Can it be justified to use Adblock plus here?

[Getafix]

Aaah, may be its because I am old and I still care for good people. Is it a decent thing to use Adblock plus when visiting Linux Mint forums?

Yes! you know the forums make some money with the help of Ads. It is like having my magic fluid and not caring to say 'thank you'.

[Matt267]

I have adblock plus turn off while visiting the Mint site and forums. I even click on the ads from time to time (mainly the ads for System76). I feel like I'm helping the servers stay powered.

Matt

[Getafix]

It also needs to be mentioned that .. even though I am old, I have feelings you know. I would also prefer not to see these girls smiling at me in between posts.

[Getafix]

I have adblock plus turn off while visiting the Mint site and forums. I even click on the ads from time to time (mainly the ads for System76). I feel like I'm helping the servers stay powered.

Matt

That is kind of you Matt. I too disabled Adblock a few days ago on both my browsers.

[xenopeek]

Ads help fund the project, along with sponsors and donors. Your support makes a difference; letting the Linux Mint developers work full time on Linux Mint. You could do as some other users have decided to do; block ads but become a sponsor or donor http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

[dee.]

I have a policy of not turning off adblock except for sites where I can be sure that there's no malicious and/or obnoxious ads. If the Mint forum can guarantee that the ads displayed will not be like that (ie. no silly flash animations that take up CPU resources, no pop-ups, etc.) then I can turn off adblock. Otherwise, I'd much rather keep it on and donate some money to Mint when I get the chance.

[Getafix]

Right. Donating some money and switching off Ad is a good idea.

[BrowserXL]

I think that it is ok to use adblock. The ads come from Google adwords and if I am not mistaken they do not pay PPV (Pay per View) but PPC (Pay per Click) or even worse expect qualified leads. Meaning that seeing those ads won't wash money into the pockets of the dev team. My time with the German Altavista Ad department is gone some years now, but I gues the revenuestream of such campaigns hasn't increased significantly as well as the conversion rate of such banners. With a man in the middle the money trickling in on the mint side is most likely not really significant.
I would advocate to eliminate the man in the middle and directly give the money where it belongs to. At least thats the way I intend to go, once my final test is through.

Cheers XL

[InkKnife]

I always turn off my blockers on sites for things I support. I like Mint and I like these forums so when I am here shields are down.