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| Ads, ads, ads. |
Ads.
Pop-ups. Banners. Those darn things that cover your entire page.
Everybody hates ads.
Well, except the people that create them. And they still hate them when it's somebody else's.
We all hate ads. Or, are mildly irritated by them at times.
But, the other side of the coin is -- and you knew this coin had another side -- sometimes, those ads allow us to see content that we'd otherwise have to pay for.
Keep in mind, people aren't entitled to the fruits of your labors. If you create something, others have no right to it. It's yours.
If you're a tailor, people don't have the right to demand you make them a suit.
If you're a carpenter, people don't have the right to demand you build them a house.
If you're a farmer, people don't have the right to demand your crops.
And, if you're a Website owner or developer, or a streaming content provider, people don't have the right to your labors. Yeah, it kinda works that way.
So, what's this got to do with ad-blockers? Well, some of the content you view on the Web, or on your streaming device, is provided at no monetary cost. Sure, you pay for Netflix, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Web pages that you don't have to subscribe to (or at least, it's optional) or streaming services that you don't have to pay for.
They are in the business to make money. That's the bottom line. They choose to make money by offering content for you to enjoy and then show you advertisements for which they get paid (or sell for inclusion in their content).
Yes, some Web pages have those popups all over the place. Or those videos that automatically start. Or ads that cover the page. Or other such irritants. That's why there are a bunch of ad blocker plugins that are extremely popular. Of course, they block by getting between you and the content, meaning they read all of your content.
All of your content.
All. Of. It.
Didn't think about that, did you?
So, how do I deal with it? Well, I avoid content that I don't like. If the Web page has annoying ads, I'll avoid that Web page. If an app on my phone has too many ads, I'll stop using the app. Or pay to remove ads, if that's an option. If the streaming service has more ads that I care to deal with, I'll not use that service. Or pay to remove ads, if that's an option.
How should you deal with it?
I'm not the boss of you. Deal with it as you see fit. But think how you'd feel if you were the other person. How would you want a consumer to deal with something that you did they didn't like?
That's actually good advise for many things: think how you'd feel if you were the other person.
I'm about to do just that. I think you're probably tired of hearing me go on and on about this.
So I'll stop.
I deleted my ad blocker on my browser because I want the sites I read to make money. The ones that I hate are those 30 second ads that cover the whole page. I'll sit through those one time, that's all.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the other, other side of this is that we don't just block ads because we are annoyed by ads, but that they have historically been a source of malware. Nowadays, it isn't even just about blocking ads, but blocking hidden crypto-currency miners that you will never see but will silently destroy your battery life or system performance, or blocking browser exploits that run silently in the background attempting to take over your machine(in fact, I recently discovered a local company's website had apparently been hacked, and is now serving occasional phishing redirects and loading crypto-currency miners when not redirected: both were blocked by my blockers). Like most decent people, I do want to see good content providers rewarded and encouraged to keep producing, and I do try to whitelist a select few sites. But the web isn't radio; I'm not merely listening to the song and changing channel on commercial: I'm running your code, sight unseen, on my machine, and that has risks.
ReplyDelete