Adblock Plus will show 'acceptable ads' by default from v. 2.0 on

[Joey S]

all paid for by the unobtrusive advertising.

Wait, you're claiming that your advertising is non-intrusive? The article itself states what constitutes non-intrusive advertising, and I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your site doesn't qualify.

[Glassed Silver]

Its clearly mentioned by the author that he is getting boat loads of money from some advertisers to make this change. Ahh money.... can buy......

Yeah! How dare the author of the application cash in a few bucks for the hard work he put into ABP?! :o

meh...

Imho this is a good move, as a lot of people will just win.

I can't stand intrusive ads, but ads in general are needed.

Just not the intrusive ones! :)

I agree that inline text ads need to go the way of the dodo!

I can't stand them, really, they are HORRIBLE!

Glassed Silver:ios

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Wait, you're claiming that your advertising is non-intrusive? The article itself states what constitutes non-intrusive advertising, and I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your site doesn't qualify.

Out of curiosity I visited Neowin with IE 9. No ad-blocker installed, not logged in. The ad banners on the front page as well as within the articles are fairly unobtrusive in my opinion.

I'm in favour of the new default setting, as it is going to help a lot of smaller websites like Neowin.

[Vice]

We don't do this, and thanks for not contributiing to our costs (paying staff for content and sendiing them to tech events) all paid for by the unobtrusive advertising.

I think it is disingenuous to say that Neowin doesn't have obtrusive ads because just look at this: http://i.imgur.com/7TZEY.png

The two ads I've highlighted in yellow are both animated advertisements that continually loop. The smaller of the two ads I've highlighted rapidly changes its content and it distracts me as I'm reading the article text. If it was animated to start with then ended on a static image I'd consider that unobtrusive but when it's trying to get my attention the entire time the page is open then it's obtrusive to me.

And I'm wondering actually would Neowin get more click through on its ads if they weren't using these 1999 era tactics of flashy attention grabbing ads? I certainly won't click these just out of principle. But I will click a Google ad if its content interests me.

[england_fanboy]

I use IE9 and Ad Muncher. It's much much better at blocking ads and pop ups than AdBlock Plus. I have sites like Neowin and Microsoft sites whitelisted because I like these companies. On the other hand, I completely block every single Google ad, because I hate them.

So, this setting is not for me. I will choose myself which sites I want to support.

[spacer]

In my opinion, all advertisements are obtrusive. It doesn't matter how low-key they are. I will be disabling this feature when it's released.

Also, as of my writing this, Neowin has two large, moving advertisements on its home page. Both are extemely annoying. So I wouldn't claim that the sight complies with the proposed rules for "acceptable ads".

[Oz.]

Just get something like Ad Muncher and you won't have to worry about crap like this. Install it and forget about it. No ads, cookies, pop-ups... nothing. See the web the way it was meant to be seen -- without the crap. (Wow, that sounded like an ad in itself!)

I use IE9 and Ad Muncher. It's much much better at blocking ads and pop ups than AdBlock Plus. I have sites like Neowin and Microsoft sites whitelisted because I like these companies. On the other hand, I completely block every single Google ad, because I hate them.

So, this setting is not for me. I will choose myself which sites I want to support.

Ad Muncher it's great I use it for over 4 years now, the only problem with AM is that does not have support for Mac, Linux, gzip, https.

v5 will add:

- gzip, https, regex support

- simplified interface

- per site filters

- per filter whitelisting

- per process filtering

- ability to remove any HTML element

- other platforms support

Can't wait for all that :) also AM it's not free the lifetime license it's a bit too high.

[Japlabot]

It is definitely a good step. Even if the ABP author is being paid by some advertisers to make the change, he is being paid to do the right thing, as it is not fair to the advertisers who play by the rules, and websites who depend on advertising to cover their operating costs. Users win by supporting the websites they use. It is a win-win-win-win situation between adblock authors-advertisers-viewers-users.

This doesn't go far enough. There needs to be an open-source project who can independently review advertisements before a trusted ad network can allow the ad to be in their rotation. They must make sure that it meets non-intrusive guidelines, that the Bona Fides of the company being advertised check out, that the ad doesn't link to a malicious website, the classification of content is correct so that adult content only appears on adult websites, and is free of malware (right down to the source code level there is coding involved)

[ozgeek]

I'm very sorry but I have to agree that neowin seems to be deperate for money.

A site I visit that is as large as Neowin but copes very well completely void of ads. That site is Whirlpool (australian broadband forums)

Yes, different way of getting money (sponsors) and which I like better as it offers visitors great experience, even for guests and unlogged-in members.

Neowin have those ads that load flash content which is my definition of annoying content. Some posts in threads are created by "Adbot" showing ads. I block those kind of ads but don't block text-based ads.

[Lexcyn]

Easy peasy, just pay for a subscription if you like the site plus no ads. I do not mind doing this since I spend so much time here.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Great move (Y)

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

I think that the developer is justified enough in doing this. He has put a lot of time into creating the extension. Not only is it going to benefit him to receive (what I'm assuming to be) plenty of money from advertisers, he's also helping the advertisers who advertise without impacting on the actual usage of a website. I never blocked Neowin, and while some ads are annoying I haven't witnessed it being incredibly bad. I haven't seen ads for some time now though, since my user group is Reporter. If the staff were to have ads enabled for them I would have no problem with it, since the advertising is what helps keep Neowin running and I am happy to view the ads to help fund the site.

