ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Go to this website if you want to opt out of online advertising.
I have been finding that a lot of websites take for ages to completely download, and it's because of all the interconnected ads software that places ads in the sidebars.
I was also getting really annoyed with some of the ads because they were clearly linked to something I had searched for on Google but was no longer interested in.
I think you may need to revisit this site regularly, because in the space of only 24 hours I found that another two companies were tracking my searches. Unfortunately, it's all hidden in those terms and conditions we have to sign-up to everytime we make an online purchase etc.
Graham
Problem with encouraging users to turn off the advert is that that 99% of websites are free and are free as they run the ads. They can only run ads if they (as a website) can deliver a certain number of impressions.
A lot of users simply expect everything on the internet to be free, yet don't want to put up with the adverts (that allows those web pages to be provided for free). It's like saying that you want a newspaper for free, plus no adverts either.
It's too easy not to think through the costs involved with hosting, maintaining and providing websites on the internet. There are a lot of people out there that think that by paying their subscription to their ISP, they are somehow funding the internet, too :(
This is not a rant at yourself Graham, I'm talking generally here. As a provider of various websites (and forums), you won't believe how many people ask us to get rid of the ads, or use ad blockers, but then expect the site to be free too.
On my laptop I have the Adblock Plus addon for firefox which stops nearly everything. I have disabled it for Beoworld though.
Whilst I agree with Moxxey that advertising is necessary to fund some websites the ads themselves are resource hungry and over the top, some even overpowering the site itself. If they were kept to non flash simpler versions like here on Beoworld the need for these addons wouldn't be an issue.
If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
Points accepted Moxxey!
It is a fact, though, that some sites carry so many ads that you don't get a proper web page download until the slowest ad site has posted its ad. And worst of all, I don't want a new bathroom every month!
vikinger: Points accepted Moxxey! It is a fact, though, that some sites carry so many ads that you don't get a proper web page download until the slowest ad site has posted its ad. And worst of all, I don't want a new bathroom every month!
They definitely slow down web pages, I agree. Particularly flash ads. Problem is, unless we can get people to pay a small fee to "subscribe" to a website, ads are a necessity. But I also note that more and more users are using ad blocking extensions to kill ads.
It will be interesting to see how websites change in the future. Many sites are put up free of charge as they are subsidised in other ways. For example, the Daily Mail regard the sales of their paper as strong enough to justify a free website. However, as the balance shifts from paper to website, they may change their mind. Same with magazine publishers (like us) who put their content on their site for free. I won't list a website as an example, but one of our AV magazines puts all their reviews live on their website before it's printed in the magazine. It's not working though - they are selling fewer mags if anything.
Stonk: On my laptop I have the Adblock Plus addon for firefox which stops nearly everything. I have disabled it for Beoworld though. Whilst I agree with Moxxey that advertising is necessary to fund some websites the ads themselves are resource hungry and over the top, some even overpowering the site itself. If they were kept to non flash simpler versions like here on Beoworld the need for these addons wouldn't be an issue.
Thanks Stonk. I have now done the same.
The opt-out site I provided the link for is not, in practice, too effective. I have a tendency to keep too many windows open, and so my computer eventually gets overwhelmed with all this crap downloading and slowing everything up. I've just gone back to that site again, and after only 24 hours it had identified another 33 advertising sites linking to my PC (Mac).
The adblock site seems to work quite well: if you want to see an ad where there is now a blank space you can click on it and you automatically get an adblock page option to make an exception so that you can see ads on that page.