If you'll do the me kindness of risking injury from patting myself on the back, for a moment...

For 12 years, I've been in the web advertising business. Sometimes I make games, sometimes I make full sites. But the majority of my work has been online ads: those 300x250 or similar ads you often see, ignore, or block.

I've never made an ad with auto-playing sound, invasive content, or vulgar, repetitive, or annoying content. I've never once worked for an agency that produced this crap. I'm trying to engage you in a way that uses fun HTML tech, not sell you a soviet pill to make you hung like a moose or find you hot single babes who totally "don't" have penises.

However, I don't like my YouTube videos pausing every 4 minutes. I don't like the units that other companies make that do these things, that slow the sites I'm on down, the have giant headers that take up 50% of the screen before I can read my memes, news articles, etc.

This only hurts me professionally, and while I used to love seeing the ad I built for Ghost Rider's 2007 DVD release on Aint It Cool News, over time, the bad ads have worn me down.

Do you like Cracked.com ? I do to! Up until December, they used to produce a lot of quality video content, too! After Hours, Rom.com, Pop Culture Obsessive Disorder, Some News ... I loved this stuff. One day, it dawned on me I hadn't seen these things in a long, long time.

It's because of Ad Blockers.

It's because they weren't making money and the entire video department I loved was laid off. Content creators got screwed because of how YouTube changed monetization guidelines, and how I took for granted a "real" site using YouTube as their hosting platform - "They don't need my YouTube likes and ad views" I thought. "They're a regular, full site that just uses YouTube to do the video hosting for them. It's not the same as someone like Andre "Black Nerd" or Seatin Man of Legends or MasakoX who only may have YouTube!" I thought.

I was wrong, and now, my ad blocking ways have contributed to one of my favorite channels dying a hard death, and putting people out of their jobs.

I realize this is an across the board problem. I realize it affects all aspects of e-business and those who rely on the web to make their nut. So, I started whitelisting sites I rely on to pay it forward. The result? I see more invasive ads, I get annoyed by them, I wonder why I'm sitting through another ad for another subscription service I don't want.

I don't think "this hurts me" when I block an ad, and I'm not thinking "this helps pay my bills" when I unblock them. I think "I'm not hurting someone else" by unblocking them.

I realize I'm in an industry a lot of people hate because some of the really bad ad creators are ruining it. But, I'm trying my best to make content you don't block - at best, will click, and at worst, will quietly ignore - and also support the other people out there who rely on ads and sponsors to make enough money so that they don't have to work somewhere they hate.

TL;DR : I make content that ruins your internet, and I'm starting to be proud of it because it helps support the internet you love.

Happy to field any questions you have about this stuff. Happy to have all the hate ads bring you hurled at me to.