topic Re: Ad-blocker? in The Round Table

Ad-blocker?

cee-dee — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 20:29:47 GMT

I use an ad-blocker and in the past people have criticised on the grounds that newspapers (particularly) rely on advertising to fund themselves.

Well, yes they do BUT..... (you knew there'd be a "but"?) there is a limit surely? Some papers have a huge pop up to block the page so you can't read it "Oh no, you have your ad-blocker on...."

One page I looked at had 42 adverts! 42? What the heck? So, just out of curiosity I looked at the page with the blocker off. There were adverts popping out all over and as you scrolled down the page more and more adverts appeared, all making the page "jump" to the point where I just closed it.

Surely with so many adverts, far from encouraging business for the advertisers, it's more likely to put people off reading the adverts (and the paper) altogether? All they become are an irritation for readers and just a money-spinner for the newspaper?

OK, OK, I know the papers have to be funded somehow and with falling readerships they need revenue BUT.... doesn't it get to the point where readers think "There's so little to read, it's just full of adverts"?

Modern-day papers seem to all follow one another around and have the same old stuff as their competitors and a lot of it is almost word-for-word even down to the same spelling mistakes!! And... that's NOT just from newspapers from the same news-group. Have they just lifted all that stuff from a news agency?

Looking at a print version, what do you find? Loads of adverts for the periodical concerned offering space for yet more adverts! On one page I found seven adverts for the paper itself. SEVEN on one page? Isn't that just a sure-fire way to put people off from buying the paper?

Re: Ad-blocker?

june-spoon28 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 23:56:30 GMT

How is your blood pressure? You seem to get peeved about an awful lot of stuff.

Don't let it bother you, it doesn't bother me.

"There's so little to read, it's just full of adverts"?

Bit like the RT.

Re: Ad-blocker?

vamo48 — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:03:23 GMT

Yes, they do have to make money and advertising probably pays well enough, but yes, it is off-putting to have so many in a magazine, if they seem to cut down on the number of articles they have space for.

Adverts are at their most irritating on tv - some are better than the programmes they interrupt, but the majority are not, and my family's attitude is that if the advert is particularly stupid we stop (or don't start) buying the product.

Re: Ad-blocker?

al**bear — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 08:22:49 GMT

Blocked page due to Ad Blocker

This works in lots of (not all) cases - put the headline into google

at far right end of result - theres an icon

when you hover on it, it says cached

clicking on this opens a google page with the story

Re: Ad-blocker?

cee-dee — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 10:01:05 GMT

Yes Al :- https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Computing-Advice-Technology-Chat/Ad-blocker-on/m-p/5873360#M10010

However.... at times clicking the cached icon brings up a 404 error.

http://www.google-updates.com/google-cache-server-404-error-internal-issues-resolved/

Re: Ad-blocker?

cee-dee — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:02:37 GMT

It seems the 404 error is not fixed. I just went to a cached page and got the usual:-

404. That’s an error.