Seen that before? I would guess most of you have not. But it is becoming more and more common as the use of Adblock Plus is annoying more and more webmasters. Recently Ars Technica decided to try a method by which to implement something similar to the image above. Instead of outright telling you that you cannot see the content, they removed it without warning. When the backlash began, the attitude displayed was mostly unapologetic and later redacted to a more pleasing tone, but a good question is to be asked here, does Ars have the right to demand you look at ads?

Abuse, seriously this is abuse. Offering "free" public content and then adding stipulations to content is abuse. Imagine for a moment, you are watching TV. A moment passes when the slapstick on Three's Company stops and there is a fadeout. All of a sudden manicles clamp you in place, the remote stops working, and a robotic arm forces your eyes open in the direction of your television screen. A commercial is on, you must watch it. YOU MUST. It is the way the program displayed is paid for and if you walk away or skip that ad with your TiVo, YOU STOLE FROM ABC! Shame on you for even attempting to look away! You should be happy, yes happy that the ad is playing for you, the viewer. This will ensure the show will continue for many years to come, or until the ratings drop, whichever comes first. You will watch this drivel and be happy, otherwise you're a theif!

BULLSHIT! I don't owe Ars anything, neither do you. There is a way to combat this menace AdblockPlus NoScript These are the 2 most amazing plugins to firefox you will ever *NEED*. Ars offers content for free requiring no payment or registration in advance. The text of their publication is indexed by several bots and is available for full text searches. That is about as public as you can get. They have no right to demand time from your brain or mine to process the inanity that the internet offers as methods of finance. There is nothing wrong with making money on the internet, you just can't force someone to pay for your crap. Abusing the way browsers work to limit site functionality if ads are not displayed is a low blow. Congrats to the developers at ars for implementing what some idiot in upper/middle management decided(with limited success). Indeed, the methodology used is very easily circumvented by modding a wildcard. Why should this bother us? It shouldn't. All of us know the webmasters want us looking at their ads, we simply choose not to.

Do I not have a right to refuse ads on my computer? Especially those loaded from a 3rd party which I did not invite to my browser? Who are you, Ars to demand this of me? Wasting valuable screen realestate with random ads of content you yourself do not know. Ahh, but if I don't look at the ads will a site I've come to love go away? Maybe...thats a possibility for all sites, but business solvency isn't our problem. We are simply consumers looking for information. If it is no longer provided by a trusted source, you simply get another trusted source. Are there many ads on Ars? No, but that isn't the point is it? Ars is out to make money and God love them for that. I want to be clear I don't mind the intention, its the methodology. Free is a funny word...so lets define it!

free(fr)

This sums it up well. Essentially, I can do pretty much whatever I want to how websites are displayed on MY machine. Because the content of the site is free, I have and will retain that, I can read that content without obligation and costing me nothing. Do not feel guilty about not supporting ad supported sites, in most cases those sites have no idea what is being thrown in your face every time you visit them.

Finally, security today is alot more well known than it used to be. With so many drive by infections due to SQL injection attacks and such no one can really trust an ad sent to us by any ad mill. Why on earth would I subject myself to risk and frustration for your profit margins? Consider the vast amount viral/trojan infections out there caused by ads alone. It is not worth it. I will not be subjected to this fallicious design of your business model and I don't expect many others will be either.