9 ms·

>"how does it affect our revenue?" Simple, you can serve a reasonable amount of unobtrusive ads and I and others might turn off adblock to support the publicat

by OptionX 6mo ago

>"how does it affect our revenue?" Simple, you can serve a reasonable amount of unobtrusive ads and I and others might turn off adblock to support the publication or you can do what you're doing, I'll keep it on and see no ads at all.

pineaux 6mo ago
Nobody is turning off ad blockers.
- b345 6mo ago
  I do. I have turned off UBlock Origin at the learnopengl site as well others where the ads are unobtrusive enough to not block the view completely or require several actions on my part to view the contents. It also helps that the content is not "SEO optimised" bullcrap.
- Defletter 6mo ago
  Yup, I keep mine enabled at all times. Anytime I've tried selectively disabling them, I get burnt with increasingly intrusive ads. I might be convinced to enable some kind of "ethical ads" filter that only permits ads are known to be unobtrusive and not track, but then you need to trust that whoever maintains that list wont succumb to incentives.
  - nkrisc 6mo ago
    I will never disable mine. I think back to when malware was served from ads on nytimes.com. If you let your guard down, someone will mess up and let malware through. Adblockers are security.
- benterix 6mo ago
  While I agree with you in general, I am one of the very few people who do it for the small amount of sites I support. This is not a smart decision from the technical point of view but it's been fine so far.
- michelb 6mo ago
  And PLENTY of people simply accept the ads everywhere.
- ZaoLahma 6mo ago
  Exactly we don't, and what's worse is that the "content" is getting to the point where we need _content_ blockers. I recently got hit by an "article" that promised to tell me which three AAA games would be released with PS Plus soon. A three point bullet list was all I wanted. Instead I got pages after pages of word-manure about nothing at all for reasons I don't even understand. At the end of it I still couldn't tell you which three games the article was supposed to tell me about. I foresee a bleak feature where we will deploy AI as "content blockers" to extract the useful content from the word-manure that is becoming the preferred way of working among internet "authors".
  - CorrectHorseBat 6mo ago
    I think we'll be soon at the point where articles are written by asking AI to extend a three point bullet list to 30 pages, and read by asking AI to summarize articles into a three point bullet list.
    - ZaoLahma 6mo ago
      This drives me nuts. It's been going on for years that a simple "if this, do that" deal is encoded in an overly elaborate 10 minute long YouTube video where at least 9 minutes of it is filler. You know, when you start skimming the comments to see if anyone bothered with summarizing it. AI amplifies the problem by making it easier to produce filler, but the problem is whatever metrics are behind the monetization. You need users to "engage" with your content for at least x amount of time to earn y amount of money, while instead the earnings should be relative to and directly derived from how useful the content is to how many users.
  - 542354234235 6mo ago
    > Instead I got pages after pages of word-manure about nothing at all for reasons I don't even understand. More writing means more space to shove ads in between every paragraph.
  - carlosjobim 6mo ago
    > I recently got hit by an "article" Exactly how did you "get hit" by an article? Did somebody hack your computer and pointed your browser to it? Or did somebody ambush you on your walk to work and show a magazine with the article into your face? If you seek out content from low quality sources, you get the low quality treatment. The only way for consumers to fight this is by paying for good quality content, which is often possible. Burger King isn't going to improve the quality of their burgers or service by customers complaining. They'll do something when they see customers going somewhere else.
- qrobit 6mo ago
  Mostly true, but I personally have it turned of for duckduckgo and it shows me some ads with [ad] label. Actually if you wanted to disable ads there, you wouldn't even need an ad blocker, there's toggle in the settings
- pastage 6mo ago
  Youtube is doing it though, and more site will follow. I need better AD blockers, but I do not see an easy way to block streaming, WASM and canvas.
- madeofpalk 6mo ago
  I guess the ship sailed a long time ago, but while no one is going to turn off their ad blocker, they could make people not use one in the first place.
jurgenburgen 6mo ago
How does that affect revenue? Do you have some data?
PunchyHamster 6mo ago
But it's PC Gamer, most of their stuff is trash, why would anyone pay for it?

