[amaurose]

Who defines what is culturally OK? I ask because in my book, using an ad blocker regularily is worse then skipping the occasional public transport ticket. I don't even know why. But I definitely dont give ad blcoker people that much slack. If you want the ads gone, PAY or stop using the service. Hiring a virtual bodyguard to bully your way through cyberspace is somehow weird to me.

[BLKNSLVR]

I use an ad-blocker for blocking the ads, but also blocking the potential feed of malware and viruses and various other electronic parasites that go along with the online advertising industry.

If it was clear cool water, I'd be much more OK with it. But it's a steaming, bubbling, toxic, green/brown lumpy sludge that I refuse to let near my network.

I also don't think the green/brown lumpy sludge should be foisted upon the poor, but there are some rich folk that seem to have decided that it's OK to do so, and, confusingly-but-maybe-obviously, there ain't no government that's even tried to say that maybe that's not OK.

The FBI has even recommended the use of ad blockers to improve online safety.

https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-recommends-ad-blockers-cybe...

And the NSA and CIA seem to agree

https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-nsa-and-cia-use-ad-block...

Not using an ad-blocker is no longer an option for me. After experiencing the web with one, browsing without one makes me want to never browse again.

[oneeyedpigeon]

> If you want the ads gone, PAY or stop using the service.

Paying is not always an option and, when it is, it's often ridiculously overpriced. Websites send me their ads, I choose not to look at them. Should I somehow be forced to consume adverts on television, prevented from leaving the room or muting the sound?

I would have more sympathy if there were no alternative, but there's a very easy one where everyone wins: static ads. I won't block those and I can't block them!

[Timwi]

> Who defines what is culturally OK?

I define what's OK to me. I am able (and legally allowed) to choose what my browser displays to me, so I use browser extensions to control my (and only my) experience of the web. I do not hurt anybody and I do not impinge on anyone's rights. I resent attempts at moral preaching aimed to make me feel guilty, especially when it's in defense of powerful entities that I find reprehensible and who do impinge on my life in ways that I object to.

My local bus company does not do that.

[prmoustache]

Ads are aggressions, not an entry ticket. The proof is that even paywalled service still serve ads. And the whole point of that blog post was to talk about ads served to paying users. Apparently some people just want to comment without actually knowing what they are talking about.

Hiring a bodyguard seems like the right solution if you are regularly at risk of aggression.

[int_19h]

Society collectively decides what is culturally okay.

If ad blocker use is widespread and most people don't see a problem with it even if they don't use one themselves, it is culturally okay.

[k__]

Because privacy