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A lot of people (me included) don't mind the ads as much as the tracking that's done, which is a huge breach of privacy. If websites pulled the ads in the back-end and displayed them as static images with href-links to the advertised product's website, and stopped using cookies to track people, then this would probably not be a problem. Also scripts like AdBlock would struggle to block what look like normal images.
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Out of interest: which part of the tracking do you see as a breach of privacy? Given that ad tracking is based on a GUID (essentially) that's placed in a cookie, the "tracking" is a set of actions (usually page visits) that the given cookie is associated with. Generally there's nothing personally identifiable, and further, you can simply wipe cookies and the tracking's gone. Disappeared in a cloud of bits.
I get the "it feels weird" part. I don't, however, understand where any breach of privacy has actually occurred.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Well, when it' a site like CP that I trust personally it's not something I am particularly concerned about. But when I go to a website for the first time ever and they display an ad that's very closely related to something I recently searched for or discussed on a forum or discussed via email on gmail or yahoo, then that's rather creepy. I just am not fully comfortable with how unrelated websites can show me ads based on my browsing habits.
The model I prefer would be where sites ask me for keywords or topics I am interested in, and they serve me ads on those topics. But the ads are pulled server side and then rendered as static images. The good thing is the ad companies have no clue who I am. Even better for the website, plugins like ad-blocker cannot block what's a regular image in a webpage. Win-win I think.
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Adblockers work on a bunch of things: domain blocking to stop scripts, element removal based on element ID or class name, and image dimensions. They go in and go hard at disrupting websites' business models.
the upshot of this is that advertising is going to become worse, not better. Ad agencies aren't going to take the high road and say "OK, you're right: we need to tone it down and show you sensible, relevant stuff". They are going to make it so if you can't view content without seeing ads.
The irony is that everyone actually wants relevant ads. No one wants the ad systems to know what ads are relevant to them, though. Sites that rely on sensible advertising then throw up our hands and have a quiet cry in the corner.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Well I actually try to optimize my ads, specially with google/gmail. If I see an ad that does not interest me, I close it, and use the popup to let them know why I closed that ad. So far I have not seen much improvement to be honest, but eventually I hope they'll show me relevant ads 
Also, I do not condone using ad-blockers on free sites that show legitimate ads.
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Sooner or later the advertisers are going to realize that they are being ripped off. No one clicks the Ads.
At a minimum, they should only pay the sites for clicks, not views.
And reading cookies is stupid. If I Google blenders, showing me an ad for blenders a week later is a waste of time...I've probably already bought the damn thing, and don't really need another.
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AFAIK, only clicks do get paid. And that is exactly the problem: if views were paid, advertisers wouldn't put much effort into making their ads jump in the way wherever they can. Seems like advertisers spend their time inventing new ways of tricking people into inadvertently clicking on an ad, even if they're not interested. And that's what's making them so annoying.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Used to be, and probably still is, click-throughs cost X amount to the advertiser, and impressions cost Y; impressions being just showing up on the page, costing less.
So it's not the advertisers themselves doing it, but the sites they show up on. The website charges more money to the advertisers if you click the ad.
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Most sites that detect AdBlock use a script like this one (which is one of the more popular ones) :
sitexw/FXXXAdBlock · GitHub[^]
I edited the URL/text to avoid getting auto-marked as spam (in case CP does that).
But then some guys came up with this (which is a userscript that works around the above script). Aptly named too.
Mechazawa/FXXXFXXXAdblock · GitHub[^]
Just some trivia on the topic 
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Cool. Thanks for the info.
I will be faarrrkkkking legless before I am carriedcto the car ftombhere. - Michael Martin - Christmas 2015
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Over the past years, I've seen a couple of sites going that route. The first I've seen was arstechnica: at first they blocked the site entirely, offering a subscription instead. But after a storm of protests, they opened up their site again under the condition that you disable your adblocker.
arstechnica is alive and well now: apparently the vast majority of visitors didn't mind whitelisting them, so they keep getting sufficient revenues from their unintrusive ads.
Since then, I've encountered quite a few sites that detect adblockers and ask the viewer to whitelist them. A few (very few so far) even block their content if you don't whitelist them.
I have no qualms whitelisting sites that only show unobtrusive, static ads. But I don't usually stop at any site to consider whitelisting them unless they ask me to. I suspect that's true for most people, so I expect more and more sites will go ahead and ask people to enable ads on their site. I do hope those requests will go hand in hand with trimming down ads to those types that are unobtrusive and reasonable. For those sites I whitelisted that has been true - so far I never revoked an entry.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Update to my previous response:
Looks like Forbes isn't honest about it's concerns and intent. I just noticed that even with AdBlock disabled, it claims I have it on. I dug among the few addons and plugins I have installed, and then, after disabling Privacy Badger, Forbes finally worked.
The thing is: Privacy Badger does not block ads at all! It only blocks trackers! Sorry, Forbes, you can show me any ads you want, but if you choose to spy on me while claiming something different, then I'm not going to trust you on anything else either. Forbes just died for me 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Not surprised, it's Forbes, after all.
Thanks for the update.
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Yeah but if I'd just linked to the pic, half the responses would have been fart jokes... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: half the responses would have been
No....
...probably upwards of 80%.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Yeah but if I'd just linked to the pic, half the responses would have been fart jokes...
... and the problem is?
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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...the other half would have been people whining about fart jokes... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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That is actually, very cool. I'm amazed that the two guys were able to stay out long enough to take the pics.
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No problem staying out at this temperature when it is dry when you are properly dressed.
I prefer that (-30c) to 1c when it is raining, and you get all wet and damp.
I'd rather be phishing!
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Is Santa always so happy because he knows where all the naughty girls live?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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An he never shares, that fat old b*rd.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
"just eat it, eat it"."They're out to mold, better eat while you can" -- HobbyProggy
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Personally, I think it is pretty elvish of him not to share.
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