The fact that the whitelist can be altered and removed altogether is remarkably transparent, since some developers wouldn't even mention this. It's very encouraging to see transparency with an extension that blocks adverts. I welcome it, and if it becomes unbearable being able to disable the whitelist will deal with that. It's no big deal to me. :)

[giantpotato]

A lot of people in this generation really **** me off. They want everything for free and feel they're entitled to take what they want and give nothing in return. Is your attention span so short that a flashy picture on a page is enough to distract you more than a few milliseconds from reading an article?

[Vice]

A lot of people in this generation really **** me off. They want everything for free and feel they're entitled to take what they want and give nothing in return. Is your attention span so short that a flashy picture on a page is enough to distract you more than a few milliseconds from reading an article?

I don't see what visual distractions have to do with attention span. They are two completely different things.

[Glassed Silver]

Easy peasy, just pay for a subscription if you like the site plus no ads. I do not mind doing this since I spend so much time here.

+1

Neowin is one of my best spent moneys on the internet! (Y)

I recommend supporting Neowin with a subscription to everyone who sees a good value in it, which I guess a power user like me can't deny! :)

Of cause, not everyone is on the budget or has other problems paying for such a service, in that case whitelist Neowin in your adblocker and this community can only stay healthy finance-wise.

I enjoy giving back and that's what many other do, too.

I'm glad we introduced subscriptions some time ago and that so many active users have it and are proudly rallying for others to joining the boat without any direct "benefit" like a commission, because it really shows how confident we are and that it is a good package for anyone who's considering it.

Ad Muncher it's great I use it for over 4 years now, the only problem with AM is that does not have support for Mac, Linux, gzip, https. v5 will add: - gzip, https, regex support - simplified interface - per site filters - per filter whitelisting - per process filtering - ability to remove any HTML element - other platforms support Can't wait for all that :) also AM it's not free the lifetime license it's a bit too high.

Ugh, I have a hard time trusting lifetime licenses on the internet :p

Glassed Silver:mac

[Ryster]

I don't see what visual distractions have to do with attention span. They are two completely different things.

They're no different. If you can't concentrate on the content of an article without being distracted, then you've got a short attention span and are easily distracted.

[Miuku.]

A lot of people in this generation really **** me off. They want everything for free and feel they're entitled to take what they want and give nothing in return. Is your attention span so short that a flashy picture on a page is enough to distract you more than a few milliseconds from reading an article?

For a lot of people it's not about flashy pictures or text, it's about the fact that ads increase the load times of many pages by tenfold. Many of the ad servers are such utter drivel that they take forever to load and thus cause issues.

And let's not mention the fact that even the most reputable sites have distributed virii, spyware or other malware through their ad providers- even Neowin, in addition they allow ad providers to track you.

[Vice]

They're no different. If you can't concentrate on the content of an article without being distracted, then you've got a short attention span and are easily distracted.

What a load of rubbish.

I have a normal attention span and flashing images around text annoy and distract me a normal amount.

If you want to quote this suggesting a normal person wouldn't be distracted then show scientific sources.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

They're no different. If you can't concentrate on the content of an article without being distracted, then you've got a short attention span and are easily distracted.

Sadly too many people these days have no attention span whatso.. oh look, a kitten!

:shifty:

[Astra.Xtreme]

This isn't a bad thing. Advertising is what makes the internet go round.

This feature can be toggled on and off, so not a big deal.

[Glassed Silver]

Sadly too many people these days have no attention span whatso.. oh look, a kitten! :shifty:

:p

Glassed Silver:mac

[RichardK]

This isn't a bad thing. Advertising is what makes the internet go round.

Only if you let it. The web was just fine before we started seeing ads on just about every site. If you wanted to publish a site, you paid for the hosting and you published your content.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Only if you let it. The web was just fine before we started seeing ads on just about every site. If you wanted to publish a site, you paid for the hosting and you published your content.

Yeah but website owners can't afford the cost of hosting and bandwidth by themselves. This isn't the 90's where the internet was low resolution with a small amount of traffic.

There are billions of people on the internet at every moment, and by owning a website, you are financially responsible for keeping your roads drivable.

A lot of websites are businesses in themselves and the only way to sustain that is to bring in money. Hence where advertising comes in.

[TheBlueRaja]

Yeah but website owners can't afford the cost of hosting and bandwidth by themselves. This isn't the 90's where the internet was low resolution with a small amount of traffic.

There are billions of people on the internet at every moment, and by owning a website, you are financially responsible for keeping your roads drivable.

A lot of websites are businesses in themselves and the only way to sustain that is to bring in money. Hence where advertising comes in.

Yes but advertising should NOT be in your face jumping up and down like a 2 year old to get your attention OR linking to words or phrases in your or somebody elses replies to bring you "related" content (intellitext) OR tracking you like some sort of bin raking journalist.

Have a small advert top or bottom of the page that doesnt flash or move, doesnt track you, doesnt try to get all your facebook details and life history and doesnt sit in between posts and i'll be quite happy to see your site unblocked.

Otherwise - i'll go out of my damn way, make it a mission in fact, to block them AND block them all.

[Somnus]

For sites that I frequent often, I would rather pay (And obviously I do) a subscription fee to be ad-less.

I do it here and several other forums. For a relatively small fee I don't have to whitelist or block ads on a site, because I have already paid to not see them.