Guess I'll no longer be watching videos on TGWTG

[kane_magus]

So Blip.tv, the video player used by the guys on thatguywiththeglasses.com, recently instituted a thing where if you have an ad blocker installed, it will make you sit there for 90 seconds with a "Sorry, but because you're blocking our ads, we're going to make you sit here in retaliation" message.

So why don't I just turn off the ad blocker for blip.tv like Linkara asked? No, no I will not be turning off ad block. All it takes is one (1) ad spewing malware to screw everything up, and for me that one (1) time already happened back when Cinemassacre had an ad that contained malware. Before that point, sure, I was willing to whitelist some sites on my ad blocker, including cinemassacre.com and thatguywiththeglasses.com, but no more. So yeah, rather than sit through the inconvenience of a minute and a half of silence for every single video now, during which they're trying to make me feel like a scuzzy creep because I'm skipping their commercials, I've simply decided to just remove thatguywiththeglasses.com from my bookmarks altogether and just find my Internet entertainment from somewhere less obnoxious. Maybe if/when they find a less insufferable way to earn their living than by using video ads prior to and in the middle of their videos, I might go back and give them another shot. But until then, I don't feel like I'm missing out on all that much. I might be willing to sit through 90 seconds for the occasional Nostalgia Critic video or something, perhaps, but that's about it. I already haven't watched a Linkara video in months, honestly, or a Nostalgia Chick video for even longer than that, and beyond that, I never watched anyone else on the site in the first place (well, aside from Spoony, but they fired him a while back... and, hmm, I think that's around the time I mostly stopped watching videos on their site, how about that). Oh well. *shrug*

(EDIT) Since Channel Awesome apparently no longer uses blip (or, at least, Doug Walker himself doesn't seem to, and he's pretty much the only one I care about watching on the site anymore), the above issue is no longer relevant, so I'll resume watching at least the Nostalgia Critic videos and other stuff that Doug puts out. I seriously doubt I'll resume watching any of the stuff from the others I used to watch, though, mostly meaning Linkara and Nostalgia Chick (who isn't even with the site anymore anyway) and such, unless they happen to do a crossover with Doug or something. I don't know, aside from Doug and James Rolfe and Noah Antwiler and Matt, Pat, Woolie, and Liam, the whole "angry internet reviewer" thing just doesn't really appeal to me much anymore, in general. (/EDIT)

Comments

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I'm going to have to disagree with you here. I think it's kind of scummy to use ad-block on sites you visit frequently that are trying to make money from ads, and that "it might be malware" excuse sounds a little fake to me. It reminds me of some of the pseudo-justifications people use for pirating things. If you run some protection software like Microsoft Security Essentials, the small risk of a malware ad shouldn't be that high. I don't even use an adblocker, I just use noscript + MSE and I've never had any problems.

At least you are not going to the site anymore rather than just updating adblock software to get around that 90 second thing.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Talk to me again when you've had your computer infected with badware from an advertisement. That was the reason I started using an adblocker in the first place, years ago. But then I started feeling bad about it, so I whitelisted some sites. And then the Cinemassacre thing happened, and it spooked me into turning it back on for all sites. I don't appreciate being called "fake" when I give a valid reason for why I use it, by the way.

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

I've also heard people who say they pirate because they can't trust stores, since they had one bad experience. I guess not so much fake as an overreaction. But if you don't want to go to the site any more because you don't like their ads, that's fine. But I doubt any site that has ads on it would want you to turn on the adblocker.

I'm just a little surprised that with your very strong stance against piracy, you would make such heavy use of an adblocker. They're not the same thing, but they both involve getting something for free that the creator wants to make money on.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

The difference between piracy and ads on a site is that you have to actively seek out of your own accord the pirated material. Ads are just all over the place, however, and the possibility for any one of them spewing bad stuff, no matter how remote, is still there, and I'm not going to risk it. The Cinemassacre thing isn't the first time I've had to deal with malware from an ad. Once bitten, twice shy, I guess. If they find a way to make money that doesn't involve potentially infecting people's computers with crap, then I'll support that. For example, I've bought Nostalgia Critic DVDs, as well as Kickassia and Suburban Knights, and I'll probably get To Boldly Flee at some point as well.