back to article Swedish publishers plan summer ‘Block Party’ to thwart ad blockers

Swedish publishers will mount an aggressive counter-offensive against ad blocking software later this year. “80 to 90 per cent” of publishers will simultaneously block the ad blockers for the month of August. It’s the first nationwide action of its kind. “Yes, we know this could be naïve, and we know this will be complicated …

Page:

  1. s. pam Silver badge
    Megaphone

    I dumped AdBlock

    And switched to uBlock Origin which has far more controls, and was FAR more efficient. Either version of AdBlock was starting to leak content into my eyes and my testing of uBlock tells me they've worked out a secret-sauce that's a winner.

    1. TheVogon

      Re: I dumped AdBlock

      Defeating the Adblock detection is pretty easy:

      Just press F12 in IE to enable developer mode, select the Network tab and press the green Enable button to start capturing traffic. Then look for blocked call back scripts, etc and just unblock those very specific URLs....

      1. fung0

        Re: I dumped AdBlock

        "Then look for blocked call back scripts, etc and just unblock those very specific URLs...."

        Do advertisers think there's any scenario in which I agree to run their malware-laden software on my computer? If JavaScript were not ubiquitous, the Web would actually be a safe place. Even in some dream world where I was willing to give up uBlock Origin, NoScript would remain firmly in place.

        In any case, I've been saying for literally decades (since the beginning of the Web, in fact) that advertisers need an ironclad Code of Conduct, for their own protection. The backlash has been a long time coming, but it's not going to be postponed much longer.

        Advertisers have been spoiled by decades of TV and radio, where they play to a captive audience, and enjoy the luxury of forcibly shoving their stinking pile of dog feces in users' faces. Now the shoe is on the other foot: users have the control. Advertisers need to grow up, realize their old business model is obsolete - and decide whether they want to become obsolete with it.

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: I dumped AdBlock

        Yeah, in the arms race of blockers vs. blocker blockers (sounds like some kind of challenge from "The Double Deckers") I know who I'd put my money on.

      3. Oh Matron!

        Re: I dumped AdBlock

        Or use a HOSTS file. No ad blocking software needed and works on all apps at the same time

        1. Mark 85

          Re: I dumped AdBlock

          I've been using this one: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ It works pretty well. However, my AV screams at me that it's "unsafe". Bah.... it works and nothing nasty has ever come down the pipe with it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I dumped AdBlock

      I accidently installed AdBlock instead of ABP once, that was a weird couple of hours. May jump to this ublock origin people are talking about.

      But does anyone use AdBlock on purpose anymore as opposed to by accident when they think they installed ABP? They're a pretty minor player in the ad blocking market.

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Blocking the blockers is trivial

    Just publish ads yourself server side.

    1. TheVogon

      Re: Blocking the blockers is trivial

      "Just publish ads yourself server side."

      But adverts for yourself on your own site don't pay well. Most websites want to use advert networks - which require externally hosted content...

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Blocking the blockers is trivial

        But adverts for yourself on your own site don't pay well. Most websites want to use advert networks - which require externally hosted content...

        They still can: the ads get served async from the server from the content server. Gives the content-owner more power and takes the tracking problems out of the equation. This is the real value of the ad networks: they know that I also visit the website of the over-80's nude leapfrog team… Though because they only run collaborative filtering this actually adds little value: you book a holiday and subsequently see lots of ads for holidays.

        No, the real threat is the move towards the private internet of Facebook's "instant articles" et al. :-(

        Good article about this on The Awl.

        1. TheVogon

          Re: Blocking the blockers is trivial

          "the ads get served async from the server from the content server"

          Which will show on the advert network as zero page views then. Or maybe one view when you make the copy....Or do you actually think they would trust website owners to tell them how many times the advert was viewed?!

          1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

            Re: Blocking the blockers is trivial

            Or do you actually think they would trust website owners to tell them how many times the advert was viewed?!

            The relevant lines from the logfiles can easily be provided for verification.

