[themistocle]

Individual choices are insignificant. The future of advertising is being planned by Facebook and Google. Blocking advertisments is a workaround for a broken web. Surfing the web has always been about discovery. Are we supposed to intuit whether or not to visit a site for the first time based on how we predict it will align to some kind of ad rubric? The fact that many websites have bad business models is noone’s fault but their own. In fact, tools like AdNauseum[0] show how broken this moralistic consumer thinking is:

Block all ads?

> That’s robbing sites of needed advertising click-dollars!

Click all ads?

> That’s robbing advertising companies of needed attention!

This is totalitarian capitalism: it’s not good enough to accept being tracked everywhere, spied on, and burdened with processing advertising. Not good enough even to click every ad. You must love the ads in your heart. It’s your duty, citizen!

0. https://adnauseam.io/

[BoorishBears]

I think you’re playing up a false dichotomy here.

Block all the ads?

That’s robbing sites of needed dollars.

Click all the ads?

That’s robbing advertisers of needed dollars.

The end game in both cases is ads become worth less, or worthless. It doesn’t matter which side of the scale you tip to cause that.

It’s so easy to understand what’s wrong with AdNauseam if you look into the spirit of the tool. The problem isn’t clicking every ad, it’s clicking every ad with the intent to throw a wrench in advertising.

If it worked well enough the end result would just be ads are worthless and sites lose money, just like if you block their ads.

[themistocle]

You seem intelligent and I don’t mean this as an insult, but I think you’re missing the point.

To use an inexact metaphor, if I am selling gas no one is obligated to fill up at my station. Fuel efficient cars are not “robbing” me. People who take public transit are not ripping me off. My job as a businessman is to make money. Consumers owe nothing to me. If the gas I sell is leaded and no one wants to buy it, I have no right to complain.

If I cut out every ad from my copy of the yellow pages no one has a right to complain. Adblocking is no different.

Advertising has to wake up.