by OptionX 6mo ago

pineaux 6mo ago

Nobody is turning off ad blockers.

b345 6mo ago
I do. I have turned off UBlock Origin at the learnopengl site as well others where the ads are unobtrusive enough to not block the view completely or require several actions on my part to view the contents. It also helps that the content is not "SEO optimised" bullcrap.
Defletter 6mo ago
Yup, I keep mine enabled at all times. Anytime I've tried selectively disabling them, I get burnt with increasingly intrusive ads. I might be convinced to enable some kind of "ethical ads" filter that only permits ads are known to be unobtrusive and not track, but then you need to trust that whoever maintains that list wont succumb to incentives.
- nkrisc 6mo ago
  I will never disable mine. I think back to when malware was served from ads on nytimes.com. If you let your guard down, someone will mess up and let malware through. Adblockers are security.
benterix 6mo ago
While I agree with you in general, I am one of the very few people who do it for the small amount of sites I support. This is not a smart decision from the technical point of view but it's been fine so far.
michelb 6mo ago
And PLENTY of people simply accept the ads everywhere.
ZaoLahma 6mo ago
Exactly we don't, and what's worse is that the "content" is getting to the point where we need _content_ blockers. I recently got hit by an "article" that promised to tell me which three AAA games would be released with PS Plus soon. A three point bullet list was all I wanted. Instead I got pages after pages of word-manure about nothing at all for reasons I don't even understand. At the end of it I still couldn't tell you which three games the article was supposed to tell me about. I foresee a bleak feature where we will deploy AI as "content blockers" to extract the useful content from the word-manure that is becoming the preferred way of working among internet "authors".
- CorrectHorseBat 6mo ago
  I think we'll be soon at the point where articles are written by asking AI to extend a three point bullet list to 30 pages, and read by asking AI to summarize articles into a three point bullet list.
  - ZaoLahma 6mo ago
    This drives me nuts. It's been going on for years that a simple "if this, do that" deal is encoded in an overly elaborate 10 minute long YouTube video where at least 9 minutes of it is filler. You know, when you start skimming the comments to see if anyone bothered with summarizing it. AI amplifies the problem by making it easier to produce filler, but the problem is whatever metrics are behind the monetization. You need users to "engage" with your content for at least x amount of time to earn y amount of money, while instead the earnings should be relative to and directly derived from how useful the content is to how many users.
- 542354234235 6mo ago
  > Instead I got pages after pages of word-manure about nothing at all for reasons I don't even understand. More writing means more space to shove ads in between every paragraph.
- carlosjobim 6mo ago
  > I recently got hit by an "article" Exactly how did you "get hit" by an article? Did somebody hack your computer and pointed your browser to it? Or did somebody ambush you on your walk to work and show a magazine with the article into your face? If you seek out content from low quality sources, you get the low quality treatment. The only way for consumers to fight this is by paying for good quality content, which is often possible. Burger King isn't going to improve the quality of their burgers or service by customers complaining. They'll do something when they see customers going somewhere else.
qrobit 6mo ago
Mostly true, but I personally have it turned of for duckduckgo and it shows me some ads with [ad] label. Actually if you wanted to disable ads there, you wouldn't even need an ad blocker, there's toggle in the settings
pastage 6mo ago
Youtube is doing it though, and more site will follow. I need better AD blockers, but I do not see an easy way to block streaming, WASM and canvas.
madeofpalk 6mo ago
I guess the ship sailed a long time ago, but while no one is going to turn off their ad blocker, they could make people not use one in the first place.

jurgenburgen 6mo ago

How does that affect revenue? Do you have some data?

PunchyHamster 6mo ago

But it's PC Gamer, most of their stuff is trash, why would anyone pay for it?