A site like Patheos depends on advertising. The use of ad-blockers not only places the site’s ongoing existence in jeopardy in the long term, but deprives bloggers of their measly income in the short term as well.
I was aware that Patheos was going to try to find a way of delivering one advertisement in a way that would get past ad-blocking software. I understand from a friend that the result is often an extra tab of the sort that one expects only from shadier corners of the internet.
I’m in two minds on this subject, and have been for some time. On the one hand, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a blogger expecting to make a pittance of income as a result of blogging. I blogged for a long time before Patheos offered to pay me for doing so, and I am sure I would continue blogging even if the prospect of income were taken away. But on days when I might have simply foregone blogging, the fact that it is something that brings income was part of my motivation to go ahead and find something to blog about.
On the other hand, I sympathize with the desire to avoid ads. I have been one of the noisiest complainers when noisy ads were getting through onto the Patheos site. I pushed for there to be a full post RSS feed so that people didn’t have to click through to the site to read what I’ve written.
And so I haven’t thought of those who use ad-block software as stealing from me, in the way that Frank Schaeffer does.
But neither do I think that one has some inherent right to be able to access sites which depend on advertising to exist, yet without seeing the advertising.
Is this more like the case of someone who waits for a TV show to come out on DVD and borrows it from the public library, and so the makers are not really getting income from that individual, but it is perfectly legitimate? Or is it more like the case of people who jump turnstiles on the NYC Subway, and so are using for free what others are paying to use and thus making it possible for them to illegally use for free?
It is clearly more like the former than the latter. But it still deserves thought and reflection. As an academic author, I am resigned to the fact that I will make very little from sales of academic books that I write or edit. The system is such that they are mostly bought by libraries.
What is the model for blogging? Are we likely to see an escalating war between sites that advertise and programs that try to allow readers not to be exposed to advertising?
Perhaps if we could make some of the things that are most annoying illegal – the pop-ups, and auto-play videos, and ads that make your entire browser grind to a halt and crash, and things like that – then most people would be willing to not block the ads that remain? Because I am sure that most people are not seeking to prevent websites and bloggers from making an income, but are trying to avoid annoying inconveniences to themselves.
What’s the solution?
Let me encourage you to voice your views on this in the comments section here. I promise that I will make sure that someone at Patheos has the things you write drawn to their attention.
Let me end by reminding you of that time when the blog had the most appropriate ad ever:
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