DiscussHN: The Alexa rankings of Forbes and Wired after adblock detection

8 pointssigkill9y ago3 comments

Forbes - http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/forbes.com Wired - http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wired.com

I thought this looked interesting. Both are trending downward. Could it be because of their adblock detection scripts?

If it is, wouldn't it imply that there are similar effects to websites not allowing people with an adblocker, as there are to mistreating the "tech" person of a family or a large social group? [That is, just as the techie boycotts your products, the adblocker user will not link to your website on their social feeds, which might have allowed a non-adblock user to click]

3 comments

nekopa9y ago

Maybe. But as a single data point (me) I used to read both those sites regularly, but now every time I go there I'm like 'oh yeah.. (back button)'

Funny thing is though, the site 'The Atlantic' had a banner next to an article I was reading saying something along the lines of "Hey, we notice you are using an ad blocker, would you mind turning it off, or signing up for a subscription to support us?" But i was still able to read the article.

After reading I turned the ad blocker off for their site for good.

Maybe something about 'forcing' me to turn off my blocker annoys me, but I find that a site which asks nicely, let's me still read and whose content I enjoy, I am more than happy to turn off the blocker.

marymkearney9y ago

Forbes is so lame.

I disabled Adblock for forbes.com and for their welcome page, and still got the lockout message.

Then I paused Adblock entirely, and still got the lockout message.

With Adblock paused, I emptied the cache and did a hard reload, and still got the lockout message.

F 'em. I'm over it. They must have hired a UX designer from one of the major airlines.

codeonfire9y ago

wired.com as well. They are only hurting themselves. Can't they find a way to monetize other than forcing people to look at their ads?

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