Allowing acceptable ads in Adblock Plus

[a adblock user]

Yes which survey.

I use Ablock since 2 years now, and i never see a survey

[MonztA]

Yes which survey.

See https://adblockplus.org/blog/adblock-pl ... lts-part-0

[1]

This video expresses my sentiment on what this change does to adblock plus users:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KqqRPvM_Sw

Is there anything that Mozilla can do to prevent this from being released? Surely, there are some standards that must be followed..

Invoke "no surprises" rule (which is there due to NoScript) and refuse to approve update, maybe? It's up to AMO editor reviewing the update, and I don't know if this will be done.

[melikamp]

@melikamp
So you're saying his survey is complete bs?

What survey?

https://adblockplus.org/blog/adblock-pl ... lts-part-3
https://adblockplus.org/blog/adblock-pl ... lts-part-4

Thanks. Yeah, I guess my own bias gets in the way (I am Russian, and we show a stronger dislike for ads of all sorts, according to the survey).

But you see, even if I am wrong about this one point and most users won't mind the feature, and Vladimir retains at least 70% of all users, my other points are still valid: his reputation will be tarnished, forks will likely appear, and his user base will continue eroding. Once again, just by reading this thread, it is very clear that many users object to this opt-out feature in principle. I, for one, would not use or recommend AdBlock Plus over a more user-friendly alternative. I would simply not upgrade to the evil version. The list updates would be enough until this thing sorts itself out.

[melikamp]

@guest:
Yes, grabbing ABP sources is easy.
But to maintain the project is not as easy.
Before Wladimir decided to took the project over, it stayed abandoned for YEARS.

I hope Vladimir ain't listening to you. I assure you: "supporting" this project would be trivial. Just take Vladimir's latest source, turn the "feature" off, rename, and distribute. What is he gonna do? Make it hard to turn it off? Obfuscate the code? That's gonna fly well with educated users . He is either with his users or he is with advertizers. There is no middle ground in this particular instance.

Vladimir, please, don't listen to these people. Make it opt-in. Get people's consent to enable "good" ads and report the feature running to a trusted authority. That way you can go to advertizers and say: look, I have so many millions users on the program. May be you'll make a bit less money, but may be more on the long run, and in a whole more ethical way.

[Outcast]

The more I think about this, the more I feel like Adblock Plus is bundling with adware.

Adblock Plus should be renamed as Adblock (Not all).

[Guest]

[blockquote]Before Wladimir decided to took the project over, it stayed abandoned for YEARS.[/blockquote]Rubbish.

Adblock had been abandoned for years, Adblock Plus was being actively maintained by Michael C. McDonald (click over to the last few pages of the forum index to see Adblock Plus under mcm's tenure) when Vladimir took over develompent. McDonald in turn built on the (badly) hacked version of Adblock that I had posted out of sheer exasperation at the obvious intent of rue, the developer of Adblock, to forever string along the user base with promises of an upgrade that was never going to come.

[Rapunzel]

Vladimir, please, don't listen to these people. Make it opt-in. Get people's consent to enable "good" ads and report the feature running to a trusted authority. That way you can go to advertizers and say: look, I have so many millions users on the program. May be you'll make a bit less money, but may be more on the long run, and in a whole more ethical way.

Maybe you are new to adblockplus, but IT IS NOW OPTIONAL. Right-click the ABP-Symbol and see what happend.

New is the protection for this SEDO-Domain-Grabbing-Scum and the opt-out.

Wonder how much SEDO pays for this...

This is killing a good idea....

[RandomUser1911]

Is there any good alternative to adblock+?
I dont want it anymore. They get paid by the ad-industry now.
They backstabbed their community and sold themselfes to the evil they wanted to fight.
Goodbye adblock, was a nice time with you.

[melikamp]

Is there any good alternative to adblock+?
I dont want it anymore. They get paid by the ad-industry now.
They backstabbed their community and sold themselfes to the evil they wanted to fight.
Goodbye adblock, was a nice time with you.

Oh, it's in, and it's opt-out by default. I am also ready to switch to a different plugin now (the one that sides with the user), unless this is fixed. Heck, I can probably roll it out myself

[Ogal Finklestein]

The need to opt out from "acceptable" (I dispute there is anything as an acceptable ad) advertising is condescending to users and goes against what taking back the web is about.

