FireFox Adblock Threatens downfall of Internet Commerce

[Phil_Rees]

BAN ADBLOCK

FireFox Adblock threatens downfall of Internet Commerce

Ad block plus on firefox now has in excess of 50 million users and gaining 750,000 a week.

This software blocks 99% of all adverts we place on our sites as webmasters to pay for our costs and provide us a living and adverts that help keep the FREE services on the internet FREE.

Whilst I encourage the freedom of choice for people, I consider this software to be criminal in that it is threatening the income of many honest business person everywhere and our lively hoods are in jepordy.

To put simply this software is like walking into a shop, ripping all the adverts out of a magazine, reading the articles and then walking out of the shop without paying for the magazine.

Its an infringment of every freedom of speech act out there.

Now I have found a solution whilst browsing the internet that i hope will work for you as well and a solution that will still allow the freedom of choice for those who dont want adverts on their screens.

www dot block-adblock-plus dot com/help dot html

(Sorry for the dot URL, but this is to important to wait for 15 posts)

I also URGE and ask you all to petition google, firefox and all other major suppliers to BAN websites that promote ADBLOCK.

If google wants evidence of it effecting them - ALL GOOGLE AD URLS have been added to Adblocks subscriptions.

ITS TIME TO FIGHT BACK PEOPLE - BLOCK PEOPLE USING ADBLOCK FROM YOUR SITE

 

[Phil_Rees]

Oh and just to point out to everyone

It is also blocking ads you are PAYING FOR.

So not only is it damaging general internet commerce, it is prevent YOU from advertising your companies.

 

[Kev Jaques]

Good luck with that!

 

[Phil_Rees]

Lets look at the severity of the problem

50 Million users so far, and around 750,000 new users per week.

That an additional (provided the install rate doesnt increase) of 39 million users per year if we add to that organic growth, that figure could become 200 to 300 million users per year.

How long before ALL and I mean ALL revenue produced on your sites is reduced to zero, or all your advertising on the internet stops generating new leads.

The long reaching aspect of this, is worse - every single free of charge website out there, free gaming sites (that your grandchildren may enjoy), forums, discussion boards, advisory services, charitys and other good will serivce will cease to exist.

Why - because they have no way other than generous benefactors to fund them.

 

[Phil_Rees]

just to point out to the owners of UKBF - Its even blocking the adverts on this very forum

 

[mobyme]

BLOCK PEOPLE USING ADBLOCK FROM YOUR SITE

Cutting your nose off to spite your face.....................now that's going to be popular!

 

[Phil_Rees]

Well the only other option, is to charge people to use content that would normally be free.

Question as well - how many of you have paid for advertising on this site - because at present, with AD Block, i cant see them.

 

[Phil_Rees]

Cutting your nose off to spite your face.....................now that's going to be popular!

Yep by using adblock your be cutting your nose of to spite your face because as more and more webmasters block people who are using it from visiting there sites they are going to miss out on alot of what would be excellent content provided by free services.

Take for example this forum - if it realied PURELY on advert revenue and they blocked people using adblock - whose loss is that.

UKBF, or the viewers loss from having access to a great free of charge resource?

Something else to consider

How many of Joe Public average to low IT skilled users would even know how to use the filters and make an informed choice as is suggested by the Adblock software.

What the providers of AD block have actually done is produced a world wide freedom of speech censoring programme that THEY dictate who and what can be seen.

THAT IS NOT CHOICE.

 

[Raphael33]

Just make your page so it wont display if it detects a blocker and posts a message saying

Sorry we cannot display a partial page, please remove your ad blocker.

There must be some code for this?

 

[Chris H]

Same could be said of tv advertising and the propensity of the viewers to shuffle off for a cup of tea during the adverts.

Damn those lovable chimps!

And tv remote controls, whoever invented those is going to have to take the blame when the tv companies fold because someone didn't look at the ads.

And what about the ability to tune into another station on the radio? These manufacturers really don't care about commerce. Swines the lot of them!

I think you'll find that those people who install scripts like adblock are going to be the last people to click on your ads anyway. No loss.

 

[fisicx]

Maybe it will cause the downfall of all those poorly built sites with questionable content that rely on adverts to make a buck.

