Slowly they will tell you that ad-blocking is hurting industries and force a charge on you.
This stuff gets drip fed into the collective psyche until the argument becomes reasonable and people who use ad-blockers are marginalised.
I’ve trained my brain not to consume, i buy what i need an nothing more. Our world is dying because of consumerism.
The grain of truth? That would be your truth? 
I did my best to make my post only be about my view on the issue. I also said, I’d not block on sites I support, as long as the adds are not all over the place, and they are done in a proper fashion.
But to answer your question about how to sell your stuff: If people actually do need what you sell, they will find you, and they will hunt you down 
- Way too many things today are useless junk that you would live happily ever after without ever coming into contact with, only there to create an overflow of cash into the pockets of people who have plenty already. And before you get my words down the wrong throat, please note that I said ‘too many things’, not ‘all things’.
I know there are people who believe the world would grind to a shattering halt without consumerism and capitalism, but in my world - again, please note that I’m only speaking for me - capitalism is about the strong preying on the weak. I guess there is the old and grossly overused adage that life is about survival of the fittest, but in a modern and - more important - civilized society, that ought no longer to apply to people.
That said, there’re unobtrusive ways to get the word out about your product, without having to resort to tacky adds. Word of mouth being a pretty powerful one, albeit somewhat slow. It’s also the most honest way to present your product, as it means if it’s good enough to pass on, then it’s worth what you’re asking the consumers to pay for it. Building platforms work too, as they don’t need to be obtrusive either. Facebook, blogs, twitter, etc, are all fine ways to get the word out on your product, and it has the added benefit of not being foisted upon people who aren’t looking to buy that particular product.
With adds, most of the time I find they lie. If being pedantic, I suppose it’s possible to say they only walk to the limit of the truth, but in my world, any attempt to paint something better than it is to deliberately mislead and make people buy, is lying.
So yeah… I’ll stick to not wanting them in my life
They are foe if you are visiting safe sites such like youtube.
do not pas “go” do not collect $200
for argument lets say I ( me , my self and i ) are "the bad guy "
i use my “stolen credit cards” to rent a server and buy ad space
seeing as I AM USING stolen cards i can set BY ad’s to out bid the
ON DEMAND PRICING and WINN the auction for the ad space on
YouTube or "The Wall Street Journal " or even "McAfee "
now MY ads have a sql injection and a buffer overflow zeroday ( or FIXED zeroday - most windows users DO NOT UPDATE !!!EVER!!! )
BINGO
your computer is NOW part of MY!!! “bot net”
and ALL you did was look at a ad i posted on what YOU call a “good site”
and i am off to the bank using YOUR computer
and NO you did not have to click on the advertising FIRST
now
that scenario will not last longer than a few days
but i and using stolen cards and DO NOT CARE
i can move the server
or rent someone else’s servers
and continue
THAT
is why people need to use script blocking software
and if possible uninstall JAVA and FLASH
the government runs the postal service etc(essentials),so why don’t they come out with mail and search engines?
I hate ads. if I want something, I usually know where or how to find it. When I go to a website, I want to see related content, not irrelevant ads. When an ad makes it through my blocker, I have no problem spending 2 hours tracking down how it did it and block it.
My opinion is if you’re relying on ads to fund your website/yourself, you’re doing it completely wrong; because as soon as i install an adblocker, you receive nothing and you start begging your users which is worse. It’s not a sustainable business.
There has to be another sort of income to support sites, or a donation/flattr system. Ads are pure evil both for the users and for the site owner
We must encourage people to use adblock. We are bombarded with ads from all directions and most annoying are pop-ups. We must use adblock so these companies can’t advertise themselves.
In other views,
Ad blockers are ruining these companies. We must work together to sue developers of such service. Or better, only filter intrusive ads like pop-ups.
So is it friend or a foe?
It is neutral. The developers said they allow non-intrusive ads.
I’m sure they check the ad for viruses before post them to their popular and well known web-site. (they don’t want to get their website disgraced)
Again, for many, it’s the easiest and most straightforward way to pay for the expenses. In addition, I see that people here are once again erroneously treating something as a black & white issue.
It’s not, if the ads are chosen and placed in a responsible manner, if the ad placement is such that it does not overwhelm the site in question and make it look sketchy, then you can at least tip a hat of support for the person running the website by turning your ad blocker off. Otherwise, you have chosen to be part of the problem (the problem being people having to conceal websites and services behind a paywall or ending it altogether because of people’s desires to freeload on well…everything).
I can tell you this, the idea of freeloading at all costs (which includes the defense of piracy) is right now one of the biggest threats in terms of the future of software and the internet. Every product and service costs money to create and develop, and freeloading on them does not lower those costs.
Gimme gimme gimme, that is one of the drumbeats of the ‘me’ generation, but the reality is that what you might be getting for free is only there because the creator spent a ton of money to get it to that point.
