See, I'm Not the Only One Complaining About Ad Blocking

Ars Technica's Ken Fisher has a thoughtful piece on how ad blocking is killing high quality web sites.

If you read a site and care about its well being, then you should not block ads (or you subscribe to sites like Ars that offer ads-free versions of the site). If a site has advertising you don't agree with, don't go there. I think it is far better to vote with page views than to show up and consume resources without giving anything in return.

Fisher offers concise and truthful responses to some of the common defenses for blocking ads. For example,

Invariably someone always pops into a discussion like this and brings up some analogy with television advertising, radio, or somesuch. It is not in any way the same; advertisers in those mediums are paying for potential to reach audiences, and not for results. […] On the Internet everything is 100% trackable and is billed and sold as such. Comparing a website to TiVo is comparing apples to asparagus. And anyway, my point still stands: if you like this site you shouldn't block ads. (Emphasis is mine.)

It will be interesting to see how readers respond. More food for thought for those who were dubious about my own musings on the subject here or on OFB.

[HT: John Gruber]