The Only "Please Remove Adblocker" That Hasn't Made Me Hate That Company

[ANR]

This was at the top of my screen when I hit Fastlane Forum today.

The non-intrusive nature of the request and the fact that it was genuine - not a content blocking fake 'request' - made me WANT to turn the adblock off.

Usually when I hit an article on Forbes I get blocked from seeing it and now I actually have a hatred for Forbes.


What is the psychology behind these big companies alienating what I guess to be a vast majority of ad-blocking users for the sake of a small revenue gain from the ones that turn it off?


Also has anyone got any more things a company does that alienates users? Would be good to get a checklist going of things to avoid.

A

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

Same thing as movie piracy.

People who would have never paid to see a movie, saw movie, and then talked about it online. Thus generating buzz and free press around the subject.

Investors however see it as, 100,000 illegally downloaded movie X, causing Studio Y to lose $40,000,000 in revenue.

(See Game of Thrones)

However, if you say you're OK with piracy, b/c it gets people talking, then does that make piracy OK? If so are more people then going to do it?

There's a balance somewhere in there, and not all companies get it right.

 

[MitchC]

On this subject, how come I see ads when I’m logged in on mobile but I am an INSIDERS? I thought it removed ads to pay for INSIDERS or am I mistaken?

 

[jon.a]

On this subject, how come I see ads when I’m logged in on mobile but I am an INSIDERS? I thought it removed ads to pay for INSIDERS or am I mistaken?

I wondered the same thing, on my PC. They're at the bottom so not much of a deal.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

On this subject, how come I see ads when I’m logged in on mobile but I am an INSIDERS? I thought it removed ads to pay for INSIDERS or am I mistaken?

You mean these? This is the only thing close to an "ad" an INSIDERS should see.



This is supposed to be populated with content from Fastlane (not ads) but Google does pop in an ad in one of the boxes so it would seem.

 

[jon.a]

You mean these? This is the only thing close to an "ad" an INSIDERS should see.

View attachment 20408

This is supposed to be populated with content from Fastlane (not ads) but Google does pop in an ad in one of the boxes so it would seem.

Yup, those. I didn't really look at them. I just dropped my ad block to remove the annoying reminder.

 

[Danny Sullivan]

Hm. Although i have set the Ad-Blocker for the fastlane forum to "off" very early - and it's still off - i get this message since today? Anyone having the same "problem"? It's AdBlock Plus.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Yup, those. I didn't really look at them.

I'll see if I can remove them, even with the 1 ad, it shouldn't be there.

It's AdBlock Plus.

I have the same Ad-blocker. Disable for entire site. INSIDERS should NOT see ads anyway, despite this message. The message is for non-INSIDERS.

 

[Danny Sullivan]

Must be Firefox. If i do the same thing in Chrome the header is gone. Weird. I'll just ignore it. Thanks for the reply MJ.

 

[GoGetter24]

If the forum just supported bitcoin as a payment method I'm sure the revenue for upgrades would double. If people were happy unveiling themselves online, they'd be using a facebook group. They use forums as a shield against that -- anonymous subject matter based social grouping and judgement.

Paying with a credit card or paypal breaches that, but bitcoin would be consistent with it. Hell, it'd be one of the few real world valuable use cases for it, and even on an online forum that eagerly supports it you can't pay for upgrades with it. Says it all.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

On this subject, how come I see ads when I’m logged in on mobile but I am an INSIDERS? I thought it removed ads to pay for INSIDERS or am I mistaken?

I wondered the same thing, on my PC. They're at the bottom so not much of a deal.

You mean these? This is the only thing close to an "ad" an INSIDERS should see.

INSIDERS now have that block removed. While it was mostly was links to other forum content, it did have 1 or 2 ads sprinkled in. The ads shouldn't be there.

So just to repeat, INSIDERS who turn off their ad-blocker, does not make the ads return.

 

[MitchC]

Thanks mj, it still seems to show on mobile which is where it is annoying as you have to scroll a fair way past them all to ost replies

 

[jon.a]

INSIDERS now have that block removed. While it was mostly was links to other forum content, it did have 1 or 2 ads sprinkled in. The ads shouldn't be there.

So just to repeat, INSIDERS who turn off their ad-blocker, does not make the ads return.

I just saw this in a conversation thread at the bottom...

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks mj, it still seems to show on mobile which is where it is annoying as you have to scroll a fair way past them all to ost replies

I just saw this in a conversation thread at the bottom...

Both should be fixed.

 

[MitchC]

Both should be fixed.

Thanks, much better