A German Court has Ruled that AdBlock is Entirely Legal

[jaspervandervalk]

Meh, I personally dislike ads everywhere regardless of whether or not they are intrusive, even before using AB+ I would never have clicked on ads nor bought anything I would have seen advertised on a side bar or as a backdrop of a website.

Some websites already make you turn off any adblocker you have installed before you can access their content.

The way I see it is, if you are allowed to unsubscribe from email promotional offers then why should it be illegal to choose to not have to have ads when you visit a website?

Jasper

 

[Merxe]

Adblock. You can have it turned off for specific domains (e.g. I have mine disabled on anything from '.overclock3d.net'). In terms of youtube I tend to pause it on channels that I like that I'm not already supporting through other monetery means.

I know adblock can do that - as well as other popular plugins. I want to block ads on specific sites, not turn them off for some.

 

[WYP]

Meh, I personally dislike ads everywhere regardless of whether or not they are intrusive, even before using AB+ I would never have clicked on ads nor bought anything I would have seen advertised on a side bar or as a backdrop of a website.

Some websites already make you turn off any adblocker you have installed before you can access their content.

The way I see it is, if you are allowed to unsubscribe from email promotional offers then why should it be illegal to choose to not have to have ads when you visit a website?

Jasper

While I do see your point, how else do you expect sites like us to survive? If I were to go to every paper in the country and cover all the ads on their newspapers I would be called a criminal, and that is content you already pay to access.

I personally ignore ads too, but would you prefer if we (dirty word here) sponsored for making our content or made you guys pay for a subscription?

*Cough*

Well, I am so used to mine being always on, that I never even thought of that, but never fear, your sad smiley has convinced me.

It's easy to white list a specific domain.

The reason why I always have it on; is simply because of some that have integrated sound that can't wait to make you deaf, perhaps one should sue them for such a blast into ones eardrums? Not every audio file has the same volume level... So for example, if I listened to music at a reasonable volume and decide to visit a website while listening music... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Also, adds that are too busy while you are reading and yes, I see a few here on OC3D that are.

The add/adds that is right next to the Overlock3D.net logo, is obtrusive and annoyingly positioned, it even blocks out the OC3D logo Watermark in the back. The adds on the right "Inside" of the light blue area are also annoying.

The adds in the black area are non-intrusive to me, as well as the add at the bottom center of the page. So, basically what I am saying, any add within the reading area, is just too much in ones face and a no no.

Just my opinion. Don't know if anyone else will agree.

Thank you very much for your opinion mate. When we move to redesign the website in the future the re positioning of ads will be put under advisement.

 

[JR23]

If you force intrusive ads onto people everytime they visit your site then it's going to lose traffic.

It's fine if they're not intrusive, That I have no beef with but intrusive ads just annoy the hell out of me.

Exactly! Let them lose traffic, then perhaps everything would reach a stable equilibrium. I don't want to read their crap if they rape my eyes every time I visit their site. That decision was on them and they should suffer the consequences.

On the other hand if I value what they have to say and they have to resort to said eye-whoring to make their content pay then i'm happy to support them.

JR

 

[jaspervandervalk]

I do understand your point of view but the more we let the internet become commercialized and monetary based the more we as the end users lose out, the internet wasn't designed to be a marketing tool.

Making money from adverts on the internet is a kind of cheap way of doing business like dropping leaflets through peoples doors. Adblock plus acts like one of those sticker's on your door saying "No junk mail please" these are perfectly legal and from where I am originally from in the Netherlands were even handed out by the council.

Jasper

 

[JR23]

I do understand your point of view but the more we let the internet become commercialized and monetary based the more we as the end users lose out, the internet wasn't designed to be a marketing tool.

Making money from adverts on the internet is a kind of cheap way of doing business like dropping leaflets through peoples doors. Adblock plus acts like one of those sticker's on your door saying "No junk mail please" these are perfectly legal and from where I am originally from in the Netherlands were even handed out by the council.

Jasper

It's not really a relevant analogy. Said leaflets exploit something that you personally allow, just like spam emails. It's more of a case of if you went to a hotel and they left out brochures of other related attractions or services. It's designed and implemented by the person providing you a service, they are in control. Not the person trying to push the advertised product/service. If you strongly believe it has a negative impact on what you went there for then inform them or find an alternative.

JR

 

[WYP]

I do understand your point of view but the more we let the internet become commercialized and monetary based the more we as the end users lose out, the internet wasn't designed to be a marketing tool.

Making money from adverts on the internet is a kind of cheap way of doing business like dropping leaflets through peoples doors. Adblock plus acts like one of those sticker's on your door saying "No junk mail please" these are perfectly legal and from where I am originally from in the Netherlands were even handed out by the council.

Jasper

You analogy is not necessarily valid. You come to site like ours for our content, and as payment we would like you to simply allow the ads to also be on the page. You can ignore them or click on them if you like, but blocking them removes any chance of making any money.

We do not send you guys emails with adverts. If our ads were not blocked we could get by with a lot less ads.

What is your solution for this problem? how do we make enough money to keep going if we do not use ads?

 

[jaspervandervalk]

It's not really a relevant analogy. Said leaflets exploit something that you personally allow, just like spam emails. It's more of a case of if you went to a hotel and they left out brochures of other related attractions or services. It's designed and implemented by the person providing you a service, they are in control. Not the person trying to push the advertised product/service. If you strongly believe it has a negative impact on what you went there for then inform them or find an alternative.

JR

Hmm I see your point but adblock works in the same way you do, if you do not wish to see these leaflets and they have been left out you are within your right to choose to read them or not, or if they are left in your room you can put them away where they cant be seen or rip them up and throw them in the bin, adblock gives you this freedom, more importantly it gives YOU the choice.

