1. They can break the content they are trying to view. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to view a Youtube video with an advertisement on it only to have the unskippable video advertisement freeze up on me making the 30-second ad into a 2 to 3-minute ad. Unlike the actual video I cannot control the video quality of the ad to match my slow Internet speed, which makes viewing some Youtube videos, a pain. There’s also problems with advertisement that scroll over the entire page or even worse ones that bug me to download the mobile app when I’m trying to read something on the go. These are all barriers from enjoying your content.

2. The Advertisements aren’t very useful. Unlike Xbox Live, Television or Radio I have never felt the advertisements on Google adsense are relevant to me what so ever. No I don’t want to look at local police records, I’m not old enough for AARP and I’m not sure why I’m seeing a Chinese ad for the MGM Grand. Xbox Live advertises new content I may be interested in, Radio advertises local events I may want to go to, and TV usually tries to tie advertisements in with the show. With the web however it seems like the content connecting with something I’d like is a slot machine and almost always comes up short.

3. Your content isn’t interesting or unique enough for most people to care. I’m sorry but the majority of gaming websites these days resemble the press releases I get in my email everyday. The reason why CrassCast doesn’t cover news unless we’re at conventions is because it isn’t interesting to do so. As much as people claim to hate Joystiq and IGN it’s undeniable that they provide the news fast, first, and in the best way possible. This why I’m glad sites like N4G bar people from spamming the website with their copy pasted press releases. Unfortunately this trend has spilled into Youtube with entire channels dedicated to plagiarizing IGN articles while adding a minute of opinion followed by “What do you think? Leave a comment, rate, Subscribe!” I think the popularity of these videos encourages the least amount of thought and effort possible and makes me somewhat glad that adblock cleanses some of this.

Overall the whining of adblock will do nothing to stop it. The Internet user of 2013 is well informed and modern. They will not put up with intrusive advertisements for the benefit of someone who writes about adult toys. If you truly think they won’t abandon you the moment your try to undermine them you’ll go extinct just as subscription based podcasts and websites have gone. If Google decides to ban adblock from their extensions, people will switch to Firefox. We no longer live in an era where people will put up with mediocrity, people will move on. The question is will you be able to keep up?