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Post by jojo on Jul 16, 2015 11:08:24 GMT
Like many, I use Ad Block Plus. It's free. It works in that it blocks advertising that slows my browser.
Many sites, when you visit, specifically ask that you turn off your ad blocker, since they rely upon advertising to pay for their sites.
I have done this, quite happily for some sites. Major Geeks for example. He selects his advetising and I can be confident that any on his site won't noticably slow my browser or try to install spam.
Proboards have also asked that ad blockers be turned off. I tried, for a couple of weeks, but the slowing of my browser was just too much. So, it's on again.
This is unacceptable. Sites like Major Geeks have shown that it is not necessary to host slow advertisments. The companies which run the likes of Proboards simply need to spend a bit more time selecting their advertisers.
One of the biggest problems is when the ads come from other servers which are themselves, slow. Granted that isn't Proboards fault directly, but it is unacceptable and the likes of Proboards need to understand that if they want their revenue, they need to do the work.
It's been argued that that by using a site with an adblocker I am effectivly stealing. Not so. I have no agreement that I will alow advertising and even if that were claimed to be assumed, it couldn't be extended to advertising that is unacceptably slow due to poor servers.
My machine may be old. However, that is no argument at all. These sites need to design their pages for my machine, not the other way around.
Some sites seek to defeat adblockers by preventing pages from loading until ads have been loaded. Those side bar images that follow you up and down as you scroll, for example. No problem, I just go elsewhere.
It really is down to the site managers to ensure advertisers don't mess around with their users.
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Post by buzzy on Jul 16, 2015 11:28:15 GMT
My main Browser is Maxthon Cloud and has Ad Blocker installed by default. I have not not noticed any slowing down on the latest versions. It is easy to switch on or off at will and I have to say I have not noticed any detriment to performance.
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Post by mikkh on Jul 16, 2015 13:07:55 GMT
I turn ads off as a courtesy to a few sites (including this one obviously) and I can't say I notice any difference myself. There are several things that could be at fault including using XP as an OS because of it's shortcomings in understanding some modern network protocols If you're using Firefox, there's the recently announced bombshell that they will actively block Flash content gizmodo.com/firefox-now-blocks-flash-by-default-1717664482Which is probably XP's fault again if it doesn't allow the latest version of Flash to be installed The speed of (or more importantly the lack of speed of) your internet connection could also be a factor I know you're an avid tweaker and maybe you've gone a step too far on one of them. I've done it myself when trying to squeeze the last bit of juice out of an old machine and it was only by backtracking I managed to rectify it. It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember it was Black Viper or a similar site that had advised me a certain service was safe to disable, when it wasn't |
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Post by jojo on Jul 16, 2015 15:39:02 GMT
Thanks Buzzy. Never used Maxthon Cloud. But intersting to know.
Thanks mikkh. Especially about Firefox. For the past few days, my wife and I have both been haing a problem with Flash, where windows een on YouTube, were blocked by defaut because the Flash wasn't safe or something.
I did manage to update my copy. I can't remember how but I think it was the updater I have.
Do you know what Firefox is currently recommending to use in place of Flash? It is kinda ubiquitious.
I understand your point with Black Viper. I don't recall any serious problems but I do remember some of the services he suggested left important things unusable. I'm sorry I don't recall which ones now.
In any case, it would be silly to rely upon a single site. In the case of the services I did a general Google search for each one one at a time to get a mix of opinions. I'm pretty sure I wrote soemthing about this a while ago. Some otherwise intersting sites were quite funny. Filled with warning that this service or that would allow the feds to know what you are doing in their endless plot to take away liberty and sell our precious juices. (Or something equally silly like that).
The slow loading of some adverts may well be because of my using XP. However, that, in my opinion simply emphasises my point. (Which was a rant more than any advice to anyone). If Pete or Lynnrose owned this host I would of course, turn on for CIT. But proboards is advertising supported. It really is their loss if you think about it.
With the widespread use of the likes of Ad Block, it's only a matter of time until hosts change their tactics. I'd like to think they would clean up their act but let's face it, they probably won't.
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Post by mikkh on Jul 16, 2015 19:24:07 GMT
Makes me wonder two things
1) how much do the advert spammers pay
2) and are there really enough stupid people in the World to make it viable
I guess on a popular site 1 in 100 people clicking through generates a tidy income, but I suspect the figure is closer to 1 in 1000 which would be peanuts on less popular sites.
I have noticed the 'congratulations you're the lucky millionth visitor and have won (insert fabulous prize here)' type annoyances are less frequent now, being replaced by more or less normal product specific adverts instead. But that begs further questions as to how people buy things on the internet. Do they really wait for the right pop-up to appear, and do they need their memory jogging about a future purchase?
I would have thought the standard practice was to go straight to Ebay, Amazon etc, or ask Mr Google if considering buying anything.
Re Firefox: HTML 5 was touted as the death knell of browser plugins like Flash and Java because it has built in multimedia capabilities that were supposed to make Flash in particular more or less obsolete. It's been active since October last year, so the take up hasn't exactly caught fire yet. Maybe the learning curve is steep, or the economics of redesigning a web site from scratch in HTML 5 don't add up. It looks like it won't be the standard for a long time yet anyway and if Firefox's blocking of Flash is meant to hurry that along, I think they're overestimating their influence in the browser market.
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Post by jojo on Jul 16, 2015 21:30:02 GMT
I confess the logic of advertising is lost on me as well. I don't watch a lot of TV, and when I do I mostly record it, so I can skip past adverts. But it seems each ad break, half the time is spent featuring the up coming programs. I just hope that silly Brian with his, Confused dot com jingle isn't on when I look at that program tomorrow night, which I heard of somewhere.
I wonder though how many adverts are actually seeking to collect surfing history? That can be especially useful so larger companies can track varying interests among different groups of consumers. The net is ideal for that. TV not so much. Trackers do seem to feature quite a lot in MWB searches and such.
I've heard of that HTML5 thing before, I think it was from you. It is taking a long time. It seemed such a good idea.
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Post by jojo on Jul 17, 2015 13:03:13 GMT
So, needed to fire up W7 to test some software someone sent me.
Browsing is painfully slow, even with ad block on. One another site, had to wait an age while annalytics-google.com decided to load. Here, the biggest hold up was storage whaever.
It really is very silly.
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