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

Haven't read the full thread yet...but yeah this is pissing me right off.

I try and whitelist sites I want to support, but I adblock them again if their ads become too intrusive on my usage of the site.

And it's down to you MN, that I started blocking you again.

Stupid half page ads, stuff that made my site experience slow and frustrating.

Look, I get for it to be a free site, ads make revenue.
But when your ads start taking over my ability to use what is essentially a simple chat forum, I get annoyed.

Plus your wording is terrible, and I'm with OP....the begging, from a website making millions, especially when you are making money from incredibly vulnerable people, feels rather "off".

No you don't need to "keep the lights on" - how offensive to those of us who really know what it's like to not be able to pay the electricity bill.

What you mean is "we need to pay wages/bills and still turn a profit"

You ARE NOT A CHARITY. And your choice of language implies you are.

I'd rather pay a sub. for a start, it would get rid of half these poo trolls, the mansplainers and the huns.

Raises the question of "how much ?". Too little and you won't recoup the loss of advertising. Too much ... ditto. Plus the technical issues of re-engineering the site to work on a subscriber basis and take payments.

Quite a few posters have said they only got ad blocker in the first place because of the intrusive ads on MN. There aren't any other websites I use that have such intrusive banner ads. Also, it makes using it at work very hard which must surely cut down on MN revenue, lol.

is rather pay a sub. for a start, it would get rid of half these poo trolls, the mansplainers and the huns.

Please come and add your bit here on site stuff with us. MN are reading this one (or they were)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3067667-Top-bar-advertising

Agreed. I turned it off recently to access a webpage that didn't let you browse with an adblocker on. Went about my internetting for ages with the ads showing and not too bothered. Then I went onto mumsnet and immediately had to turn it back on.

Seriously, it's really unusually intrusive.

Mumsnet is the reason I have an adblocker too. I don't mind adverts, I do definitely mind autoplay videos, flashing images and ones which suddenly take over your whole page. It is indeed completely unusable without the blocker.

Mumsnet is the reason I got a blocker. I honestly find it unusable with the ads.

I had it all day yesterday and it reduced my use of the site, with the ad blocker turned off it was a huge John Lewis ad. With the adblocker on it was a white space with the circle and the twee little message which also took ages to load and then just as I had read the page it sneaked away just in time to return as I clicked on the next page.

I managed for many years without this site and I would be sad to leave but I come here to read threads, not to wait ages for shitty ads to load.

I accept that it is impossible to have a site these days that doesn't bombard the viewer with as many crappy ads as it can cram on, but surely the need to increase them proves that people are ignoring them in the first place. Making them so big that they obscure the site makes them look desperate and badly organised.

I think the ads are taylored. I have an ad for John Lewis. I certainly don’t lose any sleep over adverts.

I saw this yesterday, with an endless circle as yet again will the intern at mumsnet cocked up the coding. It has gone today, back to ads which I just ignore.

Also seeing it on a tablet with no ad blocker - as I said, they can't code to save their lives.

Brasty - you can have the adblocker and allow certain sites to run ads still. It's worth a try.

I actually only got an adblocker because of the huge, obtrusive ads this place runs. I was fine with smaller ones that didn't take up half the page, load movie trailers down the side, switch sound on automatically, take an age to load etc. If MN want us to look at ads and thus generate revenue, they really need to take a look at what adverts are running and make sure the site is still usable with them running.

I love my adblocker.

Despite speedy internet, it used to take an age for MN to load because of all the ads.

And the message about turning the lights off is patronising and a pain in the arse.

The best reason for an adblocker is when you are paying for every single byte being downloaded (e.g. some mobile data tariffs).

If there's one thing worse that advertising, it's advertising you have to pay to watch.

It still amazes me that people pay to get Sky etc, and then have to deal with adverts too. No wonder piracy seems attractive ....

I think it is this disconnect that is annoying users. We are being treated as if we are idiots, when we are not.

Yes. And the reason mumsnet was so popular initially was that it didn’t treat women like they were simpering shopping-bots.

I don't like ads. And I am not white listing anything to enable someone else to make money by showing me ads. You anyway have my data to sell and you WILL sell it for hard cash, anyway! But this is just greed.

So that's what the white line is! I thought my phone was about to give up and die.
I use adblock on my mobile. I've now got a large white gap at the bottom of the threads where MN local ads used to be. Wonder what's coming now.

I think it is this disconnect that is annoying users. We are being treated as if we are idiots, when we are not.

^This

I use adblockers and ghostery in various combo depending on the browser or OS. I generally whitelist sites which I find useful or interesting where I'm not paying a subscription to support the site.

I won't whitelist any site where the ads and trackers are as intrusive, slow and badly designed as they are here.

I do know the costs involved in running a large site and on those budgets they could try employer a better design or optimisation team because the current model is ugly, slow and intrusive.

Yes keeping the lights on does imply a tiny essential charity, instead of a business.
MN act like the business it is with annoying ads and encouraging places like the Daily Mail to publish things from here. But somehow want us to see MN as a tiny non profit enterprise run from a kitchen table. I think it is this disconnect that is annoying users. We are being treated as if we are idiots, when we are not.

The ‘keeping the lights on’ stuff is really really irritating.
It implies mumsnet is some sort of essential service/charity. It is not.

YANBU. It's bloody annoying.

I have never used an ad blocker but I'm seriously thinking of getting one because of the movie/ads that jingle about on MN. Do MNHQ realise how long it takes your pages to load because of these stupid ads?

I like MNing on iPhone because there ads are fairly small and non-jiggly.

And sites that do not allow adblockers are very unique sites, usually with top quality journalism. I doubt MN site would support that kind of model.

meglet Do you have an iphone? Users with them seem to get on ok with MN. I have an android phone and it is often impossible to read MN on it as the whole page nearly is taken up with adverts.