Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Drew in Queensland, Australia on March 15, 2010:

Just a suggestion - I do use an ad-blocker but try to turn it off on sites I'd like to support. However your stable of multiple domains gives me a problem in that each time you add a site, it's another one I need to whitelist.

For example, thisistrue.com is whitelisted, but while clicking through to (say) mugshotmuseum.com my brain won't often keep up and remind me that I need to turn off ads here again (on one of the many computers I use weekly).

Now I'm not sure how to solve it other than to serve them all from a common source, or to use one of those nifty ad-block-detection scripts to show a red box reminding me.

Just sayin' - the multiple site thing might be a problem for others like me.

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I understand the problem, but it typically makes sense to have things on separate domains, rather than ask people to dig down and find their favorite sections of one huge site (e.g., the mug shots portion). So I'll suggest that the "proper" solution is to whitelist by default, and either don't use an ad blocker at all (since the preferred thing to do is not patronize a site if you don't like their policies) or, if you must, block the ads for cause rather than by default. -rc

Posted by Karl (Tujunga, CA) on March 15, 2010:

One interesting perspective that Dennis Prager frequently offers is the "Shopkeeper's Law" from the Talmud.

Under the Shopkeeper's Law, you are forbidden to ask the price of an item if you know you aren't going to buy it from that shop. The underlying premise is that such an action is theft of the shopkeeper's time, as well as falsely raising his hopes of making a sale.

Translated into modern shopping, we may surmise that it is forbidden to go into a shop and ask a salesman to demonstrate, say, a camera for you, if you know for a fact that you will be buying it at a discount over the Internet.

If you honestly believe you might buy the camera there, go ahead and pester the salesman. The law forbids taking up a salesman's time when you know he will receive nothing for his effort.

And yes, by extension, it's perfectly reasonable to apply the same logic to clicking on website ads when you know you have no intention of making a purchase. You are spending a sponsor's money, with the knowledge that the sponsor will get no return for that money.

And as the saying goes, time is money.

Posted by Louis in VA on March 15, 2010:

Funny you post this today. I just added an Ad-Blocker to Firefox today because I got hit with a virus that seems to have come from a pop-up (several of us got hit with it, and that's the only thing in common that we've been able to tell so far). So I finally installed it as a "defensive" measure. Now I'll have to see if I can reverse it to whitelist by default as you suggest in the previous comment, although that would allow the problem I just mentioned, at least on the first visit to the site. (The site itself is not doing it, at least not on purpose; they are trying to weed it out as well.)

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It's unlikely -- well, OK, impossible -- that you got a virus from a legitimate ad (since by definition, a legit ad wouldn't do that). Hopefully, you can isolate the actual cause and address that issue without hurting the honest sites (and their advertisers). -rc

Posted by Eric, Aurora, IL on March 15, 2010:

Not all ads and popups are legit and are the primary source of adware, spyware, viruses, and other forms of malware. If they were all legit, then we wouldn't need 90% of the protections that are now required on a computer. I use popup blockers since that keeps the more annoying ads at bay, but regular ads don't really bother me. If I don't like them, I can always ignore them. To the reader above...popup blockers only block popups, but not ads (unless of course they are popup ads *grin*). Best defense is common sense (since this site is a testament to the lack of common sense...so I guess that is a bit moot hehehe) and a good anti-virus program. There are several excellent free ones out there that are actually better than the pay ones.

Posted by Mark from Ithaca, New York on March 15, 2010:

I do try to click on ads that interest me on sites I enjoy or otherwise get something out of. Conveniently, tonight there's a free-trip-to-London contest ad on your site. You bet that interests me!

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Not everyone will see that: ads can be slanted according to location, interests, etc. The bottom line is, you never know what might be of interest! Glad you found something that piqued yours. -rc

Posted by Jason, Atlanta, GA on March 15, 2010:

I do not block image ads as I agree with your points in this article. I do however block flash ads, as they very frequently will crash my browser.

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I've never had a Flash-based ad crash my browser, but I've had popups do that, and therefore do block them. I also object to the fact that I typically cannot tell what site a popup came from, and thus cannot pin blame and complain about problems to the site owner. I thus consider them inherently dishonest, which is another reason I won't allow them on my sites, even though I lose a lot of income by taking that stand. -rc

Posted by Rob (AU) on March 16, 2010:

I used to use Ad-blockers when most ads were those very large and longtime downloading flashers and my ISP was on 56K.

A thing of the past as now most sites use Google, or similar, with unobtrusive ads, besides which even the large ads load easily now most people are on DSL or quicker.

Posted by Deidre, California on March 16, 2010:

If you feel it's unfair to block ads, do you also believe it's unfair to record shows on a DVR and then fast-forward through the commercials?

Posted by Phil, San Antonio, Texas, USA on March 16, 2010:

I have no complaints with static, "well-behaved" ads, but several types aggravate me: ads that activate a drop-down or pop-up or audio when moused over or when the page is accessed; ads that take forever to load their content, which in general prevents me from proceeding down the page until all content has loaded; and ad space that cycles among several vendors. Regarding the latter, invariably I will spot something that interests me on one of those cyclical ads the second after I have clicked away from the page. Upon returning, I can never seem to get that same ad to come back up! Oy!

Posted by Christina, Reidsville NC on March 16, 2010:

Thanks to Firefox, I have no problems with popup ads. I prefer text ads because I can read them when I have time and because I'm *so* visually oriented that the slightest movement is a distraction. Because of that, I got a flash blocker addon. I have it set to stop all flash items, but it shows a play button I can click. It's usually very useful; I don't like the music or speeches some sites play automatically. As a full-time student, my research has me running into those often. And if I'm on YouTube or would like to poke around, I can click the play button to view the item anyway. It makes browsing *much* faster, without blocking static picture ads or text ads.