AC blocking users who use ad blockers now?

[meyerweb]

When I try to read AC with an ad blocker enabled, starting today all I get is a blank screen. Is this an intentional policy of Android Central?

If so, I'm done here.

To be clear, I don't block ads on every web site I frequent, but AC is so over the top you leave me with no choice. One page I tried to look at had 16 blocked ads. Just one page! This page had 7 ads. Pages take so long to load with all the ads the site is untenable. And now you've got pop ups! No way. Just no way will I put up with that.

There are plenty of other Android sites that aren't so obnoxious about ads.

 

[Almeuit]

From my knowledge it isn't intentional. I know last night it was still working for me at home so I will have to test once home again.

 

[Almeuit]

I got some word with tech. They were working on some things today that may have messed with ad blockers (making them act odd). It should be functioning normal now.

 

[speccy]

Adblock allows unobtrusive ads, this is what the world needs to wake up to. People don't mind ads that don't interfere with what people are trying to do i.e. consume content. But ads that cause websites to load slowly, videos that auto-play, or things that pop up over the content you're trying to read are definitely no no's. I would want these to be blocked every single time forever, but am happy to accept unobtrusive ads. The sooner companies realize that they are actually turning people off of their products when advertising in this way the better, people either get annoyed by them (a negative reaction to the advert), or just block them altogether and never see them, both of these scenarios are disastrous for the advertisers.

 

[meyerweb]

Seems to be working OK for me now. Thanks.

 

[flan]

I was about to come here and post a complaint about how slow the site is with ad-blocker turned off. The top of the page would render, but the page would not respond to input, either scrolling or clicking, for a good 30 seconds. Then I went to the front page just now and it's loading fine. Kudos, I'll gladly browse with the ad blocker off now.

 

[meyerweb]

Goodbye Android Central

I guess I'm done with AC. With my ad blocker turned on, the stupid "ad blockers make us sad" pop-up shows up over, and over, and over, and over, so that I can't actually read anything. With the ad blocker turned off, the forum is so slow you'd think I was on an old 2400 baud modem. It's absurd. There are so many ads, from so many different servers, that I can't even type in a steady stream, because the forum can't keep up. While I"m typing this post, ad servers "waiting for 'this ad server'", "waiting for 'that' ad server," are still showing up in my status bar as I write this sentence. There must be 20 different ad servers loading crapola to my browser.

Not any more. There are too many other Android sites that don't insult me with more ads than content. AC has jumped the shark. It was nice knowing you. I expect you'll be out of business in 6 months if you keep this garbage up.

 

[anon(9602380)]

Re: Goodbye Android Central

I'm sorry you feel this way about Android Central! But in all honesty some one has to pay to help operation cost of the site. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

 

[ffejjj]

Re: Goodbye Android Central

I guess I'm done with AC. With my ad blocker turned on, the stupid "ad blockers make us sad" pop-up shows up over, and over, and over, and over, so that I can't actually read anything. With the ad blocker turned off, the forum is so slow you'd think I was on an old 2400 baud modem. It's absurd. There are so many ads, from so many different servers, that I can't even type in a steady stream, because the forum can't keep up. While I"m typing this post, ad servers "waiting for 'this ad server'", "waiting for 'that' ad server," are still showing up in my status bar as I write this sentence. There must be 20 different ad servers loading crapola to my browser.

Not any more. There are too many other Android sites that don't insult me with more ads than content. AC has jumped the shark. It was nice knowing you. I expect you'll be out of business in 6 months if you keep this garbage up.

Don't blame you at all. I can only access with my phone, on the computer it's hopeless.

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

Don't tell this to admins, but with Ghostery (ad tracking disabled), ad-blocker can be turned off for AC and WC. No ads, no nags, commenting and posting works.

I do understand that a site needs income from ads to operate, but it's also about balance between having many ads and having many visitors. Mobile app is usable with inline ads, they are not too distracting.

 

[hallux]

As noted, the Admiral "let me in anyway" button is not working, we just get looped back to the page complaining that we have an Adblocker enabled. I have no problem with ads in general, I realize the site gets supported in SOME way, but when they significantly slow the performance of browsing and degrade the overall experience as a result, adblocker is the answer.

As it is, the ready.gov ad at the top of the forum page adds 5-10 seconds to the loading of a forum section and my adblocker is not blocking it. When it loads, everything below it gets pushed down the page so if I try to click a link to a post before it's done I sometimes end up with a different post.

I just did a comparison. Windows 10, Chrome, at work. Just under 7 seconds to load the Ask a Question forum from the main forum page, with Adblock enabled. Disable Adblock and that jumps to 17, SEVENTEEN, seconds. Again, I get the point of the ads, but nearly tripling page load times gets out of hand.

 

[schmogo]

I'm really sorry AC doesn't like my add blocker, but for a tech site it sure is a hot mess when the adds are on. Maybe if they'd make the page behave I would be willing to run it without my add blocker turned on.

 

[Almeuit]

Would you guys mind trying now and see how it goes (with ad blocker)?

 

[hallux]

@Almeuit it seems to be working, with no nag page (for lack of a better term) from Admiral.

 

[SuperTongue]

Re: Goodbye Android Central

I guess I'm done with AC. With my ad blocker turned on, the stupid "ad blockers make us sad" pop-up shows up over, and over, and over, and over, so that I can't actually read anything. With the ad blocker turned off, the forum is so slow you'd think I was on an old 2400 baud modem. It's absurd. There are so many ads, from so many different servers, that I can't even type in a steady stream, because the forum can't keep up. While I"m typing this post, ad servers "waiting for 'this ad server'", "waiting for 'that' ad server," are still showing up in my status bar as I write this sentence. There must be 20 different ad servers loading crapola to my browser.

Not any more. There are too many other Android sites that don't insult me with more ads than content. AC has jumped the shark. It was nice knowing you. I expect you'll be out of business in 6 months if you keep this garbage up.

Looks like now they have some hardcoded ads or something because uBlock Origin isn't catching them automatically.

I'm finally done with this site as well. I've removed the AC app from my phone out of principal and will happily go to other Android news sites where I can actually turn adblock off without getting obliterated with ads or treated like garbage for turning it on because of obtrusive ads.

And judging by the response in this thread from mods, nobody here cares anyway.

 

[anon(238680)]

Re: Goodbye Android Central

And judging by the response in this thread from mods, nobody here cares anyway.

Not sure if you're still here, but I think this is overly harsh. All you have to do is read the responses above from "the mods" and you can see they're trying to deal with the situation.