
Why the maker of a chart-topping ad blocker just pulled it off the App Store - hackuser
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/09/18/an-ad-blocker-just-topped-the-charts-on-the-itunes-store-heres-why-the-developer-took-it-down/
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greenyoda
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10240295](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10240295)

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petervandijck
Interesting discussions today.

I feel strongly that,

1\. Anyone who tells you it's not "ethical" to install an ad blocker is so far
off it's not even funny.

2\. In the long run, this will make the mobile web better. Same thing happened
with popups.

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rrss1122
If Marco doesn't provide an ad blocker app, someone else is going to do it. If
he thinks he's gonna make a statement doing this, that statement is going to
fall on deaf ears. Users keep indicating that they want ad blockers, even
after hearing the same tired story that it will hurt content creators.

Pretty soon, you won't be able to rely on the ad networks for revenue. Then
it's a matter of adapt or die. I think newspapers are better positioned to
adapt than traditional web content, because newspapers have the experience of
having sales people dedicated to selling ad space on the paper. Pivot those
people to selling ads on the website, and roll your own ads, using your own
designers and developers (who should make it easy for the sales people to
rotate ads using a CMS).

The fight to save ad networks is a race against time that cannot be won.

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thescribe
This is the reason I still hate the concept of an App Store walled garden. The
fact that anyone but me can apparently pull a program I paid for off of my
device is indefensibly stupid.

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jhugg
It’s not removed from your device. If you have it, you have it. You just can’t
download it from Apple again, and you won’t get updates.

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thescribe
Ah, my mistake.

The wording on the author's site led me to believe it was gone from
applications.

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jhugg
I’m much more ok with ads than I am with tracking. Wish it was easier to have
one without the other.

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jhugg
I should add a giant “so long as it doesn’t mess up the browsing experience by
covering content or slowing down page loading”.

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webwanderings
Can the maker of uBlock please set the Adblocker on iPhone/iPads free for
everyone?