Maybe it will result in better quality sites offering decent products and services that rely on ecommerce to survive rather than advertising revenue.

This has got nothing to do with freedom of speech and everything to do with my choice as to how I configure my browser (including blocking scripts and flash).

 

[KM-Tiger]

... I consider this software to be criminal ...

Its an infringment of every freedom of speech act out there.

Can you actually justify those statements? What law do I break by using Adblock? (Which I do, and NoScript).

 

[Tin]

Sorry, I don't buy this one at all. Adblock isn't automatically blocking all ads, I just add a filter to the ads I don't want to see. It leaves everything else alone.

 

[Burdett]

How is this stopping people from having freedom of speech? Just because you say something doesn't mean I have to listen - does that mean I am breaching your right to free speech? NO!

Free speech laws are for governments only. They are not allowed to stop you from saying certain things. Adblock just seems the equivalent of me putting my fingers in my ears and saying "lalalala" so I can't hear what your saying. It's not a crime and isn't stopping you from saying what you want to say.

This is the simplest the arguments can get about this topic. If anyone else can dumb it down even more they can get a cookie.

 

[GeorgeM]

BAN ADBLOCK

FireFox Adblock threatens downfall of Internet Commerce
......

Its an infringment of every freedom of speech act out there.
................
ITS TIME TO FIGHT BACK PEOPLE - BLOCK PEOPLE USING ADBLOCK FROM YOUR SITE

You've lost me on this one.

Some examples...

Some people who receive your direct mail may throw it in the bin
Some people who receive your emails may treat it as spam
Some people who receive your telesales calls may hang up or block them
Some people who read your blogs may not visit your website
Some people who visit the UKBF site may not read your posting

These people are exercising choice in what they read or view online, and the way they respond to marketing offers.

 

[DotNetWebs]

lol - what a coincidence- as I was reading this I got a pop-up to tell me a new version of ad block plus available!

Ads don't generally bother me but the the reason I have it installed on THIS machine is that makes the screen scroll quicker on certain sites. I am using a vanilla Ubuntu/Firefox installation and I don't think the video driver is taking full advantage of the Hardware Acceleration of the graphics card I have installed.

Regards

Dotty

 

[sellickbhoy]

wasn't TIVO taken to court in the states because the system didn't record the adverts - so people were simply recording everything on TIVO and watching it when it suited them without the pesky ads

 

[DotNetWebs]

.. so people were simply recording everything on TIVO and watching it when it suited them without the pesky ads

Exactly. We had Sky+ since it's launch but have now switched to a Freesat PVR with the same functionality.

We haven't watched a TV ad for years!

Regards

Dotty

 

[Phil_Rees]

Definition of Censorship -- Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

The Censor in this case being the developers of ADBLOCK - the user of the software is not the censor as they have not developed the ADBLOCK.

The User has choice already without adblock - they dont have to visit the site in the first place. Exactly the same as when you go to a high street retailer you decide wether to purchase your soccer mums magazines or childrens DVD's instead of Porn for your children.

When a user visits a FREE site using ADBlock, they are effectivly stealing. When you watch TV or Listen to RADIO for FREE, the services given to you are paid for by advertising and sponsors. If you want to watch a film on TV without watching adverts - BUY or HIRE the DVD.

ADBlock users are no less than pirate video and pirate music users.

 

[Phil_Rees]

You know whats next - instead of "BURN THE BOOKS" - lets BURN THE INTERNET

 

[Simon-M]

You know whats next - instead of "BURN THE BOOKS" - lets BURN THE INTERNET

Or not... as the case most likely will be

 

[OldWelshGuy]

When the original advert blockers came out I blocked users from my rugby forum, it wound me up why i should pay for their bandwidth, while they blocked the only source of revenue. I then decided it would be better to remove the afvertising and fund the forum myself.

So that is where we are now. I have a busy forum, it costs me money, but I am beholden to no-one.

 

[Planck]

Definition of Censorship -- Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

The Censor in this case being the developers of ADBLOCK - the user of the software is not the censor as they have not developed the ADBLOCK.