    2. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Blocking the blockers is trivial

      Not really true, as there's "element hiding helper" for Adblock+, which makes it easy to hide anything you can make a regexp for. Since folks tend to do things like name their DIVs "TopAdHeaderBlock" then you can hide that.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    "ask for the blocker to be disabled"...

    How about never ?

    All this will accomplish is a huge drop in traffic to their websites...

    1. Fibbles

      Playing Devil's advocate...

      Why should the publishers care about losing page visits from users who aren't "paying" by viewing ads?

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Playing Devil's advocate...

        Why should the publishers care about losing page visits from users who aren't "paying" by viewing ads?

        Because they still need to have lots of visitors to be interesting for advertisers.

      2. DavCrav

        Re: Playing Devil's advocate...

        "Why should the publishers care about losing page visits from users who aren't "paying" by viewing ads?"

        The same reason that Microsoft didn't really go after piracy: once you become some tiny back-water news website, you don't have any influence. And many newspapers, being loss-making enterprises, value influence above profitability.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "ask for the blocker to be disabled"...

      It will be like power cuts. You suddenly find there are lots of other enjoyable things you can do with that time.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's not Ads you want to block

    It's Javascript.

    I use scriptblock app for chrome and wow. It's like taking lead weights off your feet!

    Forget about ad's it's how most sites these sites generate revenue. Click the ads if you like the site!

  5. Ole Juul

    Thanks!

    “80 to 90 per cent” of publishers will simultaneously block the ad blockers for the month of August.

    Your self censoring is commendable. Anybody who doesn't have their blocker yet, uBlock Origin is a good one.

  6. Brenda McViking
    Thumb Down

    Good Luck

    I wish them good luck, and will be hoping that they realise how much of disaster blocking the blockers turns out to be.

    Ads are an enormous parasitic drain on the internet. Blocking them is fast becoming mandatory for anyone who gives a shit about security and any semblance of privacy, and the ad companies only have themselves to blame.

    Whilst online "content" needs to be paid for somehow, it doesn't mean we should allow consumers up to be mugged. Publishers need to find some middle ground, demanding that people stop using security software is never going to work. They seem to like adding "share to facebook" buttons everywhere, but never seem to have made the step to micropayments services like flattr, produced by those very same bad people who ran the pirate bay. I'll happily give you a few pence per article, but I'll boycott you if you penalise me for using an adblocker.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Good Luck

      It's time for a "payments API".

    2. Steve Crook

      Re: Good Luck

      As a general thing, if that's what they want to do, then they can say goodbye to any visits to their sites for a month and, once I can do without them for a month, I can do without them at all...

      Was that the intent?

      1. Michael Thibault

        Re: Good Luck

        >The number of Britons who use ad blocking software has risen from 15 per cent last July to 22 per cent

        Assume that this statistic is generalisable to the west, or even just Europe, which is where those publishers do business. The implication is that there are fully four months in which to get that number up--way up.

        The 'adverts-pay-for-content' argument needs to be run into the ground, where it belongs, as it's bullshit. If every business has fully to pay the freight of their on-line publishing/web presence, it becomes a universal fixed-overhead item. At the margin, there will be an effort, in every case, to minimise costs while maximising effect/reach/reaction/buzz. Sucking up that reality could well make for lean, clean, gracefully-degrading sites served from servers in direct control of the publishers. Competition is supposed to be an incentive to excel--so the articles of the faith suggest. So: stop feeding the parasite of the on-line advertising industry, and compete with your content!

  7. James 29

    I'd love to turn off ad blocking

    However sites, including El Reg, cause the page to slow down so much with video/animated ads

    Reasonable ads please, then more of us wont be forced to block them!

    1. VinceH

      Re: I'd love to turn off ad blocking

      "Reasonable ads please, then more of us wont be forced to block them!"

      Indeed. That sentiment is why I'm glad I wasn't partaking of any coffee when I read this bit in the article:

      '“Yes, we know this could be naïve, and we know this will be complicated,” Daniel Weilar of Nyheter24, an entertainment and news site. But Weilar thinks its preferable to the “protection racket” model of paying off the ad block software companies, he told Digiday.'

