Some unnamed websites have joined forces to block all Firefox users because of the Ad Block Plus plug-in. Here’s what they have to say about Firefox and its users:
The Mozilla Foundation and its Commercial arm, the Mozilla Corporation, has allowed and endorsed Ad Block Plus, a plug-in that blocks advertisement on web sites and also prevents site owners from blocking people using it. Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers. Numerous web sites exist in order to provide quality content in exchange for displaying ads. Accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing. Millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software. Many site owners therefore install scripts that prevent people using ad blocking software from accessing their site. That is their right as the site owner to insist that the use of their resources accompanies the presence of the ads.
While blanket ad blocking in general is still theft, the real problem is Ad Block Plus‘s unwillingness to allow individual site owners the freedom to block people using their plug-in. Blocking FireFox is the only alternative.
This was the same debate the TV broadcasters raised with TIVO. Do viewers have legal duty to watch advertisements? Should we be arrested because we look the other way or go to the bathroom? I’m hoping blind people are exempt from all this, because they’ve been avoiding banner ads since the web was started!
Update: The site has been changed a bit, with a whole lot of backpedaling.
No where do we assert that “since Firefox users have the ability to block ads, they must be thieves and must be blocked.”
You can read the quotes from above and judge for yourself as to what they said. (I think you know my opinion on the matter!)
To access sites which block FF just use the add on “User Agent Switcher”, set it googlebot. Problem solved ^^
Firefox owns.
He is the biggest idiot on the Internet. How Silly!
Good to know there is some good plug-ins to fight against all those advertissing scums. I would appreciate to have the same thing on my television. For those who can, have a look on BBC (British Broadcasting Television), and see how comfortable it is when you can watch the TV without any brainwashing stupid advertissement.
54 & 55 – Jägermeister,
I was going to use the Web Developer’s toolbar next but a friend arrived with a box of beer and my priorities suddenly shifted. In any case, thanks for the assistance.
Given enough motivation and time, there isn’t anything we can’t break.
Ok… joking aside I don’t see what the big fuss is. This guy has nothing I would return to read anyways. In fact that only people I can envision reading it would be those lemmings. Which is exactly the type of people they want I suspect.
I did find a link on his “about me” page Begging for ratings on bloghop.com. Out of 258 ratings he has a whopping 65%. Oops, did I click that and rate him poorly? Mind I didn’t do that simply because he blocks FF. I did that because his right wing, ultra conservative views give the rest of us conservatives a bad name
Please Mr Carlton, do me a favor and block FF from ALL your sites and save me the time of ever having to see them. Also, don’t forget to block FF users at the “the most active site for the congenital condition” your children have, that you “built and manage”. Make sure that no FF user can possibly help out.
Thank you to dvorak.org for letting me post my thoughts on this issue.
Who cares if he blocks FF or not. His sites are not that great. The interesting thing to look at is how much publicity he has now gotten.
73. “The interesting thing to look at is how much publicity he has now gotten.”
While they say that any press is good press, I think being universally seen as an idiot is not a good thing.
I see it this way. Adblock is actually a benefit to adsense users. If they aren’t going to click on it either way why even have it make an impression and bring the ratio down. This way only those who might be receptive to potentially clicking see it and make an impression on the numbers.
Seems to me that the wider we punt this story, the more non firefox users will realise that firefox has an extremely effective ad blocking tool and that can only bring users flocking to firefox. Combine that with user agent switching (already mentioned by Jägermeister above) and we – firefox users – get the best of both worlds: No ads and access to whatever juicy content the advertisers don’t want to let us see without first trying to sell us something. A major victory for the surfing class.
stupid ass companies should look at it as free money so they arent known as a pop up site or a site with as many ads as fucking myspace. why cant i contact these “right wing” internet nazis i want to tell them how wrong they are and they dont even have a way of contact…fuckers. either way if they dont want us to use firefox i dont want to visit their site. and then they claim that firefox users take it as a religion? are they nuts? its called a user base becuase its a great, FREE product that works a million times better than IE or any other service.
so technically, if i get up during a commercial break to go to the bathroom, and i come back when the commercials are over….i’m stealing.
please.
Wow, there is a way to block those ads? Thanks!
I fully support Firefox and ad blocking. Advertisers are on their way to making the Internet unusable – just as they have done to television. An hour TV program is less than 40 minutes now due to ads.. yet the big three networks are scratching their heads wondering why they are losing ratings!!
