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Comment by dlikhten | Hacker News Reader

My thought is: If you can't afford me blocking ads then do one of two things:

1) No flashing ads. No flash ads (cpu time is mine!) No ads that blur content with ads. And I will turn off ad blocking on your site. If ads have sound and I can't block it I will never visit the site. This is why arstechnica has ads turned off for me, autoplaying video and sound.

BTW I will not turn off blocking of the +1 button or Like or whatever. I just don't wanna be tracked.

2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would.

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Definitely agree with that. Although I would add a personal #3.

3) I've been using the internet since 1990 and how many items have I purchased from an ad? 0.

You may have unwittingly purchased an item because somebody else purchased it after seeing it on an Internet ad though...

> 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would.

You might. 99% of the population would not.

1) The industry is finally realizing that a massive amount of people got pissed by flashing display ads. Up to 14% of the online population uses an ad blocker (much more on HN :). Last month, the IAB published their new guidelines, including max CPU usage for Flash banners: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676... I'm working on a product that helps publishers verify that CPU usage from ads served on their site does not exceed their specs, http://www.clarityad.com Adobe is also investing in this, with their project Adthenticate http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/adthenticate/

"Up to 14% of the online population uses an ad blocker"

I would bet you anything that far more of the general population would use ad blockers if they knew ad blockers existed, and if installation and use of an ad blocker could be made very simple and understandable to them.

My suspicion as well. I was talking to my boss yesterday about the results of this poll, and he had no idea there were addons for blocking advertising.

And, being the contrarian he is, he didn't install one after I told him how to find them on the intertubes. Go figure. :-)

> 2) Don't give free content. Make me pay for it. If I like it I would.

Nice in theory, but there are many markets where only 1 company will win, and it WILL be the ad-supported model. That's just how the math works.

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