      They haven't even considered the possibility of just making their advertising more reasonable - which to me means just static banners (no video, no audio) that don't require Javascript.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'd love to turn off ad blocking

      Irony of ironies. This page has an ad at the top for some sort of network analyser. It has a picture of a Nosferatu type character and the line "Find out who is sucking all the bandwidth"...

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: I'd love to turn off ad blocking

        "This page has an ad at the top for some sort of network analyser."

        Who'd have guessed?

    3. keithpeter Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: I'd love to turn off ad blocking

      "However sites, including El Reg, cause the page to slow down so much with video/animated ads"

      Try just using a hosts file that redirects most of the algorithmic ad servers to nowhere. There are various ones around, google something like "hosts file to block ad servers" and you will find the first few (non-advert!) suggestions of interest.

      I find this makes firefox on a core-duo laptop under linux usable with full content rendition - no lags on scrolling except for embedded (content) videos &c while still allowing 'organic' ads from the actual servers that are serving the pages.

      Just my compromise in a difficult area. I agree fully with the sentiment conveyed by the second sentence of your post!

    4. find users who cut cat tail

      Re: I'd love to turn off ad blocking

      Ads? After one of the epilepsy-inducing flashing images at the top of the article, I even started blocking regmedia.co.uk. And the site looks much better now.

  8. Duncan Macdonald

    How many of the publishers will go bust ?

    All that this action will do will be to reduce (probably permanently) their number of viewers and drive traffic to those companies that do not participate in this stupid action.

    With the current state of the internet, ad blocking and javascript blocking and removal of Adobe Flash has become as essential as a good antivirus package. Without the blockers, a new virus can get on your PC during the period between the new version emerging and the antivirus package having updated detection rules.

    (If the threats get much worse then I may resort to only web browsing from a VM with Linux running from a virtual DVD.)

    1. Kevin 6

      Re: How many of the publishers will go bust ?

      "With the current state of the internet, ad blocking and javascript blocking and removal of Adobe Flash has become as essential as a good antivirus package."

      Actually I'd say ad, and Javascript blocking is 1000X more important then any crap antivirus(which are usually worst then the actual viruses) mainly because if you block those 2, don't download any software from dodgy sites, and use thumb drives in public PC's there is almost no chance to actually get a virus.

  9. Paul Webb

    'The End of Free'

    If ad blocking software is being discussed on Radio 4 then is it now 'mainstream'?

    'The End of Free'

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072j3g6

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 'The End of Free'

      as mainstream as in "how many adblockers can you fit into an olympic-sized swimming pool".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 'The End of Free'

      ironically, "You must enable JavaScript to play content". Well, no.

      1. -maniax-

        Re: 'The End of Free'

        Try downloading the mp3 version instead

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads

    3. Known Hero

      Re: 'The End of Free'

      I dunno man, I host a bunch of websites for people out of my own pocket. I dont need to advertise on them. Its a service I am providing.....

      Piss off with the free or nothing campaign, It's not that expensive to host a website. A few games sites that I go to rack in over 3k per month in donations, also not 1 ad in sight !!

      The main issue these people have is that people are not prepared to pay for 90% of the content out there. They will look at it if it is free, but actually pay for it ..... Not a chance.

      Ad blocks will only weed out the crap sites that rely on forcing ads in your face. And good bloody riddance !

    4. Boothy

      Re: 'The End of Free'

      Interesting listen. Thanks for the heads up.

      1. GregC

        Re: 'The End of Free'

        Interesting listen. Thanks for the heads up.

        Yep, I'll second that for sure. Most interesting to hear that even the journos most likely to be disadvantaged by ad blocking feel they have to use blockers to get a usable internet.

  10. Anonymous Custard

    Fix the root cause, not the symptoms?

