Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28667791-20161230123052

First, a little backstory. I have been using ad-block for as long as I can remember, so much so that I never think about it and that the way webpages appeared to me (ad free) has become my new normal for the past 10 years.

Fast-forward to last year. I started researching, gathering info and building a database of everything I could find about my favorite artist's extensive resumé since there wasn't any comprehensive online source for his work. My goal was to eventually create a central webpage sharing all that valuable knowledge.

When the time came, I decide to create my database on Wikia.com after seeing how neat and visually pleasing the wikis looked. So I started creating my Wikia page. LOTS and LOTS of hours of work... uploading images, coding, formatting, learning the wikia "codes", tweaking, ect ect ect. Finally, after 2 years worth of hard work, my Wikia page was complete! It looked perfect! And I released it to the world.

Today, Ad-Block's unspoken dirty secret hit me like a brick right in the face!

Curious on how my Wikia page looked and operated for first time visitors, I opened a "incognito" browser window, unlogged myself from my wikia account, disabled my Ad-Block and went to my wikia... And WOW... I'm lost for words...I must be living under a rock because I had no clue Wikia would have so much invasive ads everywhere with giant flash script ads on top of the pages, ads scrolling down as I scroll the pages, ads popping up at random, overlayed animated ad, ads necessitating interactions to close them to see the full wikia pages and other horrors I never experienced before in my life.

My 2 years worth of hard work, my precious website... I just came to the realization that it looks like absolute garbage, it's confusing, hard to navigate and worst of all, feels untrustworthy and suspicious.

Is Wikia.com to blame? No. All of this my friends, is the result of Ad-Block's unspoken dirty secret. Ad-Block doesn't "block ads" on the internet, it alternate your perception and alienate you from reality, leaving you alone, overwhelmed and confused, unable to function normally or catch up with what is the real Internetz.

-Adam

- - - - - - - - - - -

[About Me]

From: Montreal-North (Québec)

OS: Linux

EXP: Online since 1996!

Wikia: McRappersonDeluxe.Wikia.com

- - - - - - - - - - - 