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I totally understand with users getting pis*ed of by ads, especially if there are to many, or irrelevant. I also totally understand that many sites depend on displaying them. Mine is one of them. I want (need) to prevent users from blocking the ads, but want a mutual agreement on this. I don't want, to display an overlay directing/begging to"Disable your AdBlock, or [site won't load / we run of of business]", which instantly annoys me, as a user, on other sites.

My idea / question is this: Is it a good idea, to let users choose if, or how many, ads they get to see? The user would be asked to a) disable AdBlock for the site to fully and b) then make his choice about the ads he sees. This choice would be stored in cookies or user profile.

I think this kind of "negotiation" could solve the ads vs. blockers war. In the process a webmaster could briefly explain the importance of ads, give users a choice to either switch them off or keep them displaying to show support for their favourite free site. Btw. it might be a good way to make a connection to new visitors and have them sign up. I see this as a "no trespassing" vs. "please ask first" scenario where the latter makes everyone happy.

Has this been done? Or could it work?

EDIT: So, https://www.wired.com/ is something close to the idea above: enter image description here

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  • If somebody with AdBlock visits your site, what would they see? Would they get an appeal to enable some ads? Why would they do that? Wouldn't they have to disable AdBlock to do so? – Stephen Ostermiller♦ May 3 '19 at 10:49
  • The user would be asked to a) disable AdBlock for the site to fully and b) then make his choice about the ads he sees. It is a matter of tweaking this strategy on-the-fly. I probably wouldn't do this with first-time users, but on their 4th, 5th visit, since they are more likely to play along. Or maybe even for registered users only. Also the form of this request could be anything from a pop-up / overlay, or request in an AdSense placeholder. But all these could be decided based on user interaction data and changed. – marko-36 May 3 '19 at 10:55
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    So maybe showing the user that they will be able to control the number of ads on your site could entice them to disable the ad blocker? I don't think that would make me disable the blocker. – Stephen Ostermiller♦ May 3 '19 at 10:59
  • I take that as an answer, @StephenOstermiller , thanks :) But are there any data on this in general? Any site that has done it, with a tangible outcome? - that is what I'm after. – marko-36 May 3 '19 at 11:03
  • I haven't seen it done, and I don't have the data for you, but maybe somebody else here will be able to help. – Stephen Ostermiller♦ May 3 '19 at 11:20

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