As time as gone on, ads have become more annoying, noisy, and even downright deceptive and it's bullshit. I have Jim Sterling a chance when he asked everyone to stop using Adblock, but the ads on The Escapist are intrusive and annoying. I gave Sep7agon a chance, but ads that make noise when moused over are annoying as hell.

If your ads lead to legitimate services and aren't intrusive (i.e. making noise/filling the entire screen when I mouse over them or when I load a page), then I'll consider disabling Adblock for your site, whoever may read this. I hate the culture of advertising in America. Advertisements for TV shows and dildos and even prescription drugs every place I turn. What the hell? You're not a doctor, don't ask your doctor to prescribe you shit like the commercials want you to. Not in Russia, anyway.

As a result of all this, I do everything I can to avoid ads by using Adblock, not watching TV (it's bullshit anyway), and not listening to the radio in my car. Ad-free web pages, YouTube, and my own playlists have served me well. Ads are flashy and intrusive and they get in your face. If I want to know which toothbrush or smartphone to buy, I'll look it up myself.

We've hit the point where ads are the most intrusive they've ever been, but we also have the best ways to get rid of them ever as a direct result. Advertisers no longer have the chance to make their ads less invasive to suit us as the damage has been done. I'll never stop using Adblock and as far as I'm concerned, I'll never see another advertisement on the internet ever again.

Of course, as I write this, I recall something I saw on the internet years ago: the Acceptable Ads Manifesto, which I encourage you to read (https://acceptableads.org/en/). It's essentially a list of requirements for an ad to be potentially let through an ad blocker. I wouldn't particularly mind this, but I know that it'll never happen. As I said, the damage is done. It's too late now. But it's a neat idea.

In conclusion, ads today are bullshit. To hell with them.

I only disable adblock when a website is being a bitch and tells me to in order to do what I want.

Honestly, everything you post is fucking genius. 

Honestly, everything you post is fucking genius.

Of course. I am a genius.

When you guys watch tv do you flip shit and go insane when commercials come on?

When you guys watch tv do you flip shit and go insane when commercials come on?

Yeah, especially since they're always on at the same time on every channel.

Quote from: DAS B00T x2 on October 26, 2014, 10:07:19 PM

Quote from: Septy on October 26, 2014, 09:55:41 PM

When you guys watch tv do you flip shit and go insane when commercials come on?

Yeah, especially since they're always on at the same time on every channel.

And five times louder than the show.

And they always run at the worst times to ruin the atmosphere of drama or tension, or action.

Quote from: Septy on October 26, 2014, 09:55:41 PM

When you guys watch tv do you flip shit and go insane when commercials come on?

Yes, and I no longer have cable. It's asinine you have to pay for cable AND view ads.

I really don't understand the point of ads on the 360.

I'm paying XBL $60 and it's littered with pointless ads that I don't give a fuck about.

It's stupid! This is why I'm letting my gold run out on January 8th. I am done with Xbox after that date.

When you guys watch tv do you flip shit and go insane when commercials come on?

I don't watch TV. Simple enough. Most made-for-TV programs are bullshit anyway, especially in America where everything has to be sensationalized.

I'll go off-topic here for a moment. There is a TV program in Japan called Sasuke. It's a show in which contestants run through a challenging obstacle course in a limited amount of time and it takes incredible skill to run this course in all its parts completely in the time allotted. In Russia, the show is called Путь ниндзя, which means something like "Way of the Ninja". In America, you may know this show as Ninja Warrior. I've watched it both in America and in Russia and it's cool as shit. They don't do any voice-over of the announcers, so its original language is only supplemented by subtitles. Pretty cool stuff.

Of course, then comes American Ninja Warrior, a complete sham and a mockery of the original program (the original is one which I regard as a masterpiece of television). They turned the whole damn thing into a gameshow rather than a test of one's skill. Now there's no time limit and the course is much easier.

There is a lengthy introduction to each contestant taking up a majority of the show. In the original, the announcer spends fifteen seconds saying the person's name and their job unless they're a previous winner in which case they're applauded, but the introduction is still short. Even for people you've never heard of in American Ninja Warrior get a lengthy introduction. The American version takes so much longer to do anything at all and only a few people run the course. In the Japanese original, nearly 100 people are able to run the course in the length of a program and in the nearly hour-long American episodes, barely anyone runs the course. Bullshit.

The worst part though is that they ruined how the course is fundamentally played. In Sasuke, any people who achieve Total Victory (completing the entire course), whether it be one person or many are equally applauded as winners. They each are regarded as champions and no one person "won more" than another, which is indicative of how the Japanese view competition and I respect them greatly for their decision to honor all winners, as each of them very much deserves it.

>inb4 weeaboo; am not one

Of course, in the American version, they fuck it up. In American Ninja Warrior, there can only be ONE winner, as is typical of American gameshows and it's bullshit. There's only one winner even if multiple people are capable of completing the course (entirely possible because of how dumbed down the course was), so if someone goes before you and they win, it's tough shit for you.

That's the fundamental problem with TV and America's culture in general. They have no respect for you and they have no respect for the source material for absolutely anything. They could make a movie about Pushkin's life (as if they care about him) and they'd completely ruin it. I know they would.

Good job on supporting the site man.