Is Running Adblock a Problem?

[BinaryMage]

I have AdBlock installed in my browser, which blocks the new ads on these forums. Is this a problem and/or is it against forum rules? I don't particularly want to see the ads, but much more important to me is not breaking the forum code. Just wanted to check, thanks in advance for your help!

[Douglas]

I am not a mod and this isn't at all official, but:

There is no actual rule against AdBlock (such a rule would be rather difficult to enforce, too), and blocking the ads does not directly affect the income from them - payments are all per time period, not per view or per click. Blocking the ads does reduce the number of views they get, however, which is a statistic advertisers see and base their spending decisions on, so it can have an indirect effect on ad revenue.

[Tirian]

Of course the forum rules don't prohibit blocking ads.

Whether you choose to do so is up to you, but I'll say that many have made the decision to disable their adblockers for GitP and I think there are several reasons why that is the better way. First, Project Wonderful keeps track of how many people are viewing the ads over the course of a day and so having more people willing to see the ads will lead to the ad space bringing in more money to the forums, which will hopefully be able to provide better servers and in all ways keep Rich from having to pay all the costs for the forums himself. Second, Rich has taken what I think are extraordinary measures to deny himself some pretty large ad buys to keep the space from being annoying or offensive in any way. Third, by and large, in my opinion the ads are well-tailored for being exposed to webcomics and gamers and I've expanded my horizons more than once in the past week in ways that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. But the choice is yours.

[RndmNumGen]

Third, by and large, in my opinion the ads are well-tailored for being exposed to webcomics and gamers and I've expanded my horizons more than once in the past week in ways that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. But the choice is yours.

I have to echo this. I never really paid much attention to adds, and often found myself viewing even 'tailored' ads(such as the ones on Facebook that are catered to your interests) to be annoying, irrelevant and on some rare occasions, offensive. The new ads here, in contrast, usually have interesting topics to me. At worst, I don't care about them.

That being the case, I have no problem supporting GitP by disabling adblock on this site.

[Zeb The Troll]

Troll Patrol: No, there is no rule, implied or expressed, prohibiting anyone from maintaining an ad blocker while viewing the forums. There are considerations, but the final decision is still in the hands of the individual viewing the forums.

[Rawhide]

Zeb has answered the question, but I wanted to add my own personal experience and feelings.

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First, as Zeb said, we can't exactly require you to view the adverts. Not unless we start being obnoxious and install scripts that will refuse to load the page unless you unblock the advert. Nobody wants that, especially not us. I have, however, seen some sites try to do this.

All we can do is ask that you give it a try. Rich has explained the reasons he has inserted adverts onto the forum pages. It came after a very long deliberation and is definitely not a greedy grab for money, adverts are needed to support the ongoing maintenance and expansion of the forums. He has also selected an advertisment delivery company and options that will limit the money he can earn in order to minimise any degradation of the user experience.

None of the adverts can use their own scripts, they can only include an image (hosted on Project Wonderful) and a link, so none of them can do anything bad to your computer just by you viewing them.

None of the adverts can "expand" or "pop out" from within the confines of the boxes.

None of the adverts can play sound.

None of the adverts will be animated. Project Wonderful adverts can include animation, however, Rich has elected to prohibit animated adverts.

Adverts cannot be "not safe for work". Rich has even, despite how much they would have earned him, blocked adverts that are classified as safe, but go a bit too far for these forums and/or go to less than reputable sites.

There are a grand total of two adverts. One at the top and one at the bottom.

Project Wonderful is a comminity targeted advertising medium. By this, I mean, it doesn't track and target you personally, nor does it perform some analysis on the words on the page, but that advertisers can view a community and target their advertising specifically to that community. Webcomic sites will often target other webcomic sites, games and game sites will often target other game sites. You are much more likely to find something relevant to you than with other forms of advertising.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Is seeing two adverts, one at the top and one at the bottom, that are soundless and not animated, with adverts targeted to the community, really that big of a deal to you?

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Personally, when I first heard that Rich was considering including adverts, I didn't want them. I was of course ready to accept them as necessary, but I didn't want them taking up that extra space. I was so concerned with the possible degradation of my experience that I was tempted to write in a method for the moderators to block the adverts. Hey, the mods have got to have some perks, right?

But, since seeing how the advertisments fit in with the general design of the board and especially after seeing what they have been advertising, I have no desire to do so anymore. Truthfully, I rather like them now.

Their placement is unobtrusive and fits within the overall layout of the page. They stick out just enough so that you notice them but not enough to annoy you. And they even play very well with my iPhone, which was a concern I had.

As for the advertisments themselves. Well, I have so far found several nice webcomics, three of which I have gone and read the entire archives.