If people want ads, let them opt into pollution on their visited web pages. If they want to be tracked, let them opt into big brother. If they want their inbox clogged with spam, let them opt into the spam.

Users who don't wish to be assaulted with marketing should not have to opt out of advertising they didn't ask for and don't want.

Needing to opt out from digital pollution is a page out of the advertisers' playbook, not the privacy geeks' playbook.

This is why I run a very heavy hosts file and a local ad-killing proxy as well. I always wanted a backup for if anything slipped through ABP by accident. Now it looks like I will have to use multiple layers of advertising protection because ABP is no longer fully trustworthy.

It isn't your job to monetize the websites of others. People who install ABP are making a conscious choice to opt out of the pervasive consumer culture. They don't want advertising. Asking them if they can tolerate some advertising is a poor form for a poll.

@Wladimir

I totally agree with Anti-Ad. As a sysadmin Ive created my own ABP filters, edited my /etc/hosts file and I run my own Apache webserver. However after reading through this forum, Ive also downloaded a local copy of ABP 1.3.9 for a future manual install (before you decide to yank it from the website); I will not upgrade ABP when prompted. I'll replace those ads with my own local images from my webserver.

Im so against advertising and marketing, that I have multiple profiles both FireFox and SeaMonkey depending on what I want to do (1 for email, 1 for social not-working, etc) -- and -- I manually go accept/reject cookies as they come in.

So continue to shoot yourself in the foot, but be happy in the fact that I will at least stay with an older version of ABP until the browsers no longer support it.

OMG!! SOMEONE CALL THE WAAAAMBULANCE!
Quite a few in here, who regularly cheat content creators out of money, screaming 'bout betrayal, extortion, morals and ethics. The duplicity in y'alls position is oustanding.

Maybe you should do a gut check, each month send money to all websites that you've betrayed and cheated out of income, and help eliminate the need for ads all together. Maybe a group of you upstanding net citizens could help eliminate all advertising on the internet by actually paying for the content you consume. Novel idea, eh?

Before drowning in your own tears, I have several appropriate courses of action:

- uninstall ABP and go away
- code your own, improved version
- hire someone to code your own, improved version
- opt-out of the new feature
- cry some more, that always helps

I'm sure the content creator wakes up every day and thinks to herself, "I just LOVE providing all this content and having you cheat me out of money....maybe I'll work a couple extra hours today because in America, the more 'ya work the more 'ya earn!"

You can keep your pollution off of my computer. If you don't like it, put up a paywall.

I refuse to engage any advertising which slips through, as do most ad haters, so we aren't helping your statistics anyway. People who don't engage advertising lower your metrics.

@RedneckBabe

To add to what Anti-Ad said, if content providers are using websites to generate revenue via ads, then I think they should get real jobs. Again, I run my own webserver, free of ads, and I provide my content for FREE (novel idea, eh?). How do I make money then? Working as a SysAdmin for a University. There's no duplicity in my position; I'll always do my best to block the tracking and the advertising AND provide free information to the 'Net to those who read my information.

I can accept, in theory, that print business (newspapers, magazines, etc) use ads in their websites much like they use ads in print. However I skip over ads in print much like I block ads on their sites. They can make their money off of the majority, but I aint buying into their crap.

[Jyo]

Ugh. I *don't* appreciate being opted in to 'acceptable' ads without having been asked first. This was a serious betrayal of trust.

[anon43242342]

I believe we can all agree that Wladimir deserves the opportunity to monetize his time and work. Whether the decision to go with the opt-out option is the right one for this project is to be seen.
What are the alternatives? Would you rather pay 10 USD/year for the filter lists? I personally wouldn't as long as there is another option which will offer me the same filtering for free.
The bet is most likely that most users don't notice the change, don't care to see some ads or simply don't know how to change the option. Everybody else will just opt-out and hope that the project will continue as-is (Wladimir working on it full time, all ads blocked, no subscription fee).

[TomFriend]

Just stopping by to say that I approve.

[loool]

if u look in the acceptable ads list u will find mostly google...

HOW MUCH THEY PAYED FOR THIS?????