What complete and utter b*ll*cks. So when I mute my TV during adverts, I'm stealing content? I'm suppressing free speech? Maybe my TV shouldn't have a mute button?

Adblock is a great tool, which I use extensively. As an advertiser, I understand that people use it, and factor this into my advertising planning.

You can't dictate people's behaviour - you need to learn to understand it and work with it. If people are using Adblock, they're doing so for a reason - it means they don't want to see these ads. So you need to figure out a better way of reaching them.

 

[lockie]

Thanks for the heads up on adblock just downloading it now,been after something this effective for ages.

Everything will have to change,thats life.The internet has changed how we shop and more but we evole to embrace and work with it rather than banning it.Those that try and battle the natural flow end up using a lot of energy and do they get anywhere in the grand scheme of things ?

 

[fisicx]

So by your arguement, this means pop-up blockers are censorship.

If I buy a newpaper and throw the advertising section in the bin without looking at it is this censorship?

How about if I don't use adblock but choose not to display images, is this censorship.

All adblock is doing is preventing the adverts from displaying. I have chosen to do this because they are a distraction and eat up bandwidth. I were the sort of person who clicked on adverts I wouldn't block them. Because I have never clicked on an advert is see no problem in blocking them from view.

And consider this, if people weren't so greedy and just had a few simple adverts on theirs site we wouldn't be having this discusssion. It's only because people fill every nook and cranny with advertising media that we are compelled to either block or stay away from the site.

 

[Phil_Rees]

Great - thats your choice and i understand why the consumer would see the value in the product, however your not be able to visit any sites that block adblock and any sites you visit you will effectivly be stealing.

In addition should you pay for advertising for your business on the internet - your throwing money down the toilet and giving business to others, which in turn means eventually your own business is threatend.

Advertising gives choice, if you dont advertising you watch BBC which you PAY for a liscence for, or you PAY for sky so you can watch movies without adverts in the middle or instead of reading free of charge magazines with little content you purchase magazines or papers with more content and less adverts.

Adblock users are yet another contributing factor to the economic downturn - and people are wondering why there internet sites are not as effective as they use to be.

 

[KM-Tiger]

... Maybe my TV shouldn't have a mute button?

Certainly not. Disable it immediately!

And don't even dream of going for a p** during the adverts. Soon there will be cameras in every living room to monitor that sort of shocking behaviour. And if that doesn't work automatic locks on the door and a head clamp to keep you looking at the TV.

 

[adventurelife]

It is up to advertisers to figure out innovative ways to attract clients. Swamping site with adverts is not the way forward. The reason the adblocker is growing at such a rate is because users like it!

Thats the market for you some you win some you lose. Get your thinking head on rather than ranting about something that web users like/want.

 

[Simon-M]

I stay away from websites overloaded with adds anyway. I don't have an ad blocket because like I said, I don't visit sites like that. The more of these ad overloaded sites go broke the better the net I reccon so like global warming. Bring it on.

 

[Phil_Rees]

Fisicx - Pop UP Blockers thats an area i really would be reluctant to get into as i do not understand the pop up blocker software, i do understand that they are intrusive and use scripts that can cause problems and the understand for the controlled use of them (On our sites we dont use them unless it is for important community announcements and we use software tied to the front page of the site that does not open new windows etc)

I also understand the statement you make about sites cramming there websites full of advertising etc - but then thats where consumer choice comes in, sites that are overfilled with adverts are generally not going to get a high return rate of there visitors, which again leads to choice - if you dont like, dont visit the site again.

 

[Phil_Rees]

There are several posts relating to the TV remote etc.

Think you guys are forgetting something again - you dont like adverts, fine, but at least the TV channel has the ability to display them - you have the choice to turn over, go to the loo etc.

What ADBlock is doing is setting a precident for censorship on the internet.

I do agree that there should be industry standards set in place concerning advertising on the internet - hell we need it.

But blanket blocking and censorship is not the answer.

 

[Dawg]

I think OP is right.

This adblocking is a harbringer of the very downfall of civilisation as we know it. Enlightenment values will be trampled as pigdirt, the bells of freedom muted by the damp cloth of censorship.

Where is a saviour to fend off this untold misery?

