A German Court has Ruled that AdBlock is Entirely Legal

[Dark NighT]

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.

I never get those, but then i use scriptblocker along side adblock, scriptblocker alone stops most popups and a lot of useless shit on the site, the downside is you have to allow scripts on certain sites before they work as intended, but you can set them for temporarily allow or permanent.

Works like a charm though, when i just want to read a site i often dont even see the stupid cookie info thing that pops up, just the text that i want and nothing else.

 

[WYP]

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 So obviously it's not working properly since my interest for said headphone rescinded about two years ago.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.

The problem with your idea is if manufacturers need to pay for reviews, could you really trust our opinions of the product if it was paid for?

If we were paid for reviews it would be an incentive to give products good reviews and that is not how we work here. We will never accept money for doing a review as that is simply wrong, it would colour our opinions of the product and the review would ultimately be useless.

We wouldn't be reviewing the product, at that point it would be paid for promotion.

 

[JR23]

It wouldn't work either because companies would just review their own products either directly or indirectly and that is definitely f***ed. Plus somebody will always review products for free.

JR

 

[AlienALX]

The problem with your idea is if manufacturers need to pay for reviews, could you really trust our opinions of the product if it was paid for?

I already don't trust it because if a reviewer speaks badly about a product he then gets struck off the review list and doesn't receive any more products.

So that aspect is already as bent as a nine bob note any way.

If we were paid for reviews it would be an incentive to give products good reviews and that is not how we work here. We will never accept money for doing a review as that is simply wrong, it would colour our opinions of the product and the review would ultimately be useless.

We wouldn't be reviewing the product, at that point it would be paid for promotion.

Yup, paying for promotion the same as Fairy Liquid pays ITV to advertise their soap during, say, Coronation Street.

Most advertising is still done by word of mouth, that wonderful age old tradition and that costs nothing. IMO computer part manufacturers rarely pay for adverts they just hand out products to people expecting them to speak highly of said product.

I mean, if you asked on this forum, for example most people would say that a good gaming GPU for all round gaming is, for example, a GTX 970. That's another sale (if said forum member is convincing enough) for Nvidia that they have made from no cost whatsoever.

And that's how it usually goes. People ask for advice on here, Tom or some one else says "I recommend this product" and they usually buy it. As such said "advice" ought to be rewarded. But no, the industry is way too greedy for that.

By my age I have a set list of manufacturers I will buy from and tbh? wouldn't buy anything else. For PSUs I use Enermax primarily and in rare occasions where I either couldn't afford the one I wanted for a project I would then default to my second choice, Seasonic (and whoever has badged them so for example I used a 750w XFX Pro model that fitted in my budget for my Hackintosh).

And no amount of advertising would change my mind. I don't like Corsair, for another example. And no amount of Tom raving on or adverts being thrown in my face would make me say "Hey you know what? I fancy a Corsair case".

So 99% of it is misdirected and a waste of time. And when you're constantly on the receiving end it does chafe one's arse cheeks.

 

[jaspervandervalk]

Although I do understand that this website uses some of the money it earns through adverts to keep itself running I also know the cost to hosting a website online is miniscule. I am also pretty sure OC3D gets sent products for free to review which then doesn't lead to any increase in cost. This leaves me to assume that the cost of the website is not too high. As was mentioned before reviews of products are already marketing for companies that wish to get their product seen. The majority of adverts on the internet are purely for profit and this is where my argument lies.

Please do not take what I say as an attack on OC3D, as I do think this is a good website with a decent community. I respect that it makes its adverts relevant to its typical user but that doesn't mean adverts aren't an annoyance.

My point is only that adblockers should not be illegal and that the whole ads online system is flawed if you only keep them on for sites that you "enjoy". Perhaps people need to try to think of something more innovative.

Jasper

 

[ander01se]

Got most sites I use regularly as exceptions in AdBlock, but yeah, those annoying flash animations with sound that start playing everytime you open a new link just pisses me off.

Whoever makes those should be sent as 'gifts' to Al Qaida / ISIS. >:-(

 

[AlienALX]

Whoever makes those should be sent as 'gifts' to Al Qaida / ISIS. >:-(

 

[WYP]

Although I do understand that this website uses some of the money it earns through adverts to keep itself running I also know the cost to hosting a website online is miniscule. I am also pretty sure OC3D gets sent products for free to review which then doesn't lead to any increase in cost. This leaves me to assume that the cost of the website is not too high. As was mentioned before reviews of products are already marketing for companies that wish to get their product seen. The majority of adverts on the internet are purely for profit and this is where my argument lies.

Please do not take what I say as an attack on OC3D, as I do think this is a good website with a decent community. I respect that it makes its adverts relevant to its typical user but that doesn't mean adverts aren't an annoyance.

My point is only that adblockers should not be illegal and that the whole ads online system is flawed if you only keep them on for sites that you "enjoy". Perhaps people need to try to think of something more innovative.

Jasper

I completely understand your point, but the cost's do not end with server costs. Salaries need to be paid to those who main the site/ forum and all those who produce content for the main site.

Ad blockers should not be illegal, but regulation is required. We all know that adblock has large companies pay them in order to have their ads get through the program. There is also the fact that most sites could have almost half the number of ads and make the same money if a large percentage of users did not block them.

 

[dalewakelin]

Advertisers probably spend close to £50 per day on ads that i have no intention of looking at, i have never bought anything i have seen in an advert, if content creators got given products to review i would more likely watch that and have somebody i enjoy watching influence my views rather than some irrelevant flashing box at the side of a video or even worse a video ad on a 30 second video. If ad block was a paid subscription where your subscription went towards the content creators so they were not losing income yet you do not have to have an unpleasant user experience watching their content.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Think we can all say that adverts are needed. If no ads were in place pretty much every site would go down. Things aren't free. People need to be paid to survive or provide for a family, servers need to be paid, WEB DEVLOPERs especially need to be paid to maintain and improve the site.. they aren't cheap, and in order to protect yourself from other large sites or companies to buying out the little guys that give honest reviews and aren't paid.

Example.. you work for a construction company... the owner has a site with ads around the web to related things and people click on them. Brings them to your site and boom more chance for you to work and get paid. So then you can provide for a family and you keep a job because you keep getting work. Now imagine you couldn't advertise. You'd only get local jobs much much less frequently and mroe apt to get fired/laid off. Less work=less money=harder to provide for a family/yourself.

If you do no believe in that.. well tough shit. Its how the world works. Every business needs money to operate. Without money nothing gets done, ads help with that. This adblock i use to use 24/7.. i have since completely deleted it and haven't noticed a difference whatsoever. I have gotten those rarely that pop up right away but click the damn x or off the ad and it goes away.. honestly not difficult.