Ad Blocking

Ars Technica article on why ad-blocking harms the sites you love. (Including us.) Please take it to heart.

I disable ABP here and occasionally spam click the sites just to keep the wheels turning here. Hope it helps.

Unblocking the ads right now, had no idea... damn thats a good deal on a Nissan. Oh ***AAA members can save $30 on weekly rentals? Did you know that Kendrahl is buying FFXI accounts for up to $10,000!?!

I'd love to unblock them all, I don't even have AdBlock+ enabled >.> but NoScript stops me seeing them XD

aren't ads the ones that put spyware on your computer?

NoScript and similar allow you to whitelist certain sites. If you guys like FFXIAH.com, we'd really appreciate if you whitelisted us on whatever ad-blockers or script-blockers you use.

We have a really stringent policy to not have any ads that blink crazily, have sound, pop over or under, or contain any malicious code. We try to be as low-key as possible. But our only source of revenue comes from ad impressions, and if you're not seeing them, we're not getting paid.

The Pizza Hut one is pretty sweet actually. Brings you directly to the page to place an order. How convenient!

That's the problem I'm having, I have FFXIAH.com whitelisted ; ; I've even enabled IFrames in an attempt to have them show up, they just don't want to XD

Ever thought of 'premium' accounts or something?

The only ads i see are RMT ads. I really don't want constant pop-ups of RMT websites. (Plus it's against Square-Enix's ToS isn't it?)

Everytime I disable noscript and adblock for these sites I get spyware/adware that I have to deal with. We do all love this site I just think we value our investments in our PCs a little more.

Only if you actually buy it. Just disable ads and help the site keep some form of revenue so they can keep it up and running for us.

My main concern with ads is because they can produce malware and other crap. I quit going to a lot of sites on IE lately because I always get that "Free Virus Scan" pop up.

It's really not worth the risk.

I disagree.

Being smart about which websites you view and having adequate anti-virus on your PC helps more than blocking ads. Yes, it does sometimes happen, but unless you're lacking in other areas it's usually blantantly obvious.

Edit: I probably should've phrased that differently, but I don't feel like changing it.

If you guys make sure you're using only safe sources for ads, sure, but other than that, I'm w/ the others.

Worse comes to worse you'll get a tracking cookie or two. Something you can easily remove on the fly. I occasionally disable ads and click on trustworthy ones time to time to help this place out.

Also if you have NoScript or AdBlockPlus you can easily reblock all ads and domains from which they come from.

I really doubt Pizza Hut or Progressive is gonna rape your computer.

You kind of make the point here though. I can control which sites I visit. The Ads on this site are out of my control which means turning them on puts my PC at more risk.

That's our policy. We've only whitelisted sources that don't contain blinking ads, ads with sound, or ads with any malicious code. We have a pretty strong "don't be evil" policy in regard to our revenue. And we have a system in place to block any ads that are reported that might slip through the cracks.

We actually originally considered opening FFXIAH.com as a premium content site. That is, free users would get some basic functionality but high-value areas, like the crafting and drill-down details on items, would be subscription based. (Similar to sites like Allakhazam.) Our users almost unanimously said they'd prefer keeping the whole site free, and just putting ads everywhere.

Unfortunately, in the past 3.5 years or so, users blocking ads have become the rule, not the exception.

Not trying to make an issue out of it. Just trying to remind users that heavily using our site while blocking ads does impact our ability to make ends meet. If you don't care, then we can't really do anything more than ask nicely. Just a friendly request. =)

Wrong.

Just so you know, the e-harmony one does have sound on it. Wanted to let you know.

I'll go make progressive think I'm actually interested in their insurance now.

Pizza Hut won't rape your computer but it rapes your wallet xP (seriously, Little Ceasars $5 pizzas)

and i've been seeing imvu ads alot too. (and i know that game has spyware and my thinking is if the game has it, the ads do too)

With the given ad policies this site practices and your choice of what to or not to click. I think you'll be just fine.

Maybe, but the problem is some flash ads do have a risk of installing something nasty on your computer without your knowledge. I'm not sure if FFXI AH supports flash ads or not, however .GIFs aren't a risk factor for getting unwanted viruses and crap on your computer.

I think you should still do premium accounts. I'm sure you could think of something spiffy to add for premium users.

I've gotten bugs from ads before so adblocker is permanently placed on my pc.

Beer and lunch with Jaerik & Scragg for all premium users? I'd be down.

No.

*** yeah

epic fail on the way (gotta upload to photobucket)