Advertisers recognize that their ads are being overlooked.. their cure, pump more ads out there. Business should realize that, if I need to run a gauntlet of advertisers to get to their site, I just move on somewhere else.
To the advertisers who pop up ads on the Internet I say: Go ahead, flood the internet with advertising… it will just drive people to the places were your ads are not seen. Wall street, You are your own worst enemy.
Originally, I didn’t mind the ads on a web site. They were just there and I seldom clicked on them but they didn’t bother me. Then they came along with the animated ads. They are the most distracting, bothersome things I’ve ever seen. And they really screw up the screen scroll when you’re on a blog site. They forced me to go to AdBlock for my own piece of mind. I hate those animated ads!
Maybe someone has already said this, I didn’t really take the time to read all 81 comments, but since not all ff users use ad-block (i for once (mostly due to laziness), doesn’t that kind of undermine the purpose of trying to display ads. since their complain is that they don’t get the ads out to as many people as they wished, so now they block more people?
Shit, why isn’t he petitioning TV manufacturers like Matsushita, Sony and Sharp to stop putting ‘Mute’ buttons on their remotes that permit un-Christian viewers to “steal” TV programs?
>>Shit, why isn’t he petitioning TV manufacturers like Matsushita,
>>Sony and Sharp to stop putting ‘Mute’ buttons on their remotes
>>that permit un-Christian viewers to “steal” TV programs?
I think your anti-belief is getting the better of you, Fiti Man. Or do you only watch TV shows with Christian advertising?
65,
My finger hates me.
At least most of mine are full words.
74,
YOU GOT IT.. I was waiting here for anyone else to see that..
His site has been hit royal, and he Probably get money from the Hits. WE just made the bastard richer.
I dont mind the adverts, IF the site wants to advert it should be PART OF THE SITE, not a popup, not FLASH, not a POP UNDER…
NOT a randomized crap pulled from another source that they have NO control over. And I dont want TRACKERS all over my system, or anything else.
The Advert corps are making money EVEN if you dont go to the site adverted. And the Sites get money from any Advert displayed, but the Corps want to PROVE that someone SAW the advert. UNLIKE TV. They want to know you SAW it, and the site counter(counts how many came to the site) isnt inflated..
Well this guy has persuaded me… TO INSTALL ADBLOCK PLUS! I thought I’d include a link to the download plus several add ons that can make it block even more!
http://tinyurl.com/2lncsw
Does a person have a legal obligation to view the ads on a web page? No.
Does a website owner have a legal obligation to allow anyone to access their site? No, they can choose who they allow to download their content.
Although it may seem stupid.
This is doing more for AdBlock than any ad. I wonder what the download count is for the last two days.
I have been reading Danny Carlton’s tirade against Firefox and concluded that he is a total ass. He seems to be a fundamentalist christian from oklahoma after reading his many websites. The idiot uses Frontpage BTW. this is a pic of the clown http://istockphoto.com/DannyCarlton
>>BTW. this is a pic of the clown
The guy could use a copyeditor. Just a few too many typos for a guy who writes shit online for a living.
What I like about adblock Plus over just a hosts file is that with adblock plus, there isn’t the “page could not be displayed” message. with adblock plus, its just black page space
This is his profile: http://dannycarlton.com/aboutus.html
I can’t find his email but you can contact him here with your irate comments: http://dannycarlton.com/contact.php
The 11th commandment: Thou shall not slander Firefox
I agree Mustard Man
I love his reasoning:
Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers..
So according to him not very many Firefox users click on ads. So then if they don’t click on ads even if they see them, then why put all this time and effort into blocking these people that won’t click on ads in the first place? Is that “financial rewards” coming from saving bandwidth? But he forwards Firefox users to whyfirefoxisblocked.com. Ummmm… wouldn’t that use just as much bandwidth as the evil firefox users? Or even more if you convince other people to redirect firefox users to his site?
That’s good thinkering there…
Um… just think about it; someone who features a link for “How to read the KJV Bible” on his site is not gonna win any thinking awards.
I have used Firefox for years but have just ignored ads. Now, I’ve installed adblock and noscript out of spite.
btw.. i just adblocked all your ads.
IS ANYBODY NOTICING THE HOT CHICK ON TOP OF THIS PAGE??