Disclaimer: I can’t stress enough the importance of ads for free online content. So, please be moderate with your adblock. Use it only on suspicious sites or sites that utilize annoying practices. One reason for more ads and paywalls is us. Maybe not the main reason, but some things depend on us. Keep the free Internet alive.
Let’s deal with it. Ads are not the core problem. The actual problem is how they are being used. No one would have a problem with non-intrusive ads and pop-ups. But this is not how it works when you want to read or watch something and ads are on the way. I mean, come on. Why should you make it so complicated? True story: I tried to find an article buried under tons of ads on one of the largest tech sites! Seriously, it was ads over ads. The reason is simple, though. The actual income is from click-on ads. And the masterminds think that more ads will bring more income. No, more ads, especially intrusive ones, will result in fewer visits or adblocks. And I don’t refer to malicious ads. These are also dangerous, but well-regarded sites are not utilizing these practices. At least willingly.
Adblocks are the most popular way to deal with ads. They are among the most downloaded extensions from the web stores. But this is not only a solution but a problem as well—no ads, no income, at least for the underdogs. So, just be moderate with where and why you use it. For security reasons, they are a vital solution. For any other reason, don’t overdo it. I will show you how to deal with spamming ad problems in this article. The rest is up to you, though. Knowledge is power, but power comes with responsibilities as well.
Adblocks
First of all, you will need an adblocker. The two most well-regarded are Ublock Origin and Adguard. I prefer Adguard. If you choose Adguard, enable these filters among the basic ones: Annoyances and Security/ Safety. If you want the best results, enable all these. Still, performance might be affected: Mobile Ads, Adguard Pop-up, Adblock Warning Removal, and Adguard DNS filters, and update them regularly along with the defaults, of course. Just don’t overdo it with filters. Performance is important.
Pop-up and Pop-under blockers
Adblockers are doing a great job of blocking ads. But there is a more annoying and sometimes riskier practice. Pop-ups and Pop-unders. For these, you will need a dedicated extension, the pop-up blocker. The best one I know and use personally is Pop-Up Blocker Strict. You don’t even need to mess with its settings. The default ones are all you will need. Please don’t use it on legitimate sites like your bank’s. Some trustworthy sites don’t play nicely with pop-up blockers. So, don’t have it enabled when you visit them.
Extras
If you want, you might install some extra-useful extensions. No-Script and Privacy Badger are popular, but I suggest security extensions such as the VirusTotal official extension or Bitdefender Trafficlight. I use the Adguard-PopUp Blocker Strict-Trafficlight combo. But if you know or need another extension, feel free. Just be cautious with the extensions you install. Some might be risky, so prefer well-regarded ones.
Epilogue
As mentioned, please don’t overdo it with extensions and adblocking. On legitimate sites or sites with content or creators you want to support, it is best to turn off your adblock. The best practice is to use them on suspicious sites that might be risky. Safety first. And a tip: turning off all extensions when you visit sensitive information sites such as your bank or your page is better. Extensions might be prone to exploits, and nothing is clear on privacy matters. So, just be sure to disable them or don’t have them enabled in private mode. Better safe than sorry. You can create a typical user account without admin rights and use it to surf. It is a good practice. As always, stay safe and stay in the know.
multipurpose content blocker is much more than just ad blocker, I use it to deal with various annoyances like in text intrusions or post text but pre comments nonsense
I probably could use additional userstyle extension for that and not block ads when they itself aren’t annoying, though uBO provides such a handy element picker, especially on mobile, I’d have to really go out of my way to do so
also, in most cases it affects websites I visit frequently, and in such case if I was interested in a specific article I have read it already, there’s n point making me scroll more just to show me your suggestions of things I either already read or am not interested in reading at all, if you really have to put them on the sidebar
Hello and thanx for your comment, but I am afraid that I can’t understand clearly what you mean. Do you think my article is unnecessary? If you can suggest sth better that I am not aware of, I’d love to hear your suggestions. Exchanging opinion is important.
I’m saying the self promotion blocks within the “main scrolling length” or however to call it are rarely useful for frequent visitors but are annoying them, just like here between the article content itself and the comments block there are suggested articles
I either read them already or am no interested in them so seeing that block brings me literally no benefit, but makes me scroll further to reach the comments
that’s the case when I grab my trustworthy element picker and add that block to my filters
and while more often than not I could use the generated selector, slap display: none on it and use it with userstyle extension it’s just more convenient to keep it within the multipurpose blocker, but that also forces me to keep the blocker active
on the other hand your sidebar is a bunch of ads that, luckily for you, are so non-intrusive they aren’t placed on any of my lists and neither automatically culled by the third party requests blocker so you’re likely getting something from them, though the google mess *is* cut off (and will be, it’s invasive and heavyweight, just a waste of resources, honestly I don’t think using google ads or analytics on a site targeted at tech aware people has a big chance of success anyway)
Ah, now I get it. You dont refer to the article, but the organization of the content. I have to be honest, we never had negative feedback for this. But we are taking seriously any feedback. I will discuss it with Aris and see what we can do. Thanx for your input.
I’m pretty sure even amongst people who like to complain I’m one of the ones who do it the most, I’m extremely picky about my software and devices and put a lot of effort into setting things up optimally for my flow so even the smallest hiccups can annoy the hell out of me
though without proper trigger I wouldn’t raise that feedback either, but once we’re talking about adblockers and how ads are needed (and they are! when done right, like the sidebar here) I just had to mention that the same tool blocking (annoying) ads may be used to clean up the layout of other annoyances too
now I’m looking at this site on my mobile where I haven’t blocked that block yet and it takes like 90% of my screens height
and that’s with both my text and screen size set to minimim in system settings and on a browser that actually respects these settings (Fenix, most of Chromium based ones render text bigger)
with out of the box android that’d likely be over a screen height, that’s certainly a bother, but probably not enough to make anyone mention it to you