If you use an ad blocker, you might not appreciate this right now:

If you don't use an ad blocker, then you (hopefully) didn't even notice the change.

This week we made the difficult decision to request that our users whitelist GameDev.net in their ad blocker. After careful tracking and to no real surprise, we determined that a significant number of GameDev.net's visitors use an ad blocker, which damages our ability to provide a quality service to our advertising customers, and in turn damages our ability to provide a quality service to our users and the community.

We recognize that some of you may not appreciate this change and may rethink your stance on GameDev.net. We also recognize that many of you are skeptical of online advertising and do not want to disable your ad blocker for any site. We get it. The world these days is full of trackers and malware, and it makes good sense to stay as protected as possible. We can't fault that. In fact, we use ad blockers ourselves.

The only problem is, at least right now, GameDev.net's servers are powered primarily by advertisements. Without ads, GameDev.net doesn't exist. Apart from a GDNet+ subscription, the best way to support GameDev.net is to allow ads through your ad blocker.

While we can't promise perfection, we can promise that we take very seriously our responsibility of providing a platform where the games industry can learn, share, and connect with others around the world. When it comes to advertisements, we are very careful about which advertisers we work with, the messaging they use for the GameDev.net community, and the impact they have on your experience. While we've certainly made mistakes in this area, I like to think that we've outlasted most Internet web properties and sort of know what we're doing after 17 years.

We still need to work out some issues.

One was brought up here, and it's a great question: why should GDNet+ subscribers have to view ads of any kind? GDNet+ accounts are showing public and monetary support for GameDev.net already. Shouldn't they be able to use ad blockers?

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Because of their support for the site, GDNet+ subscribers are allowed to post their own banner ads (you might see one on this page now). If you are a GDNet+ subscriber and blocking ads, then you aren't affecting some large media advertising company - you're affecting your fellowGDNet+'ers who are now losing value in their subscriptions and in being able to market their products and service to you. That's a problem.

While GDNet+ does not completely remove ads, it does limit the type of ad that you are going to see as bulk/3rd party ads are removed. We don't have an answer for this yet, but options are being considered. Perhaps we should look into a completely ad-free tier for GDNet+?

As with all changes, we will continue to monitor this closely to ensure that GameDev.net provides the best platform possible for you to learn, share, and connect with others. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments here or in the forums. We take your feedback very seriously and use it to help shape our future.