Theory about ads...

[Conscript]

I think online advertisements are a scam created by the software industry. Think about it. A form of advertising comes out (banners, popups, etc.) and then the software industry creates a way to kill it (popup blockers, banner filters, etc.). It seems every time a new method comes out, there's a program soon after that defeats it (and usually at first these programs cost money). So if you work for the software industry... I'm onto you...

[Daniel]

I still don't give a damn....

[Robert]

There use to be a theory that Viruses were created by Anti-Virus complanies, especially Symantec.

[Conscript]

Yeah, I still say it might be true. But its too obvious. This theory of mine is a bit more subtle and probably more profitable (money on software for killing ads and money for ads that get shown while the ad medium is being killed).

[Webdude]

Originally posted by Conscript
Yeah, I still say it might be true. But its too obvious. This theory of mine is a bit more subtle and probably more profitable (money on software for killing ads and money for ads that get shown while the ad medium is being killed).

That's why it would work. It's too obvious for anyone to take it serious

[Demigod]

hmm.......well, sorry to say, but I think all these theories are b/s

sometimes it's funny to see ads that promote their new ad-killer though. dont even get me started on that evil scamming company EndAds.

[Canuckkev]

Yes, or the ads in your email to stop spam. Or the popups advertising a popup blocker.

[conkermaniac]

In order for there to be profit, the same company producing these ads must be the ones producing the killers. This is a highly unlikely scenario, especially since there probably wasn't one particular person or company who "invented" pop-ups. Furthermore, there are often free solutions being released at the same time as the paid ones. Because other people could create the very same pop-up killers and offer them at a much better price (free) the venture overall would be unprofitable for the "conspirators".

And what exactly is a "banner filter"? I haven't seen any ads that allow me to remove banners from websites.

[Conscript]

Yeah, I saw some programs that claimed to block banner ads.

[conkermaniac]

Originally posted by Conscript
Yeah, I saw some programs that claimed to block banner ads.

Do they work? I want to try one out!

[Moonman]

You can edit your HOSTS file in windows to stop anything from certain sites showing, that is a way to stop ads, you just add things like *.doubleclick.net etc etc.

[Conscript]

Originally posted by conkermaniac
Do they work? I want to try one out!

here's one i found via google search ("block banner ads"): http://www.a1tech.com/

[notnamed]

Do they work? I want to try one out!

I had one, Mozilla extention. It worked pretty decent, needed to be trained with banner company URLs tho. It just blocks all images from the URLs in it's database, pretty basic, not something I'd pay money for.

[conkermaniac]

Originally posted by notnamed
I had one, Mozilla extention. It worked pretty decent, needed to be trained with banner company URLs tho. It just blocks all images from the URLs in it's database, pretty basic, not something I'd pay money for.

I thought about it a bit, and I really don't think it's a good idea to ban banner ads. They're usually not in the way of the content, and you don't have to close anything. I respect the right of sites to make money through advertising means, and I think banners are a relatively unannoying way to do it.

[notnamed]

Until, of course, they start flashing that I'm a winner. Then I right-click->remove image. Always. Bleh.