Why FireFox is Blocked. Idiotic campaign by site owners who don’t like AdBlock Plus. If you block Firefox we won’t link to your site, so you’ll miss out on PageRank, so you’ll miss out on traffic, so you’ll miss out on money.
Sign in with 
OpenID
Stupid. Their argument is reminiscent of that TV exec that claimed skipping commercials on your Tivo is tantamount to theft.
Oh, and good luck with that user-agent sniffing!
David Lindquist - 17th August 2007 00:20 - #
"Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers."
Huh? So there aren't many Firefox users, which means they aren't losing much, but by blocking Firefox users they'll get "tremendous financial rewards"?
The mind boggles.
(And what David said. Isn't there also an extension specifically to mask the user-agent info?)
Elaine Nelson - 17th August 2007 00:29 - #
Obviously, this is something the RIAA would fully support.
Good old internet. Never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be.
For the record, someone's guilty of theft (Theft Act 1968, section 1).
I don't think that stretches to making some adverts disappear on a web page I'm viewing on my computer.
If your business model relies on your readers looking at adverts, and your readers don't want to look at adverts, then you need a new business model, not some a bunch of FUD-packed nonsense.
So... some Firefox users block ads, denying the site owner ad revenue. Therefore, they block all Firefox users, including those without ad block.
Makes sense.
Lach - 17th August 2007 00:32 - #
Of course I couldn't see their arguments because I'm running Firefox with AdBlock Plus... oh well...
Johan - 17th August 2007 00:39 - #
So they're blocking potential revenues from non-adblock-using Firefox users?
I use Firefox, and not Adblock... so I can't access their site and make them money.
I'd wager that they're cutting off more legitimate users than 'illegitimate' adblock-using users... great way to bite the hand that feeds you.
If you do a whois on the domain, you'll find that the person behind it seems to be a bit of a crank and doesn't appear to have much in the way of backing.
Also, I've never really had a need for Adblock (helpful given that Safari is my day-to-day browser); a user stylesheet accomplishes the same thing, and works in any browser :)
James Bennett - 17th August 2007 03:50 - #
Personally i don't mind google adverts, admitedly its because i can blank them without any bother, but i'm getting more and more fed up with adverts that blare up in the middle of my page, adverts that use sound, and most agregous adverts that use buggy flash players to show useless video adverts...
"Of course I couldn't see their arguments because I'm running Firefox with AdBlock Plus..."
So you're saying that there are Adblock Plus filter sets that remove opinions too? That's a bit worrying, actually.
@Fredrik:
EasyList, apparently.
Jeremy Dunck - 17th August 2007 08:50 - #
Absolute stupidity. Any idea if any sites have adopted this moronic stance?
Lachlan - 17th August 2007 09:04 - #
shrug! I don't need their links anyway.
DC Crowley - 17th August 2007 09:56 - #
Thanks for the heads up I was not running ad block software. Only a small percentage of people install that plugin. Do you not know that you can do the same thing in IE. That is like saying you don't like soccer moms so your going to not let SUV's into your parking lot. Not all SUV's are driven by soccer moms.
ogletree - 17th August 2007 13:08 - #
What if I block ads with my /etc/hosts file?
Will you then block all computers with the internet!?
This is laughable.
The guy is a religious fanatic and a bigot.
Apparently only blacks, homosexuals and devil worshipers use Firefox, I guess.
He's pissed because he thinks he's important enough to bring in enough hits to make money so he can shove more fatty foods into the bloated pile of s**t he calls a body. As if white trash racists and bigots are a source of income for anyone except producers of white hoods, Jerry Falwell anal plugs, and pork products.
What's funny, is that I can't seem to find his site at all now on Google. I can't remember how I stumbled upon it now. He's obviously important and making a difference in the world.
M T - 17th August 2007 16:26 - #
What puzzles me is why this specific crank gets so much attention. I mean, they're everywhere on the net, so why do people spend so much energy on this one?
Fredrik - 17th August 2007 18:02 - #
I viewed that page in K-Meleon - with AdblockPlus enabled! Some anti-adblocker strategy...
Matt - 17th August 2007 18:31 - #
I could also block ad domains with OpenDNS. I guess they need to configure their nameserver to prevent OpenDNS from getting their IP.
Now we need a Firefox extension that detects these redirects and automatically requests the original page with a different user-agent header.
Next step in the arms race is sites blocking IPs that have made a recent request using Firefox. Modify the extension to use a different user-agent and a service that provides anonymous surfing...
David Robarts - 17th August 2007 19:06 - #
It's ill-executed as well as ill-thought-out. At least one site owner is blocking so crudely that he is identifying Epiphany and Konqueror on Linux and Safari and Camino on the Mac as "Firefox".
There's also an interesting suggestion that if people who are blocking Firefox are taking Google ads, then they are violating Google's terms, which it seems wouldn't permit them to do this.
They probably don't know this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
After all, only another 3 clicks after installing adblock, and who cares about what UA string my browser reports.. love silly ideologists :D
Balazs - 21st August 2007 10:52 - #
Apparently, the genius didn't read the part on http://www.firefoxmyths.com/ (linked prominently at the top) that deals with the spelling of the browser's name.
Also, I'd venture to guess that basically anyone with ad-blocking browser addons would ignore ads anyway…
Reinmar - 21st August 2007 16:58 - #
Gee whiz, perhaps they should start blocking people who competently configure a hardware firewall at their network perimeter.
Who would want to shoot themselves in the foot by blocking potential customers just because of the bus they rode to the store? Seems a bit xenophobic to me, "whites only entrance" anyone?
You can block my browser if you want, I'll spoof the UA. You can block my IP if you please, I'll use a proxy. Instead of bitching about people who block annoying advertisements, learn how to not compel people to block them in the first place... free hint: Unobtrusive text ads.
Tom - 5th April 2008 19:52 - #