AIBU or is the 'we depend on advertising to keep the lights on' a ^little^ annoying?

Ads are also not the only revenue stream for this type of site, there are many others and I'd assume a combined model is in place.

Ideally some form of targeted advertising, possibly based on users posting profiles ?

If you fed MN through a decent AI engine, you could probably create quite a few interesting data sets, as well as link posters with external identities.

Who the hell are they employing there in MN towers? Eegits?

Er, yes.

Do you remember the disruption a few weeks back when watched threads and "threads I'm on" when belly up ?

No rollback plan, no A/B testing ... OK if you're running a noddy website with a few hundred users (actually it's not OK, but ...) a little less impressive when you are serving tens of thousands of users.

I agree that Mumsnet v Reddit is not a great comparison due to differences in scale. I also remember Reddit as it went through each of its own scaling problems - it started out much like this one did.

Reddit became popular on the back of a vast number of hate filled racist anti-semitic men. Mumsnet has a different role to play.

No it didn't become popular on the back of the Alt-right. The Alt-right tried to colonise it because it was popular - its an important difference because its a good example of the problems sites face as they grow and become more popular. Trolls/others are attracted to growing, popular sites, especially where they have a focus on a target group (eg women).

I am happy with the ads. I dont expect things for free because I am not entitled.

Maybe the ads are not consuming half your month data allowance on a mobile device? Maybe its not rendered unusable by breaking the accessibility software you use? Maybe you don't get the ridiculous delays some people are? Don't assume that your experience matches that of other users.

You can implement ads without making a site unusable or spending billions. Its down to architecture, design and code management.

Ads are also not the only revenue stream for this type of site, there are many others and I'd assume a combined model is in place.

I would be quite happy to leave the ads if the site still worked with them. But it doesn't, so either I stop using mumsnet altogether or I continue as a free-rider (whatever that means)

I dont expect things for free because I am not entitled.

I expect a site to work, i do not believe i am entitled if i want to post but am unable to as its taking ages to load

I had to install adblocker as without it the site was unusable

I am happy with the ads. I dont expect things for free because I am not entitled.
entitled to use an adblocker, really?

Reddit is the 9th most visited site in the world. Mumsnet is not even in the UK top fifty.

Reddit is valued at 1.8 billion dollars. Mumsnet less.....

Reddit raised 200 million dollars in investment funding. Mumsnet has adverts and sponsors.

Reddit became popular on the back of a vast number of hate filled racist anti-semitic men. Mumsnet has a different role to play.

The two dont compare really but Reddit is still available to you.

I am happy with the ads. I dont expect things for free because I am not entitled.

Reddit manages to “keep the lights on” with just a few small ads that don’t move, jiggle, or cover half the screen.

Yes no one is expecting the site to be free of ads. They simply want the site to still be usable and fun to use.
MNHQ need to look at how users use the site - they will have analytics of this. If a site has a long journalistic article, I will put up with an intrusive advert at the beginning. Because you see it once, and then you read an article for 30 mins. On MN I bounce around different threads, and even if I am reading the same thread, I have to refresh it to read the latest contribution. Every single time I get an intrusive banner advert hanging around.

It's an interesting read over there. Some people are struggling to use the site now due to the design or the ads, the loading screens of the ads, the speed of the load and the space they are taking up at the top now.

No one is asking for it to be totally free of ads though Lem.

The ads are irritating at times but it is ur to expect mnet to be totally free especially now it's so huge

Bumping so today's posters can find the site stuff thread.

Another one who only installed an adblocker because without it mumsnet was completely and utterly unusable

Do you want to have another go at that link Amy?

I installed an ad blocker when they had only a small ad on the right hand side - but it was animated and it kept freezing the entire screen.

Keep it to small ads which don't interfere with the site loading or freezing, and I will happily remove it.

Yes its annoying I wish they would get rid of it, and no I will not get rid of the ad-blocker. I had to get the ad-blocker because of the annoying ads that scrolled along the sides and made the site unusable.

I get that you have to have adverts as you're a business, but can you PLEAAAASE make its stop dropping down over the entire screen every time I refresh or change pages??? It started yesterday and it's driving me mad!!
It obscures entire threads for ages before shrinking back.

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was said that MN were looking for new financial backers or something? If so, maybe they're keen to increase ad revenue so the bottom line looks better?

The flip side being any backers would get their hands on all the MN user data ... you might see targeted ads based on your postings.

It is annoying but it's less annoying than the bloody adverts

Exactly ... and isn't it ironic that the message has appeared right at the time when adverts are starting to eat the site?

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was said that MN were looking for new financial backers or something? If so, maybe they're keen to increase ad revenue so the bottom line looks better?

I recommend Ghostery/Windscribe/Firefox btw incase anyone likes to pick and choose what data and ads they deal with!