Ads and Online Publishers
ars technica recently ran an article entitled Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love. It was thought provoking to say the least. It made me stop and think of my habit of blocking ads in my browsers. I actually whitelisted ars technica because their ads are unobtrusive and their content is worthwhile.
Imagine my surprise and excitement when they then publish an article about how to show ads on the sites you suppport and maintain your privacy. They are trying to work with their readers and are actually engaging with the community at large over the pressing issue that the internet is facing right now.
Let me back up for those of you who may not know what I’m talking about. A lot of the ads on the internet are quite annoying. The start playing sound, flashing obnoxiously on the side of the page, cover the content and force you interact with the ad to get rid of it, and often slow down the page and your browsing experience as a whole. That leads geeks like me to use software like ad-block plus to block those ads. However, those programs assume that a site is guilty until proven innocent. They block all the ads until you the user tell the program that a site is okay. Most people who use these programs, like me, are generally too lazy to whitelist all the sites they regularly patronize; and, as such, we deprive the site of income. This often leads the sites to take even more annoying ads to stay afloat, which in turn drives more people to block the ads. This death spiral continues until the site dies or does something like put up a pay-wall (which is almost the same thing for most websites).
However, ars technica has done something commendable here. They have asked their readers to consider what they are doing and to consider unblocking the ads. They also promised that they will do their best to keep their ads as unobtrusive as possible.
I respect that.
But, not only did they make me reconsider blocking the ads on their site, they have made me consider unblocking the ads other sites I frequent. I’m not going to just allow all the ads back, some are just too aggravating to do that. However, I will be give those sites a chance.
ars, thanks for not being part of the problem and working to be part of the solution.
