# [SO doesn't care about ad-blockers.][1]

>  We entered into an agreement with Stack Overflow users long ago that we 
> wouldn’t subject them to low-quality ads. [...] But really: anything
> that doesn’t speak specifically to the Stack Overflow audience is not
> permitted. We also don’t accept rich media like animated ads,
> expandable ads, or video, which are the norm for most publishers
> today. This strict policy means we leave money on the table, but our
> team wants to protect Stack Overflow from those kinds of ads, as they
> run the risk of alienating that established trust.
> 
> [...]
> 
> The truth is: we don’t care if our users use ad blockers on Stack
> Overflow. More accurately: we hope that they won’t, but we understand
> that some people just don’t like ads. Our belief is that if someone
> doesn’t like them, and they won’t click on them, any impressions
> served to them will only annoy them– plus, serving ads to people who
> won’t click on them harms campaign performance.

Many of the reasons why we block ads in the first place are eliminated:

- Obnoxious, in-your-face ads aren't allowed.
- Much lower risk of ads being a vector for malware.
- Ads aren't that much of a burden on bandwidth.

Also: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/116254/does-stack-exchange-use-acceptable-ads-according-to-adblock-plus Yes, they do.

Lastly, a good portion of the ads are [community ads][2], created by us users to showcase things we think might be of interest to us.

I personally disable my adblockers on SE sites, and I don't find the experience to be degraded. Then again, I do have >200 rep on the sites I frequent the most, so I do see decreased ads in the first place.

---

You can vote on the ads you see (look for the thumbs-up/down buttons that appear in the top-left corner when you hover on an ad):

[![enter image description here][3]][4]


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.blog/2016/10/26/why-stack-overflow-doesnt-care-about-ad-blockers/?cb=1
  [2]: https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/tagged/community-ads
  [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/gHmlwm.png
  [4]: https://i.sstatic.net/gHmlw.png