 | It came to my attention that some people think that I block users with adblock intentionally from private messaging page.
I don't. If I wanted to block people with adblock intentionally they would not be able to enter this site at all. 
Adblock simply works incorrectly with the private messaging page as it is. I changed that page once - not to make it work with adblock, indeed, just was upgrading the script - and then it worked with adblock for a while, but then they changed something and it stopped working again. I really can't do anything about it even if I wanted. |
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Similar topics: 1.my private chat seems to be broken? help 2.Messages Broke
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And that's exactly the problem. If they were greedy as in "for money", they at least would do it right.
Most of users don't realize how it works. Because they can't afford doing it right, it's pretty much based on rules that are added by users. Which means any imbecile with a basic knowledge of html can add a rule that cripples the site they did not like for some reason or just did not understand the code entirely. I'm not sure what happened in case of this site, was it intentional or just lack of understanding. But since it happened twice, I suppose it was intentional.
But I won't fight it. I have enough problems with incorrectly working ISP cache, email spam blacklists and other stupidity of so-called internet professionals. At least those are not created by users. But using or not using AdBlock is users choice.
P.S. Just FYI: AbBlock does not protect you from exploits (viruses injected over internet pages) as many users imagine. Not from serious ones.
center + hr + table[width="800"][align="center"]
which, to be fair, is a pretty common way for ads to be embedded in pages. tables are common, 800 is a common width, centering is common etc.
You can fix this by simply removing the hr tag, or - even better - replacing the outdated center tag with something more appropriate, like a header tag with a class that centers it (margin: 0 auto).
The only question left is why should I bother changing it every time someone decide to add a new crippling-page rule? It's not a standard software and it's literally helping people to get this site closed sooner.
Why are ad blockers important? I know you have a very different perspective as a site administrator, but for many users ads are distracting, frustrating, waste time, waste bandwidth (especially on mobile), present a security problem, etc. At least on this site, most of the ads are unobtrusive, but there are a few that redirect to some other site that are REALLY unpleasant.
You said "adblock doesn't protect you from serious exploits" and while that's true, it does *greatly* reduce the likelihood. It blocks HTTP requests so that does prevent many vectors of attack. You're right though that cosmetic filtering (hiding elements) does nothing to protect users. Anecdotally, I have had zero malware infections since I started to use an ad blocker, and the only malware I got before then was from malicious ads.
Ad blocker software is run by large communities, and there are thousands of sites, all of which display ads in different ways. Sometimes a rule that is supposed to block ads on one site inadvertently block important content on another. Lots of people use ad blockers on porn sites too, so it's extremely unlikely that someone is targeting *this site* to make it break
Whether ads work, or are a valid revenue stream, is kind of a big philosophical question of the modern internet and where things will go from here. I don't think either of us can answer it.
Communities also organized anti-spam blockers and as a result email stopped being reliable mean of communication. And those were communities of Internet "professionals" who were supposed to know what they were doing. Pretty much everything that is given in hands of masses turns into crap. It's always a kingdom of incompetence overwhelmed by most loud (scientifically speaking - most dominant) and not most intelligent.
As for what's in the future - it's already obvious that good free sites are dying. More and more quality sites demand paid subscription with every year. I'm sure there still will be free community-run sites with low quality content and huge-ass sites like facebook that can monetize your personal data even without ads. The rest will be mostly paid or die out. You will see.
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