Not liking ads, does not make you a free loader. Who’s black and white now?
There’re countless other ways to support a site, without having to suffer through obnoxious attempts at getting you to buy things you don’t really need.
Here’s the thing, the internet is not just about you and what you want.
If Blenderartists became a premium service and you were informed that your account would be terminated in 30 days unless you pay (because they couldn’t any money because of the ads being blocked), how would you feel? If your favorite website went down forever because the site master ran out of money, how would you feel?
The thing with donations at least is that the majority of people who are heavy data users will avoid doing them if possible, why else is it a fact that the vast majority of Blender users with reliable incomes never give a cent to help fund development (even I once bought the old BGE cookbook from their E-store)?
Many content providers are ok with ad blockers if you buy some of their merch or something. They just want to be compensated for their effort. It only becomes a problem when there is no support given. That is what breaks the system.
So what do you think, does ad-blocking constitute theft?
Nah. Theft has a specific meaning – people need to quit letting the powers that be water it down. Blocking ads, or any other information from reaching your computer isn’t even illegal.
Will ad-blocking lead to the downfall of free services and lead to a primarily subscription dominated internet?
I doubt it. The internet is a global network of people, and people tend to share information. Sites that try paywall schemes tend to wall themselves out of the network and lose relevancy in place of better alternatives. It’s the nice thing about the internet: it’s actually highly competitive.
If it is a good service, funding can usually be found without resorting to ads in the first place. Wikipedia for example just does a fundraiser when they need to keep the lights on.
Does ad-blocking hurt content/service providers?
Sure, it can, but it goes both ways. People came up with ad-blocking because ads were abusive. Ad-blocking gives leverage against that abuse, bringing things back to an equilibrium. If ads aren’t abusive, people tend to be too lazy to figure out ways to remove them in the first place.
I couldn’t agree more.
No, it is not just about what I want. There are a lot of people who are tired of ads and who would rather pay than having to see them. I would much rather support a site in an alternative way, because if I am on that site, then they are actually offering me stuff that is useful to me. Which means I did know what I needed and I hunted it down.
That said, it sounds more like this is about what you want. That these are your fears. That you wouldn’t like to have to pay up if the ads disappeared. tilts her head I’m sorry you’re seeing things so black and white that only your side of the issue is acceptable to you. As it happens, just as Blonder said, a lot of sites don’t mind ad-blockers if you support in other ways. Many sites, in fact, will let you know through the blocked ads, that there are alternative ways of supporting.
So yes, up until this post, I have tried to keep my responses about what I do, but that is apparently not good enough for you. Or it is ‘wrong’ or ‘selfish’, but as I see it, you’re just as much in the wrong - or in the clear, depending on view - by settling for watching ads. Revenues from ads is a shaky income, as most of the time it depends on users actually clicking them. My way of support means they know they will have a fixed amount at their disposal every month.
So yeah. Look down your nose at me all you want, but you won’t be getting me to watch ads any time soon, just so you can sleep better, knowing your ‘free’ content is secure.
I would just go to the next alternative Blenderartist site that is managed by a person who know what they’re doing and doesn’t resort to ads to support the site. Once you create the site, the site almost runs itself; it doesn’t need high maintenance and the cost of hosting is so cheap even a person with minimum wage can afford it.
Alternatively, i would happily donate to such site the same way i donated to support the blender foundation. When you pay money for such service, there is this feeling that you’re paying for the greater good by making the service available to everyone, not just you.
Do websites that display ads get paid per ad, per view or per click? I always thought it was per click and in that case simply not clicking on an ad isn’t really any different than using an ad-blocker. Either way the host doesn’t get paid.
Why not turn off your ad-blocker and report the type of ads you see on this site.
Popups? Not here
Redirectors? Not here
Video ads? Not here either
Interstitial ads? Nope
Ads with sound? You’re not going to find them here
Totally irrelevant ads? Half of the ones here are either 3D related or are advertising something from the Blendermarket.
As I said, not a black and white issue because not every site has auto-playing ads, ads with sound, or ads that block the screen.
You’re pretty much only reading what you wanna read, aren’t you? That bit that dyf said is taken out of context. He also said he wouldn’t mind supporting in other ways.
Are you paid to make us watch ads?
But what he hinted at is that he believes that the issue of ads is completely black & white. The CGcookie team has put a lot of work into making the ads shown here as relevant and unobtrusive as possible, and people don’t even accept that, you could think of the absolute most basic compromise possible that should be easy to agree with and they will still see it as unacceptable (much like with discussions on what should be allowed in the name of art).
For someone being so obsessed with black and white issues, you’re terribly categoric in your statements.
I didn’t see him hint at anything other than that he would rather donate than watch ads.