Top bar advertising

Almost the same here Cote - I'm on chrome with a full size MacBook Air - and it is darned annoying.
I lose about a third of the screen, and quite a lot of the time that purple bar thing takes up room at the bottom at the same time

Thank you for acknowledging the problems, Kate.

I'm not using any of the devices you listed. I'm accessing MN via Safari on MacBook Air (full size one, not the little student version).

We've run some test here and it does look as though the current format isn't ideal for those on a chromebook or with a smaller screen/lower powered device
Thank you Kate for acknowledging the problems.
Would it not be a good idea to revert to previous settings, so that your faithful users can get back to normal until you have sorted things, even if this might mean a temporary drop in income?
You say it might take some months to sort this. I very much hope that a lesson has been learned here, that proper testing should be done before a system goes live. Users should not be used as testers.

Its bloody rubbish on a normal PC too.

Please get something sorted, MNTech

I am not using any of the above and it is still less than ideal for me. I am using safari on a MacBook and my mn user experience is rubbish. I am spending far less time on here as I simply cannot abide the banner ad dropping onto my screen every time I post or select a new page.

I'm all for cooperating so that MN can make some money, but refuse to sit here waiting for the ad that covers half the page to go away after who knows how many seconds

Yes I always whitelist useful or interesting sites where ads are not obtrusive and the trackers/beacons are not evil. However considering the 'improvements' mentioned upthread as already implemented don't actually work and no more info has been forthcoming I'm assuming they are not interested.

Here's hoping they are better prepared when the SARs and rights requests start rolling in to HQ in May.

Well, I disabled my adblocker to see what it was like - I really don't mind ads when they aren't massively intrusive.

Back to ads taking up a third of my page and lingering.

So the adblocker is back on and highly likely to STAY on.

"we must assume this is the way it is going to be"

Then I keep the ad blocker which I was pushed to install by MN's outrageously obtrusive ads.

I'm all for cooperating so that MN can make some money, but refuse to sit here waiting for the ad that covers half the page to go away after who knows how many seconds.

It's like setting tax rate at 80%. Above a certain rate, tax revenues will actually decrease because more and more people will find increasingly imaginative ways to lower their tax base & otherwise avoid paying taxes.

Well there's been no further change of the obtrusive programming, and no further comment by MNHQ, so we must assume this is the way it is going to be.

Thank you Cote. I hadn't heard of Ghostery before but will certainly investigate!

squoosh - I installed Ghostery and there is no floating bar anymore. Try it

Have just installed AdBlock . I will still get the floating bar but at least I won't be subjected to the ads themselves.

I'd never have installed this software if it hadn't been for this amazingly irritating and obtrusive development. And to think, I even used to click on the odd ad before the new style ad placement...

SO I have got rid of adblocker but the bloody top bar keeps floating down and covering more than half of the page. That is surely a MNTech issue as NO ads are showing just an empty top bar.

PLEASE FIX IT ASAP

I've just come back to this thread to see if there was any more info.
`the ads are still floating down - I haven't used an ad blocker, and probably still won't.
The big issue for me I realise , is the floating ad goes over and past my bookmarked post, so I have to scroll to find it.
So , in truth I am nowhere near as often looking at threads as I was. I quickly dip in, read TIO/TIW maybe post and off - rarely bother with Active at all now. I cannot be bothered to wait for it to load if I just have 5 minutes to spare with a cup of coffee.
I think it is having an affect with others - the few threads I do watch have reduced numbers of posts too .

No response because by using ad blockers we are making them less money (let's forget we actually give them the content).
I've never really had much trouble with ads on mobile, but have just installed an ad blocker now out of principle.
It's like making a compaint in a shop and having the manager walk away with their fingers in their ears. Those of us with difficulties and kids with SN have enough trouble getting the right people to listen to our views, having to be completely ignored here too is utterly taking the piss.
We are the consumer and the product, but to Justine we are just pennies in a bank account. I'm going to carry on using the forum when I can, but won't give much thought when MNHQ need something specific from us.

Making lives easier, my arse.

on the plus side my house is a lot cleaner!

sorry but I have had to stop using mumsnet as much. I no longer look at any ads. (load page look awway for 10 seconds. )

I am beginning to hate john lewis as their advert is prevalent and blocks my screen so often. then I get crap that is irrelevant.

I can use mn when in the library so check into the SN boards then. sometimes I am depserate for support with my two disabled children and these ads that scroll down are making it difficult to access that. (all the jumping around and being able to see only three lines of text on the screen between the ads)

Also there still has not been an answer from MN on the consideration for usability for those with disabilities with this new format.

Agree with glad

Mumsnet makes a pretty chunky yearly profit given the equity invested, and its cash flow positive (at least in 2016) It was able to pay a 3mil dividend last year and pays its directors more than a hundred grand each on top. (Anyone can choose to pull these accounts from companies house.) This makes these comments about keeping the lights on look a little disingenuous!

Capitalism is what it is, but when part of a website's appeal is the community aspect it's important to balance keeping that feel with enhancing profit or there won't be long term growth. You can see that profit after tax is down in 16 vs 15 but revenue is up so it's presumably not lack of users.

Its a very difficult balance to strike with advertising in a content creation website. I will whitelist some sites but not others. If the ads are too annoying I'm not prepared to have them up.

I'm not really sure, either, why comparisons are being made with newspaper or other article-based sites.

MN isn't a newspaper, it's a discussion forum, which is a particular form of social media. Compare with other forums, or even SM sites if you will, but comparing with newspaper sites is strange. I don't use newspaper sites in the same way so a drop down/wrap around advertisement is less annoying.

Newspaper articles you tend to read in one go and then click away from or share. It's nothing like a discussion forum where you'll tend to want to respond to many things that you read, look back and forth to check previous responses, come back again and again to the same thread to see updates, trawl active boards for new interesting posts, etc.

I know MN has some articles but surely the main draw for most visitors is the forum?

I actually think that between the trolls, Daily Mail harvesting and the ads, decent content will diminish anyway...well, apart from the more specialised fora such as health or style and beauty, it is turning into bunfighty nonsense on most of the main boards. I rarely post now and a lot of my friends are the same.

The top bar ads make the desk top site pretty much unusable, I am getting a sore head from all the jumping around and logging off now. This is likely to alienate users.

I have read this thread with great interest.

I run an internet based business and rely on advertising. We did look at advertising here on mumsnet as the products are pretty relevant to the user base here.

However we decided not to - I find the adverts here annoying if I turn off my adblocker (and I am aware of the irony here). They don't make me want to buy the product - in fact they have the opposite effect. Like hell am I going to buy from them. This thread makes it pretty clear that I'm far from the only one that feels like this so not only are you alienating your only asset ( your content generators, aka as free riders) you are also alienating potential advertisers.

greenscreen.thegreengallery.com/en-gb

It's an app thingy for Firefox that not only blocks the ads but replaces them with flower based artwork.

Not tried it myself.

Totally had enough of this now!