Adblock Plus: Allowing "Acceptable Ads" Is On by Default (+Recent Changes)

[beer]

The development build last Friday introduced a new feature that took many people by surprise: Allowing acceptable ads. Sorry about that, I am usually trying to announce large functionality changes in a timely manner but that didn’t work this time. As of Adblock Plus 2.0b.3277 the current state is:

• “Allow non-intrusive advertising” option is enabled by default for all users but the ones using privacy filter lists (EasyPrivacy, Fanboy’s Tracking, Adverisity Privacy). The documentation explains why it has to be enabled by default.
  
• The first-run page notifies users about this change, opt-out works by clicking “Filter Preferences” and unchecking the option there.
  
• On the technical side, this option simply represents an additional filter subscription. The documentation describes how to view this filter subscription or disable the special treatment for it.
  
• There is a forum topic with lots of my replies to questions concerning this feature.
  

Other changes since the previous announcement:

• Filter search is now possible in the Filter Preferences.
  
• “Collapse blocked elements” option has been renamed into “Hide placeholders of blocked elements”.
  
• “Count filter hits” is now a visible option.
  
• Added “Reset hit statistics” filter action.
  
• Added warning for filter subscriptions requiring a newer Adblock Plus version.
  
• Updating all filter subscriptions is now possible using Ctrl-Shift-T keyboard shortcut (not visible in the user interface).
  
• Fixed: Filter groups should also have “Show/hide filters” in their Actions menu.
  
• Fixed: ABP menu still has the old “Preferences” menu item.
  
• Fixed: Dragging a filter subscription might display as a button or menu being dragged.
  

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What is this about?

Starting with Adblock Plus 2.0 you can allow some of the advertising that is considered not annoying. By doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way. And you give these websites an advantage over their competition which encourages other websites to use non-intrusive advertising as well. In the long term the web will become a better place for everybody, not only Adblock Plus users. Without this feature we run the danger that increasing Adblock Plus usage will make small websites unsustainable.

Why is this feature enabled by default?

Because that's unfortunately the only way to reach the goals outlined above. If we ask users to enable this feature then most of them won't do it — simply because they never change any settings unless absolutely necessary. However, advertisers will only be interested in switching to better ways of advertising if the majority of Adblock Plus users has this feature enabled.

But I hate all ads!

No problem, you can disable this feature at any time. Click the Adblock Plus icon and choose "Filter Preferences" from the menu. Uncheck "Allow non-intrusive advertising" and you are done.

Which ads are "acceptable"?

We currently have the following requirements:

• Static advertisements only (no animations, sounds or similar)
  
• Preferably text only, no attention-grabbing images
  
• At most one script that will delay page load (in particular, only a single DNS request)
  

These criteria are not final, we are working on improving them. In particular, we want to require that user's privacy is respected (mandatory Do Not Track support). However, we are not yet in a position to enforce that requirement.

Will all "acceptable" ads be unblocked?

No. Unfortunately, it isn't technically possible to recognize "acceptable" ads automatically. We have agreements with some websites and advertisers that only advertising matching our criteria will be used, their ads will be unblocked then. We hope to grow our list significantly over time.

What if an ad is allowed that doesn't meet the requirements?

Please report it as you usually would. If an advertiser abuses his placement on the exception list we can always remove him from the list.

How can I see what you are allowing?

The "Allow non-intrusive advertising" checkbox simply adds one more filter subscription to your list. You can view the filters here. Also, the special treatment of this filter subscription (which was added for reasons of usability) can be disabled by going to about:config and changing extensions.adblockplus.subscriptions_exceptionscheckbox preference to false. This will allow you to view the filters for this subscription as usually.

Do you have questions or suggestions concerning this list? Feel free to contact us.

Are you stupid? Nobody wants this!

The results of our user survey say something different. Only 25% of the Adblock Plus users seem to be strictly against any advertising. They will disable this feature and that's fine. The other users replied that they would accept some kinds of advertising to help websites. Some users are even asking for a way to enable Adblock Plus on some websites only.

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I dislike ads but I understand they are sometimes a necessary evil in order for you to get free :shit:

On the bright side, at least your still have the option to turn it off. :cheers:

[shought]

This is a really great move. We have been promoting the disabling of adblockers on sites with non-intrusive ads for quite some time now :)

[Nemesis]

This is a really great move. We have been promoting the disabling of adblockers on sites with non-intrusive ads for quite some time now :)

yea, like OURS :D without ads free websites would not exist.

[beer]

I agree. Although I only feel this way towards a few websites(nsane is definitely one of them), I think for all the information and content we get from the site, it is more than worth it.

:cheers:

[mrsmith]

I just updated my adblock plus. I checked in the filter options and the "Allow non-intrusive advertising" is ticked. I am (obviously) now on nsane. I still dont see any ads. What does that mean? Are the ads here considered intrusive?

[beer]

I just updated my adblock plus. I checked in the filter options and the "Allow non-intrusive advertising" is ticked. I am (obviously) now on nsane. I still dont see any ads. What does that mean? Are the ads here considered intrusive?

If you are using privacy filter lists (EasyPrivacy, Fanboy’s Tracking, Adverisity Privacy), the "Allow non-intrusive advertising" will be disabled even if it is checked. If you disable the filters the nsane ads will show up again.

[shought]

Also I think Google Ads are still considered intrusive... (Not sure.)

[x00x]

I love Ad-muncher always.