We know that adverts slow performance, can potentially be an invasion of privacy with many sites selling on users data to advertisers so they can create more specific ads etc, most importantly they are annoying.

Jasper

 

[jaspervandervalk]

You analogy is not necessarily valid. You come to site like ours for our content, and as payment we would like you to simply allow the ads to also be on the page. You can ignore them or click on them if you like, but blocking them removes any chance of making any money.

We do not send you guys emails with adverts. If our ads were not blocked we could get by with a lot less ads.

What is your solution for this problem? how do we make enough money to keep going if we do not use ads?

I would disagree with saying we come here purely for your content, this is a forum created for discussion of technology and some other topics, with other like minded people. It is my understanding that most ads are PPC so it wouldn't matter anyway if I were to switch them on; unless ofcourse OC3D is honeypotting its URLs making sure adverts reach the users.

Having ads on a website makes you feel like the product rather than a user and they generally slow things down and take away from the authenticity of most sites. Adblock gives YOU as the user the choice to view adverts or not which is essentially what the German court is in favor of.

Jasper

 

[JR23]

....more importantly it gives YOU the choice.

It's my choice whether I visit the site or not. The content of the site is not controlled by me, the content is the reason I do or do not visit the site.

JR

 

[jaspervandervalk]

It's my choice whether I visit the site or not. The content of the site is not controlled by me, the content is the reason I do or do not visit the site.

JR

I would argue that adverts aren't in anyway meaningful to the intended content of the site.

Jasper

 

[hmmblah]

I would argue that adverts aren't in anyway meaningful to the intended content of the site.

Jasper

Only if you ignore the fact that the content wouldn't exist without the adverts.

 

[Dark NighT]

Only if you ignore the fact that the content wouldn't exist without the adverts.

Which is why anyone should whitelist sites that you like and visit often, the rest of the internet can stay blocked for all i care, if i dont visit them i dont hurt them.

 

[JR23]

There are a lot of things on any tech site that primarily or perhaps more discretely link back to advertisement. Adverts, Reviews, Competitions, Build Logs, Support... they are all part of the content and they are all made possible by larger companies investing their money or stock into gaining some publicity. All of the wheels need to keep turning to make it profitable for everybody to provide their service. If your a consumer then you have the choice to consume or not and of course the choice of where you go about it.

JR

 

[jaspervandervalk]

Only if you ignore the fact that the content wouldn't exist without the adverts.

I am sure there would still be content without adverts mate, most of this website is a discussion between users about computer parts rather than strictly monetarily invested content.

Jasper

 

[JR23]

I am sure there would still be content without adverts mate, most of this website is a discussion between users about computer parts rather than strictly monetarily invested content.

Jasper

Genuinely where do you think the money comes from to make it happen or is it just free in your opinion?

JR

 

[WillSK]

I am sure there would still be content without adverts mate, most of this website is a discussion between users about computer parts rather than strictly monetarily invested content.

Jasper

It's easy to say that but as JR is saying, everything at it's base level comes from advertising at some level. Even if the content was all user generated, the site still needs money to run.

 

[WYP]

I am sure there would still be content without adverts mate, most of this website is a discussion between users about computer parts rather than strictly monetarily invested content.

Jasper

Mate you realize that the discussions do not generate the money in order to keep the servers running?

Even if you argue that you do not come here to view any of the content on the main site it is the exact same concept as the forums.

We provide you with a service, be it reviews, news or even use of the forums. For this service the ads simply need to be there.

For the record most ads are not sold by the click but by the impression (how many people see the ad). So it doesn't matter if you clock on them, just that the brand/add is seen.

You still haven't came up with a solution which keeps the site running and removes adds.

 

[AlienALX]

Mate you realize that the discussions do not generate the money in order to keep the servers running?

Even if you argue that you do not come here to view any of the content on the main site it is the exact same concept as the forums.

We provide you with a service, be it reviews, news or even use of the forums. For this service the ads simply need to be there.

For the record most ads are not sold by the click but by the impression (how many people see the ad). So it doesn't matter if you clock on them, just that the brand/add is seen.

You still haven't came up with a solution which keeps the site running and removes adds.

The way I see it reviews are adverts. That's why I usually don't bother reading them or watching the video reviews unless they're for something I really want an opinion on before handing over the cash.

Two years ago I made the mistake of buying a counterfeit pair of headphones on Ebay. I did get my money back very easily but since then Ebay continually spam me with adverts for Beats headphones and nothing else. So obviously it's not working properly since my interest for said headphone rescinded about two years ago.

In fact come to think of it they are still spamming me with GTX 295s even though I bought one three years ago.

Adverts to me are just annoying. They are a way for some one to make money as well as the money they should be making for their services. IE - on this site especially the manufacturers of the products should be paying for the 'reviews' as these reviews bring the product to the forefront and allow people to see it properly. There shouldn't be any need for any other advertising IMO.

I have Adblock on 24/7 and I never disable it no matter what. If I can't look at a website's content then that's of no consequence to me I'll just find another website that does allow me access without having useless turd shoved in my face that I don't want.

And therein lies the problem. There are a million websites to choose from out there on the big wide web.

It's the same with forums. I've been banned from a few. Oh well, shrug it off go join another one.

 

[Wraith]

I only use AD Block on Failbook as it is by far the most pathetic site without it, though I did use it extensively at first when I only had a 1.4Mbps connection and loading many many ads was crippling my browsing, but since getting Fibre 3 years ago I only use on FB now. Should it be Illegal though? No. as JR pointed out website optimisers should better work on their sites to ensure that people don't feel the need to use it in the first place. The one thing that should be made illegal are those damn "please rate our page" or "what do you think of our site" pop ups that appear 3 seconds after landing there.