On fookin' holiday, it's August yer tw@t.*

*Applies also to people with cruddo business plans. No adverts were harmed in the making of this snark.

 

[David Griffiths]

Definition of Censorship -- Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

The Censor in this case being the developers of ADBLOCK - the user of the software is not the censor as they have not developed the ADBLOCK.

Complete rubbish. Adblock aren't preventing you from seeing anything - they are simply giving you a tool to exercise your choice whether to see something or not. You might just as well accuse manufacturers of pencil erasers, Tippex, and even scissors of censorship in case somebody uses them to cut bits out of the newspaper and throw them away.

When a user visits a FREE site using ADBlock, they are effectivly stealing. When you watch TV or Listen to RADIO for FREE, the services given to you are paid for by advertising and sponsors. If you want to watch a film on TV without watching adverts - BUY or HIRE the DVD.

And now you seem to be claiming that if I want to watch a film on TV I absolutely must stay in the room to watch the adverts, and not hop over to other channels. Otherwise I would be stealing. Yeah, right.


You've really lost it about this.

 

[Phil_Rees]

I know how about this - forget "BURN THE BOOKS" lets "BURN THE INTERNET"

 

[Phil_Rees]

Complete rubbish. Adblock aren't preventing you from seeing anything - they are simply giving you a tool to exercise your choice whether to see something or not. You might just as well accuse manufacturers of pencil erasers, Tippex, and even scissors of censorship in case somebody uses them to cut bits out of the newspaper and throw them away.




And now you seem to be claiming that if I want to watch a film on TV I absolutely must stay in the room to watch the adverts, and not hop over to other channels. Otherwise I would be stealing. Yeah, right.


You've really lost it about this.

So to your arguement, ADblock are giving you the ability to walk into a Shop cut out all the adverts in a magazine, read the articles and then walk out of the shop without paying for the magazine.

OR maybe the ability to use a modified SKY card to watch movies on SKY movies without paying the subscription.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

What complete and utter b*ll*cks. So when I mute my TV during adverts, I'm stealing content?

Homer Simpson [watching TV]: "Quiet, the commercial is on… if we don't watch these, it's like we're stealing TV."

You're a bad, bad person...

Steve

 

[Phil_Rees]

This isnt the ranting of one or two antagonists either, its a serious issue.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/applications/firefox-ad-blocker-extension-causes-angst-900

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/41...ng-fast-draws-murmuring-of-publisher-protest/

http://www.commercialalert.org/news/archive/2007/09/web-ad-blocking-may-not-be-entirely-legal

http://www.unsoughtinput.com/index....ock-illegal-unethical-or-just-plan-communism/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Firefox-In-Danger-Boycott-Against-Its-Extensions-65408.shtml

And thats just a handful of the sites raisiing concerns over the issue.

Dont get me wrong, im all about providing good content and protecting the consumer, but this software is a major threat.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

So to your arguement, ADblock are giving you the ability to walk into a Shop cut out all the adverts in a magazine, read the articles and then walk out of the shop without paying for the magazine.

You're not vandalising someone's property.

If anything, it's more like this:

When I lived in Paris, they had free weekly newspapers. These papers were full of ads, but also had the TV listings for the week. And, because I wanted the TV listings, I'd pick one up each week.

Now, if I were to tear out and keep the TV pages and chuck the rest in the bin, that would be like Ad Blocker.

i.e. it's free content they're offering and I'm allowed to do anything I want with it. (including ignoring the ads)

Steve

 

[Kev Jaques]

Hmm, the fact that over 50 million people have ABP says to me you are wasting your time and efforts confronting it and that time and effort would be better off spent on how you could make money with it rather than against it.
Time to think smart instead of ranting about it, you will not dissuade 50 million people in a hurry, better to embrace it and work out something which could be more viable.

Adapt as resistance is futile!!

 

[Simon-M]

If you want to block all those thieves who are stoping you from bagging your £1.25 a day adsense then that is your right. It's your website and you can do as you please with it.

What you can't possibly hope to do is convince any sane person that by them having an ad blocker they are stealing from someone and are thus contributing to the downfall of the internet.

Surely there is something far more constructive you can champion?