Can you give a couple of examples of how you feel it is arbitrary?

And you are not really giving any "benefit of the doubt" by calling them scammers straight out, are ya?

While I see your point on the Acceptable Ads shakedown, the reason I chose Adblock Plus was because of the Flattr Plus integration, which seems like the first attempt to really fix things (ie sites that let you block ads in return for a Flattr micropayment). I avoided using an ad-blocker (and generally viewed people who used them as selfish cheapskates) until ads became a malware vector. ABP with Flattr Plus seemed the best alternative to block ads & protect my computer but still ensure publishers are compensated.

Incidentally, thanks for posting, even though it incurred a karma hit for you - good to hear both sides. HN has too much groupthink sometimes.

>aside from the fact that less than 2% of users actually do this

Source?

I'm personally okay with non-annoying ads, and ABP works for me with zero effort from my end. Do you have alternative recommendations that do something similar to ABP?