protect myself from stealing my time, and from being brainwashed against my own will!

We must protect ourselves from interfering with our time management!

I believe that we need legislation to manage all advertisement!

 

[razor512]

I believing in supporting the people who make the content that we enjoy, but you have to admit, there are some sites which are downright malicious with their ads, for example I am sure you have been to tomshardware.com before. Some sites do not just simply provide an unobtrusive ad experience. some go out of their war to cause harm. for example sites which use static ads which follow as you scroll. They wreak havoc on IP panels which are at high risks of image retention and burn in. I don't like seeing an after image of a random prebuilt overpriced computer or smartphone when I leave a website.

Some sites (this included) also choose to do what is essentially the digital equivalent of an IED/ roadside bomb. Your mouse cursor touched the wrong part of the webpage and you get an obnoxious bandwidth hungry ad ad that covers the content you were looking at. That is purely malicious and will never work as an ad. Imagine if burger king tried to advertise a whopper at the regular price, by taping their ad to a brick and chucking it through your house window. Yes you will definitely see the ad, but I bet you wont be going to burger king after that.

Some sites will use ad takeovers which dim and cover the entire page with a giant ad.

Some sites will very bandwidth inefficient ads. e.g., sites like this will often have about 70% of a page load data usage, as ads; not very good for users on data caps. The bandwidth usage is a real issue, and while data is technically not a limited resource, ISPs like to create artificial scarcity in order to extract more money from people, and sites like tomshardware are part of the problem, they use bandwidth hungry ads and never take a stand against this anti-consumer practice by ISPs.

I am an adblock user, but I rarely have it enabled on sites that I like, with the few exceptions being sites like this which use incredibly obnoxious ad practices.

-------------------------------------

Saying antivirus prevents the spread of malware from ads, is a complete lie. Those forms of malware are risky to the malicious user, and thus they make damn sure that it is a zero day exploit with malware that is not currently detected by the antivirus.Remember, both legit users and criminals have access to the same virus protection software.

Remember the devs in antivirus companies are not psychic, they do not magically know the instant new malware is created, instead, they take a reactive approach.

When infected game mods started popping up, it took the major antivirus makers over a week to release an update that would detect them. new malware is constantly being created and the people working to detect it are only human, they cannot focus on everything at once. It takes time to detect new malware.

 

[razor512]

PS, some ads deliberately use scripts designed to reduce browser performance as when a user feels something is wrong, they go to inspect, thus higher chance of them looking at the ads. (just look at some of the java scripting that they use)

 

[flint4president]

Some web sites bring my i7 8gb ram chrome win8.1 machine to a crawl. Thats with 50mps downstream. If i open more than a few tabs i will hear autoplay sounds intermittently from all of them. Sometimes i get driveby badware served by ads. It INFURIATES ME seeing porn when my kids go to websites that are clean - In the add bar! Its a very common occurrence for flash to crash - Frequently and for chrome to start responding. Just using a blacklist improved performance tremendously. Honestly i believe my computer would run faster if websites just mined bitcoin in the background and left the http the hell alone so i could browse the web without wondering when i need to upgrade my ram!
Sometimes i take Sadistic pleasure deleting css elements by hand - Die ad DIE!

So why don't i block ads? Because i like the websites i visit and even though i know i'm in an abusive relationship, i sometimes wonder if i like being pimped out and abused daily... i know i'm worth more than the few cents they get from my visits but i just cant bring myself to leave.

 

[Kefka256]

Honestly this has to be the most offensive article I have read here. I will now be installing an ad blocker on all my computers and will use it to view Toms from now on. All this proves is the complacency within the system. If my attention is a commodity I should be allowed to dictate when and where I am going to spend it. Also the idea that I should have to install and run a simple antivirus software in order to protect myself from advertisers is sickening. Just because antivirus is common place and may be a technical necessity these days does not make it right. That just tells me that toms uses shady advertisers who at any moment could be infecting anyone's computer with hostile malware. No thanks. Your services are not that good. I will just get my news from your competitors who are not currently trying to villify their readers. I would expect that you will be hemorrhaging readers now. Good job.

 

[razor512]

For ad relevance, ad companies do a piss poor job at it. If you make ads helpful then they will not only have a higher click through rate, but they will also be far more valuable, for example, I was searching for a new videocard, but the ads from known tracking ad companies were showing me ads for printers and other crap, and when one did show an ad, it was for some overpriced alienware crap, Can you believe that company will try to sell you a $1000 system with a GTX 745?

Anyway, in that situation, a helpful ad would have used its tracking abilities to see the prices that I experienced while looking for a GTX 970, and then informed me if one of their advertisers was selling the same card for less money. That would have not only helped me, but also benefited the advertiser, and be a win-win for everyone. If a relevant ad cannot be found, then don't display one at all.