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[Sonlirain]

People hate ads because they often reflect what they browse and people don't like seeing the reflection.
I really despise ad blocker for making most of the internet traffic worthless for revenue.
A worse still people at large treat it as something amazingly positive despite the most likely negative long term effect where ads on the internet stop being profitable and the only source of revenue a small time content creator can hope for would be patreon and begging for donations (because now he won't be able to buy a hot dog for ad money much less live off it unless he has hundreds of thousands of regular viewers).

Not to mention that it promotes the rich getting richer scheme. Large sites and already popular people like IGN, Pewdiepie, RPS, and loads more can just get sponsorships or slap an in video ad adblocker won't catch.

And the less popular chaps?
Well they can have a patreon and maybe someone will give them free money if what they do is worthwhile.
Assuming anyone knows about them first that is.

And meanwhile Adblocker plus basically extorts advertising agencies for thick wads of cash.

Of course the average netizen does not care because not seeing ads is beneficial to them right now so why bother how the internet will look in 10 or so years.

[hops]

I like Youtube ads. Banner ads are uninteresting.

[Criptfeind]

I mean. I like the theory of adds, but the reality of them, especially before add blocker, just wasn't worth it. Sure, they could be a very cool and important part of the internet economy, but I'd rather not have them at all if they are going to be bandwidth eating loud obnoxious virus spreading cancer. Which is exactly what a lot of ads are. If I have to choose between those worlds, I'll choose the one without ads. Obviously an in between solution is better, but to be honest I find it more likely we find that between solution with the power in the hands of the users then in the hands of advertising corporations.

[scrdest]

It's a sort of happy and sad so I'm planting it here.

Seems I've not got my first choice of uni, but on the bright side I've definitely got my backup. And who knows, my grades may change when the board gets them or my first choice may go into clearing and accept me.

I know someone at my uni who got as far as getting the student's ID and attending the opening ceremony in her secondary choice when she learned she got accepted here. Different system probably, but still...

[Flying Dice]

If ads were noninvasive and benign, I might be okay letting them through. But they ain't.

[scrdest]

If ads were noninvasive and benign (...).

Your word choice here makes ads sound like literal cancer .

[miauw62]

I agree with Cript and FD. Ads have the potential to be okay, but instead theyre obnoxious, loud, a security risk and a privacy concern. I'll stick with adblockers.

Also,

[Shook]

For the most part i don't mind ads, and i can totally understand why sites would host them, and i often do listen to their appeals and turn off my adblocker for that site. I don't even care much about what they're showing as long as it's not explicit (it's not like i ever click them anyways), so why do i have uBlock installed? Simple: Noisy ads. The ones that make sound, especially automatic ones. At some point i'll have to try and see if they're gone for good, and if they are, great, i'll let the sites have their ad revenue because it's not like it hurts my experience. However, it bothers me intensely to suddenly have sounds playing in my headphones that i didn't approve of, especially when i'm listening to other things, be it music, games, videos or whatever. I suppose i could be doing a blacklist approach instead of a whitelist one, of course, since that wouldn't hurt sites that don't host noisy ads. I don't think that's too unfair, unless sites have absolutely no control over which ads get hosted, in which case it's unfair that they don't.

Also, as Cript says, viruses are a concern that needs addressing. Bandwidth isn't a problem for me, but i can see it being a problem for those who don't have the luxury of unlimited bandwidth, especially if the ad designers are being slobs with their bandwidth usage. If the advertisers want more views, they need to stop letting those kinds of ads through, because that's what makes people install adblockers.

[hops]

To expand on my unpopular opinion, I feel that ads should strive to be more like (well, actually better than) Youtube ads. So far, Youtube ads are entertaining little videos that, if you watch, tend to be because you are intrigued by their introduction. Of course, the reality is that sometimes you're forced to sit through some life insurance tear-jerking garbage that you don't care about, and arguably it's invasive.

But, it's already better than TV ads, since you can skip the damned things sometimes. I just wish we could take it the whole way and make it so that the advertising industry can run on voluntary viewings only.

Though I kind of wish that there were product curators stepping in for the promotion of services and goods rather than a need for adverts.

I mean, the sort of ads that bother me are the shitty iOS game ads that look obviously cobbled together in a minute.

[TempAcc]

You can have non intrusive and non visually polluting ads. Lots of websites, including even wiki type things have ads that aren't terribly intrusive. Youtube ads aren't bad either, IMO. I mostly just use adblock because there are some websites which like to use pseudo popup type ads and flashing gif type ads, which can give me a headache. Hell, I even enjoy some ads! I keep seeing ads for this one electronics store I browse through often, and it shows me a series of laptops and their respective prices, allowing me to track price changes and go directly to each individual laptop's sales page by clicking on it. Its pretty damn useful, actualy.

This is exactly why I specifically turn off adblock on websites to check if their ads aren't terrible. If they aren't, I just leave it off. If the website cares to ask me to turn adblock off, then I do it, check the ads, and leave it off if it doesnt make browsing unbearable. I do this on lparchive, for example.

[hops]

My point is, though, that I really don't care for banners at all. Sure, they might work in magazines if they were an entire page with their own infographics and testimonies, but not online. I'm too busy reading words to look at gaudy pictures.

[Flying Dice]

I don't mind simple still-image banners in out-of-the-way places, But typically they get used to shunt content around, are mixed in with bandwidth-leeching HTML5 video ads, &c.

[Frumple]

Youtube ads are actually probably my least favorite internet advertisement... and I was active on the 'net for most of the 90s. They're basically TV commercials on my computer, and TV commercials are about 90% of the reason I haven't owned a TV for around a decade. On top of that, they're noisy, jarring, and most damning of all, slow. Most 'net advertisement is annoying; youtube video ads are obstructing, and that nonsense can get buggered. If I wanted to deal with that shit, I'd be sitting through TV commercials.

I was actually running sans adblock for most of my life... right up until a year or three ago when I started actually watching YT vids with any regularity. Between those and the advent of HTML5 animated banner ads (cpu wrecking pieces of shit) that started regularly popping up at some point during that period, I've started using it. I can't see that stopping at this point. I could deal with pop-up Windows and shit. Today's noise can go screw itself.

[scriver]

I agree with Cript and FD. Ads have the potential to be okay, but instead theyre obnoxious, loud, a security risk and a privacy concern. I'll stick with adblockers.

Also,

I don't really understand what this means but the red colour tells me it's scary and bad.

[miauw62]

that's the path that an ad travels to your computer, and iirc most of those bubbles have their own companies. with this many middlemen, not that much revenue makes it to the website.

i'd personally be much more okay with ads if their content was based on the content im watching instead of a profile of me.