I've been using adblock plus on various browsers for the last 6 or 7 years. IT'S GREAT! I've got it on Chrome now. I had been wondering why there was so much white spacing in the forums here lately. Now I know.
You can set Adblock up to see a few ads, or to see NO ads. Your choice.
Adblock will show you how many ads it blocks when the browser loads a page. When I loaded this page, it blocked 15 ads. Other sites, it will block 30 or 40. Just depends on how greedy the site is.
I know that the sites require the income to support the site. But it can be overdone, as with TV. I've almost quit watching TV due to the ever-increasing frequency and length of ads. If the internet gets the same way, I'll be done with it too.