Let's ALL block internet ads together!

[Aractus]

As per a previous thread here I hate internet ads with a passion.

Internet bandwidth in Australia is still very expensive. When Youtube introduced pre-roll ads, I never even noticed because the entire time I'd been using the MVPS HOSTS file. In fact I can't even remember when I started using it it was that long ago, it's been at least 10 years - probably longer. I went from IE5.5 to MyIE2 to Maxthon. The latter two had ad blocking extensions. Chrome launched, I hated it. Then I moved to Opera. Then I got sick of Opera, moved to Chrome. In May 2012, Google removed the Product Search feature. Although I had used Startpage quite a bit before that (and do understand Startpage used to be quite slow, not like now), in response to taking away product search I moved off Google completely. Startpage and DuckDuckGo provided all the search functionality I needed. Then I got a new computer, in mid 2014 I  got sick of Chrome - too many features I miss; like a proper title bar, and a proper status bar. Moved to Firefox.

In response to the excessive advertising from Adwords/Adsense I went back to using ad blocking extensions in addition to the hosts file. In the past Adsense didn't bother me, but that was when the search results were in their own boxes and clearly separate from the search results.

Today I've completed a page on why and how here, I will do a blog on it soon when I have time. I highly suggest installing uBlock, or one of the others where necessary.

There are a lot of people, mostly on Youtube, making the argument that "the internet needs advertising" and "the internet will suck without advertising". What bullshit. Wikipedia has never had any ads on it; yet according to their claim it should have been pushed-out by a competitor covered in ads. Youtubers can place as many annotations as they like and as many links in the video description as they like. Those links may not be as effective as in-video ads, but they're also much less invasive.

Google is the biggest internet advertiser, and all the profits they make in my country are funnelled out and taxed in Ireland. An advertiser that buys a local radio ad is supporting the economy - an advertiser that buys a Google internet ad isn't. If their advertising budget is $10,000 and they spend $5,000 on Google ads and $5,000 on radio ads then this it what happens:

Radio:
10% GST. - $454.55 tax paid to the Australian Government that then gets distributed to the States/Territories.
30% Company tax. This applies to net profits. So let's imagine that for a $5,000 advertising package that the company makes a modest $500 net profit after all expenses. That would be another $150 in tax paid to the Australian Government. In addition there will also be income tax, but we'll just count the corporate side of the taxation for now.
Total: $604.55 tax paid in Australia.

Google AdSense:
No GST
Company tax paid in Ireland
Total: $0 tax paid in Australia.

By blocking ads you will save the advertisers money, that they can then use on locally taxed advertising that support your economy.

And who cares if Youtuber's stop making money? They can go out and get a real job. Or sell real products and services instead of advertising. They don't pay to publish their videos anyway. Geocities funded free web hosting with just one 468x60 ad banner per page. They didn't need multiple invasive ads per page. Get real, it's excessive.

Here's my example image of what a banner ad looked like:



It's not hard for websites to use those and design them to go through ad blockers, so really by blocking ads you're also encouraging websites to cut out the middle man and negotiate directly with advertisers.