Woah....A Little too Ad-Obsessed or What?!

[Monica]

http://environmentalchemistry.com/

Try this page with Opera and see what happens! I also heard it reacts badly to FF adblock and almost any kind of popup blocker? How can anyone be love ads that much?!

Just thought this was incredibly shocking...thoughts?

[Ganonator]

No pop-ups, the content was precise and accurate, and the ads didn't get in the way of the screen (like a shoshkallosh). I think it's about as shocking as finding out I have to eat to stay alive.

[Monica]

What browser did you use? The shocking part is that he goes to all the trouble to completely ban Opera AND block anybody who has blockers like ZoneAlarm and Norton Internet Security... He even demands they change their settings for his site...I just find that a bit crazy...O_o

[phattonez]

I love Mozilla. No problems whatsoever, except that my flash isn't working.

[Master Ghaleon]

I got no problems here either

[phattonez]

I even tried it on IE and it wasn't that bad. Just one popup. Is there anyone else that uses Opera?

[PolygonX8]

I use Opera. I got this:
http://stoptargetedoperarads.info/banned.html

[goKi]

Fine for me too. Perhaps the ads are coming from pre-installed adware?

[Monica]

Fine for me too. Perhaps the ads are coming from pre-installed adware?

I'm not getting any ads, because I can't see the site (See Poly's link) I'm just saying, it's a bit too much trouble for a simple site, I mean Opera has the best security of the three and I refuse to use IE where spyware will jump all over it. I've seen Opera blocked by lazy people, but this is the first I've seen of blocking it because of the top ads, ON PURPOSE...

Basically I'm wondering if y'all think it's right for him to do that to Opera and to Firefox (Y'all might have to click a link or something to get the FF msg) because he's basically saying not to see his site unless you have minimal IE, and if it's all right for him, what if tons of others totally blocked hated browsers, were do you draw the line? I don't understand why people even hate Opera except if they love IE. If Opera was just as featureless as IE except it's security about spyware I'd still like it. It's just a browser, dang...

[vegeta1215]

If you read the page, the site is blocking Opera because of it's "generic text ads". When you install the free version of Opera, you are asked whether you want graphical ads to appear, or generic text ads, which are related to whatever site you visit. The way the text ads work is the web page you visit is searched somehow, and keywords determine which text ads to place. For instance, if you go to any kind of Zelda site, you will see Zelda ads.

The authors reasoning is understandable: if he gets revenue from ads on his site, Opera's text based ads compete for the same clicks.

[MacWeirdo42]

What does it matter? If I'm using software to block the ads, then it probably means that I wouldn't be paying attention to the ads in the first place. And if the ads aren't actually going to be affecting my purchasing decisions, then why should I have to put up with them?

[vegeta1215]

I'm not arguing with you, I'm just stating what the author of that site has already said. The thing is, he blocks all Opera users - even registered users who don't even see any ads, as well as those who choose to see the graphical ads in the free version.

[slothman]

I read some of that.
Basically he doesn't like competition. He also claims that Opera "steals" money from him by having ads similar to his or by preventing his ads themselves.
It looks like anything that prevents the user, potential money spender?, from seeing his ads is "scumware," his word not mine. I wonder if he thinks that a browser that avoids Google's ad as well is bad.
It seems really odd for an envirornmental site to do that as they are usually anti-business.
Well it least he can make versions that are printer friendly, it probably has ads too.
:rolleyes:

P.S. Does anybody use Lynx or any other text browser? I want to know if those show some sort of "no image" ad HTML ca use.

[Axel]

It's his page and therefore his right to do whatever the hell he wants on it, as long as he isn't violating copyright laws or something. He is fully within his rights to prevent someone else from making money from ads advertised on his site and soaking his bandwidth. Putting a site on the web isn't free and if he decides not to allow some external party to make money of it without him getting any of it, then there's no problem.

As for the pop-up blocker. That's probably totally unrelated, the program interferes with his javascript coding. I've seen plenty of other sites with the similar problems.

[Cloral]

Well, I guess this guy doesn't care to ever have me look at his site. Too bad for him, he gets $0 ad revenue from me. :p

[Monica]

It's his page and therefore his right to do whatever the hell he wants on it, as long as he isn't violating copyright laws or something. He is fully within his rights to prevent someone else from making money from ads advertised on his site and soaking his bandwidth. Putting a site on the web isn't free and if he decides not to allow some external party to make money of it without him getting any of it, then there's no problem.

As for the pop-up blocker. That's probably totally unrelated, the program interferes with his javascript coding. I've seen plenty of other sites with the similar problems.

Firefox lives off huge donations. You're telling me that if, hypothetically, every browser needed to display ads to compete with Spyware-ridden IE, it'd be all right to block everything but IE? Sure he has rights but what about the line that says "Your rights end where someone's nose begins"? This behavious is a big punch in the stomache to those of us who wish to protect our computers withought needing about 5 scanners to clean up after IE.

[Axel]

He's the one paying for the bandwidth, he makes the code and the rules. You have no claim on his information, he's offering it for free. If he decides to restrict access or even remove the site from the web, it's his right to do so.

[slothman]

Yes it is his right to do that. That doesn't make it moral though. Just because he doesn't like someone or something doesn't mean he should prevent it from accessing data or services of him. I always like the idea that it is similar to a store not letting a black person in becasue they are black. Even if it is legal most people would revile at the thought. Even tattoos and piercings which are voluntary would annoy people if then are prevented from entering a store. This isn't exactly the same but I think it is a good enough analogy.

[AlexMax]

He's the one paying for the bandwidth, he makes the code and the rules. You have no claim on his information, he's offering it for free. If he decides to restrict access or even remove the site from the web, it's his right to do so.

Fine by me. I am not interested in reading a website of some self-reightious prick.

(Opera user here)

EDIT: And I really wish people in this thread would read the fucking link.

[Cloral]

I don't think its a question of whether it's moral, but whether it's smart. Restricting your potential audience is always a stupid idea as you only make it harder to generate interest.

[Sylvan_Wizard]

I even tried it on IE and it wasn't that bad. Just one popup. Is there anyone else that uses Opera?The site claims not to use any popups or popunders, so if you got a popup, then you have adware and I'd recommend scanning your system with Ad-aware and Spybot.