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Comment by Tichy | Hacker News Reader

Then remind me again, why don't the advertising sites just block people with ad blockers?

Ars just did this, apparently. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1171927

Some people whitelisted, some subscribed, some boycotted. Besides, at best, you can only make it hard to hide ads / content. If data is transferred, data can be manipulated, and data can be ignored.

I'd suppose the end-state of adblockers is something that does a rendered-page analysis to detect content, rather than looking at code / origin of info.

Personally I would feel differently about circumventing their block than about blocking ads. If they want to block me, I would accept it.

Maybe there would always be people who "steal", but are they really so many that it would hurt?

I would consider subscribing to Ars technica if the offer me an ad free experience as well as their pdf formatting etc...

That's exactly what you get when you subscribe to Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/subscriptions/

You also get full-text RSS feeds and the occasional bit of content exclusive to subscribers, as well as some other (less noteworthy) perks.

(Disclosure: I'm under contract with Ars Technica, working on a projected unrelated to any of this.)

This seems to imply that ads are not served only on the forums. i don't care about the forums. or rather, i want an ad free option on the entire content of the site, not a segment.

Are you sure? On the same page, they say:

"Banner-free browsing on Ars Technica means no distractions, just content. Better yet, the ad-free pages are optimized so there are no "holes" where ads used to be. It's a tighter experience."

No ads anywhere on the site. It's fantastic. :)

You know how easy it is to install and use Adblock for Firefox? That's how easy it would be for most people to use the anti-anti-Adblock extension that someone would write within a week.

Sure, but what I wanted to express is that blocking ads does not feel like stealing to me. Circumventing their site block would feel like stealing.

You know, amidst the ad-block debate today, I actually see an opportunity ripe for a start-up.

A system that lets willing participants opt out of ad-viewship for direct micropayments. Wait a second, I think what I'm describing is close to the new 'Flattr' -- but still not quite it. Let the users choose between micropayments or ad-viewership.

I'd love micropayments. The problem currently is that there's no good way to do them, as there are no microtransactions that aren't just paying into the transaction-manager's pockets.

* looks at flattr * will have to poke into that.

edit: why not a combination? Micro-pay at a minimum value (say a couple cents) to get no ads. Click more than once to add more payment % to that site.

Contenture tried just that and they couldn't pull it off.

http://searchyc.com/contenture

Some of the sites already do that.

Strangely, I haven't noticed. I guess they won't be missed.

I saw a few of these sites back then when the discussion flared up the first time, but haven't seen any since.

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