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[CyberShadow]

I wanted to reply to your response to my review on AMO, but since AMO does not provide that facility, I'll do it here, I hope that's OK.

It does not show "ads".

ad·ver·tise·ment
/ˈadvərˌtīzmənt,ədˈvərdizmənt/
noun

a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.
"advertisements for alcoholic drinks"

Seems pretty in line with the definition to me. Granted, only one product is advertised, but the advertisement is placed in such a way that the typical target user of this add-on would probably see it multiple times a day.

The default blocking page (which can be customized or replaced by the user)

Yep, thank you for that feature. I enabled it for all block sets as soon as I saw the ad. I still think that users shouldn't need to do that.

which is clearly of interest to LeechBlock users

OK, let's see:

• The software is non-free
• The software runs exclusively on non-free operating systems (so, none of the operating systems I use on any of my devices)
• The software does not solve a problem I have

This is three times the amount of arguments needed to prove that, clearly, it is not of interest to all LeechBlock users. So I'm not sure about your usage of "clearly" there.

Honestly, the idea that someone would be upset by this is baffling to me.

As is my surprise that you think that this is a totally OK thing to do and no one will raise an eyebrow.

You could say that I am violently allergic to advertisements. To me, an advertisement is emotionally equivalent to someone who wants my money shoving their garbage into my brain through my eyes and ears. If that phrase provoked a repulsive visual image, then I have successfully conveyed how I feel about them. I will actively avoid consuming any media where advertisements are inevitable, such as TV or broadcast radio, and ad blockers are a necessity.

LeechBlock is, and always will be, free to use -- and free not to use.

This line is meaningless because the same thing applies to every add-on on AMO. (It is doubly meaningless to me because I write/maintain/contribute to a number of free software projects, and the thought of adding an advertisement to one of those is abhorrent, but I guess that doesn't apply to everyone.)

[thoth101010]

I personnaly think that the advertisement isn't a problem. But not mentionning that it is an ad is a problem.
I think that ads are not going to be profitable anymore in some years and that they are dangerous for humanity ( without exagerating ) but that the work on this free software offsets the usage of advertisement. But only if something to make everyone know that it's an ad is added.

Ad blockers are also dangerous for internet freedom : most of the website using advertisement use it to survive. Some big website have made think that free means freedom and a lot of little websites can't survive if they make people pay for it. People minds have to change before the web can become ad-free and it's an everyday fight.

( Sorry for my bad english. I hope that you understood my message )

[ibrahima]

I think at least clarifying your relationship with Freedom on the block page would help. I couldn't tell from the block page if Freedom was a new product from Leechblock, now sponsoring development, etc. I certainly don't begrudge you making money off of a valuable extension, but just making it clearer what is going on would help a lot in keeping users' trust, IMO.

[matkoniecz]

I was briefly upset by this ad (yes it is clearly an ad). But thanks to included adless version of block/delay page, fixing of the problem was easy and was not including figuring out how to sign firefox extension.

Overall - I have no problem with ads if I can easily disable them. I have no idea what is the purpose of this ad - is it an unrelated project that author assumed that may be useful, commercial product of LB author, affiliate link or something else.

In each case I have no problem with including easy to disable ad in a very valuable software provided for free.

[proginosko]

I wanted to reply to your response to my review on AMO, but since AMO does not provide that facility, I'll do it here, I hope that's OK.

Sure, that's fine. I just wish I didn't have to spend time justifying things which, honestly, I shouldn't have to justify.

Seems pretty in line with the definition to me. Granted, only one product is advertised, but the advertisement is placed in such a way that the typical target user of this add-on would probably see it multiple times a day.

Yes, of course it's an ad. But be honest: "Shows ads" was a misleading way to title your review. It gives the impression that LB now displays Google Ads or something along those lines. This is quite different: a single, low-key ad for a product that should be of interest to LB users.

I still think that users shouldn't need to do that.

You think users should opt-in to see the ad? How would that work? :)

This is three times the amount of arguments needed to prove that, clearly, it is not of interest to all LeechBlock users.

But I didn't say "all" LeechBlock users, did I? I'm sure you understand the difference between a general statement and a universal statement.

As is my surprise that you think that this is a totally OK thing to do and no one will raise an eyebrow.

I do think it's a "totally OK thing to do" but I didn't expect no one to raise an eyebrow. People raise their eyebrows at all kinds of things that you and I would agree are perfectly acceptable. Life is a trade-off that way.

You could say that I am violently allergic to advertisements. To me, an advertisement is emotionally equivalent to someone who wants my money shoving their garbage into my brain through my eyes and ears. If that phrase provoked a repulsive visual image, then I have successfully conveyed how I feel about them. I will actively avoid consuming any media where advertisements are inevitable, such as TV or broadcast radio, and ad blockers are a necessity.

I'm sorry you have this emotional reaction to ads. That must make life challenging for you. All I can say is that I think your reaction is somewhat extreme and atypical of LB users.

Evidently you and I have different views of advertising. I gather you think ads are inherently bad. I think there are good ads and bad ads. Good ads connect good products with potential customers. It's a win-win.

This line is meaningless because the same thing applies to every add-on on AMO.

It's meaningless that I put hundreds of hours of work into developing a useful add-on and making it available on AMO? Okay.

I think you're missing the point. If you don't like LB, you don't have to use it. If you like it, you can use it with or without the ad. You have complete freedom here. What more do you want?

[CyberShadow]

Sorry if I came off too harsh. To clarify:

Previously, the default ad page included a donation link. I think that's completely fine, a lot of open-source projects do that.

However, with this change, you have essentially begun to monetize your users. That might sound overly drastic to you, but it is how I felt about the change. It was no longer clear whether your priority was still to write useful free software, or to move on to extracting financial gain from the user base the project has gained.

A few add-on developers have infamously sold their then-popular add-ons to third parties (see e.g. HoverZoom), who proceeded to add tracking advertisements and other nasty stuff to them. Since this change was unexplained, it wasn't possible to tell how different this situation was from those.

That must make life challenging for you.

Nice try.

Not really, though.

It's meaningless that I put hundreds of hours of work into developing a useful add-on and making it available on AMO?

So has almost every other add-on developer on AMO. Really, I don't see why you keep stretching this point. A lot of people spend a large portion of their lives writing free software and expecting nothing in return.

What more do you want?

Nothing. I wanted to reply to your reply on AMO. I don't like ads, which is why I gave it a low review, so that should an alternative appear that would not have ads, it would have a slightly higher chance of having a better average score. Is that not how the system is supposed to work?