^^^THIS^^^jokerz wrote:what has destroyed the internet is the fact that so many people have been suckered in by third party ad servers that use javascript to serve ads. There lies the internets entire downfall.
Most static ads that are not referenced from a third party server and do not try to usurp control of the computer from the person visiting the site are NOT blocked and never were.
Most ABP users do not CARE if there are ads on a page, as long as they do not compromise their security or aggressively intrude upon their browsing experience. If these problems were not so incredibly pervasive, very few people would install ABP.
It is a style of web design that is both abusive to the user and lazy. The increasing popularity of programs like ABP merely demonstrates that people are finally figuring out one of the reasons why their browsing is so slow and their browser keeps telling them they have a virus but if they send money it can be removed.
From an infrastructure perspective, offsite 3rd party elements multiply any network congestion by the number of sites referenced, especially if the site forces sequential loading of the elements and will not display until the entire page is loaded (commonly done in order to ensure the ad content loads). In some cases, this even breaks the page if anything happens to the ad site (more common than you'd think). Even a hit counter that is run offsite has these problems. When the ad content is many times as much data as the page content itself, the difference is immense.
I am one of those people who DOES sometimes click on ad links (not often, but sometimes). I also have absolutely no problem with having relatively non-intrusive ads on my web pages (and you can easily enough keep the ads visible and still eliminate the need for page breaks).
That said, if there were no alternatives to either having 3rd party links and invasive javascript or not visiting sites that had them, I would choose to not visit those sites the vast majority of the time, only lifting the restriction in cases where there was no other source for what I was searching for, and sometimes not even then.
There is PLENTY of room for ad driven content on the internet, but there is less and less room for obnoxious 3rd party hosted ads with load times 3-10 times as long as the rest of the site combined, intrusive customer tracking, and sundry malvertising.
Put up a banner or image. Host it on your server. Leave the bells and whistles and going to the 3rd party site for those who click on the link.
A polite message reminding your visitors that these advertisers pay to keep the site running and you encourage them to look at what they have to offer also works.
In fact, it is a more compelling endorsement than music that won't stop and a close button that you have to spend 5 minutes chasing around the screen before it stays still.