    It's so disheartening to see all this kind of merri-go-round trying to fix the symptom of the problem (that ad-blockers exist and are used by so many people) rather than the actual root problem itself (that these days too many of the ads are unacceptable to end users in what they demand of system bandwidth and how they look, operate and what they open the end user up to in terms of malware etc in some cases).

    All that'll happen is end users will get pissed off with said Swedish publishers, and many will just go elsewhere for what they were after and probably a fair proportion won't come back again afterwards.

    Whereas if the ads were plain, simple and without all the scripting junk behind it, I'm sure many users would be happy to accept them as a trade-off for being able to access the sites for free, and everyone (except maybe the ad-block suppliers) win.

    Or am I looking at this too logically from being an engineer and troubleshooter?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fix the root cause, not the symptoms?

      Its a good experiment in a small country - with that large of an uptake you'd expect enough people to be inconvenienced that they can get some good metrics for how many people disable their ad block to view content versus just going elsewhere. If you want news about Sweden, where else you gonna go?

      The issue is people who are looking for more general Euro or world news have many many other options, especially in a country where everyone learns English. I think blocking the blockers might work better in countries that don't speak a major language spoken in many countries like English or Spanish. That would provide more of a captive audience who would have no choice to go elsewhere for their content.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Fix the root cause, not the symptoms?

        If you want news about Sweden, where else you gonna go?

        <BlueMeanie name="Max">Argentina?</BlueMeanie>

        Sorry, can't help myself sometimes....

  11. MiniVan

    If ads from sites where not so shit, who's needs an ad blocker... Beat the blockers at there own game...serve ads your users don't mind seeing,

  12. AegisPrime
    Facepalm

    Silly Swedes

    They're getting the wrong message here - Eyeo's 'protection racket' will be their own undoing since many users are advocating uBlock Origin as a superior alternative to AdBlock Plus' 'acceptable' ads.

    Fighting back against AdBlock's questionable policies is fiddling whilst Rome burns...

  13. Wade Burchette

    They don't understand

    While I disagree with the adblock plus "protection racket", these publishers are going about it the wrong way. They still don't understand why people use adblockers. For most, it is not because they don't want to see ads. They are annoyed with pop-up/pop-unders, tracking with ads, obtrusive ads, auto-playing videos, ads that attempt to learn your physical location, and ads that deliver malware or redirect your browser to scam websites.

    If publishers want people to turn off adblockers, return the advertising model to the days when the internet first became a necessity of life, the days when the above rules were the de-facto standard. Until then, no matter what step you take, adblockers will just keep growing.

    1. GregC

      Re: They don't understand

      Pretty much spot on, but with one small adjustment for me. This part:

      For most, it is not because they don't want to see ads.

      Is not true, at least in my case. In an ideal world I don't want to see any ads, ever. However - I am happy to put up with unobtrusive, sensible ads in exchange for a free service, for those sites I am a regular visitor to and user of. Unless and until this type of ad replaces the aggressive, obtrusive and downright annoying stuff that is currently the norm I reserve the right to block ads, aggressively.

    2. John Lilburne

      Re: They don't understand

      "If publishers want people to turn off adblockers, return the advertising model to the days when the internet first became a necessity of life, the days when the above rules were the de-facto standard."

      Well back in the early 2000s I was running this

      http://proxomitron.info/45/help/Contents.html

      because ads have always been a problem on the web.

      1. Jan 0 Silver badge
        Pint

        Time to hit kickstarter?

        All Hail the Proxomitron! We need you!

      2. fung0

        Re: They don't understand

        Proxomitron! Does that bring back memories... Wonderful little piece of software, provided almost too much control.

    3. Grikath

      Re: They don't understand

      Of course they don't understand, and neither do most people..

      The magazine publishing earning model, even in the dead-tree era, was never about articles, it was about selling ad-space. The articles were purely to create the vehicle to sell that ad-space. With the shift to internet, that earning model has not changed for the majority of publishers. They switched medium, but not their earning model.

      So, no, they wouldn't understand... They're still stuck in an economic model that was already failing 3-4 decades ago, and have failed to evolve.

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon