There's recently been a bit of talk about Firefox and Adblock Plus, with wild claims about it being immoral to block ads.
For those of you who haven't worked it out, the web doesn't have to be a place filled with popping up, flashing, zinging, annoying advertising getting in the way of the content. By simply installing a more secure, better browser with an ad blocking extension, the web becomes blissfully ad-free. No more trying to read text while a neighbouring advertisement competes for your eye.
Now there's even a campaign to block Firefox itself, adblock or no, which is pretty hilarious. I have to say I haven't found any sites that have redirected me to this, which probably says something about the types of sites that might block Firefox.
The argument they make is that advertising pays for the content, so it's wrong to use the content without the ads. Here's a tip guys: find another way to make money. By this logic, making a cup of tea during the ad breaks on television is also morally wrong.
They also say it's wrong to use the site's bandwidth without looking at the ads. So do they also block search engines and the like, which have no human being to watch the ads?
Want to know why I've blocked ads for many many years? Punch the monkey to find out.