Ads on the forums?

[littlebum2002]

I have a question about the ad box on top of the forums. I have AdBlock plus for all the websites out there with annoying or NSFW ads, but does this software also keep websites from getting ad revenue? When I load a page in the forum, does the ad box "know" it's getting blocked, and therefore not give Rich ad revenue from me? Or does he get it anyway? Since the ads on this site are usually tasteful and I really enjoy Rich's work, I would disable my program for this site if it was taking money away from Rich.

[Grinner]

I think ad revenue is usually given per-click, though I suspect Project Wonderful does it differently.

Edit: I'd like to know how to selectively disable ad-blocking for Project Wonderful. Is that possible using a custom blocklist?

[Mando Knight]

I think ad revenue is usually given per-click, though I suspect Project Wonderful does it differently.
Project Wonderful has advertisers bid for a daily rate, rather than charging them per click or per view. However, they also provide performance metrics to allow bidders to review how effective their advertising is, which will allow them to evaluate how much they want to pay for the ads. Fewer unique views and clicks means that the advertising won't be as valuable, and most adblock services block the script that shows the ad, which then in turn blocks all the feedback that Project Wonderful gets and needs for its metrics.

Edit: I'd like to know how to selectively disable ad-blocking for Project Wonderful. Is that possible using a custom blocklist?
If you have an adblock plugin that you can edit on the fly, you can open your list of blockable items (Adblock Plus only seems to do it properly when it's active for the current page), and there should be a script originating from Project Wonderful. Add an exception to that, and I think that should allow the ads to "work" again.

Or, you can just disable the whole thing on select pages (giantitp.com should be fairly safe to disable an adblocker on, since the only ads are the unobtrusive banners at the top and bottom of the page).

[Douglas]

The most common ad services, including google ads, usually charge money on a per view basis, with per click as the runner up. For per view ads, AdBlock directly reduces the ad view count, which does reduce the web site's revenue from the ad. For per click ads, AdBlock makes no difference except in the unlikely case where it's an ad you would have clicked on if you had seen it.

Project Wonderful, the ad service the Playground uses, is different. People and/or companies place bids that are expressed in money per hour, and at any given moment the ad with the top bid gets shown to however many people visit the site and pays at the runner-up bid's rate for whatever amount of time it remains the top bid.

With Project Wonderful, you running AdBlock and therefore never seeing the ads does not have any direct impact on ad revenue. Time passes and the advertiser gets billed for that time whether or not you see anything. However, viewer statistics are gathered and presented to potential advertisers, and those statistics are used to guide decisions about how much to bid. You running AdBlock reduces those statistics and may have an indirect impact on the bids and eventual revenue.

Short version: The effect of AdBlock on this website's ad revenue is indirect but does exist. If you want to help support The Giant, disabling AdBlock for the Playground is a good idea.

[Castaras]

Especially as any iffy ads get reported and kicked out, and animated ads and script ads are banned. You only get pictures that link to a site.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Well-answered folks.