Is there any way I can hide the new ruddy 'pin it' etc column on the left hand side?

[cozietoesie]

It's driving me demented.

get rid please

Rowan I am using my laptop with chrome and it is just right where I scroll down the page normally to avoid the talk page dropdown things irritating the hell out of me

Thanks for all this. Like all changes, it takes a while for people to adjust and get used to putting the cursor somewhere else, for example. The buttons have been on topics like Chat for a while and folks seem to have got used to it - we haven't had many complaints.

We do take the point about the balance to be struck between site 'furniture' and user experience, and as always we'll take on board what you say - as we have done, for example, by not having them on sensitive topics (and by turning down an awful lot of ads because we know users will find them annoying for one reason or another).

Social sharing (as it's called among twiddly-spectacles types) is a pretty massive deal for websites; it's a major source of traffic, for instance. And while we hear you when you say that you don't like it, our stats show that an awful lot of MNers use these buttons pretty routinely.

it's a major source of traffic, for instance

Cue inevitable debate about what 'type' of 'traffic' is desirable.

Fancy a fiver that penis-beaker-gate is namechecked within the next ten posts anyone? Hope you have gine Rowan

Ahem. I seem to have invented a beverage; gine = wine + gin (MNHQ crisis use only)

As for not putting it on the more sensitive pages, I note that it is on the Conception page. Please remove it. I can't see that anyone on there will want to tweet/promote on facebook posts about the state of their cervical mucus or latest devastating IVF failure.

I agree generally that it is bloody annoying, but if you are going to insist on keeping it, please do take it off the Conception page.

It's the way it creeps down the page after me like an over eager admirer. Stop following me!

What do you do to your admirers squoosh!? Hypnosis or pharmaceuticals?

CrystalSkulls I have managed to hide mine by right clicking on the white speech bubbles and selecting 'Adblocker', then click on 'advanced', or 'more options' in the bottom right and putting a tick in 'on this domain only: mumsnet.com' box. You'll need to do that for each of the annoying little blighters. I'm using firefox and so far it doesn't appear to have blocked anything else that I would have expected to see - most active, TIO etc all appear fine.

It's terrible, it keeps flickering down the screen so much that I can't Mumsnet any more.

Seriously though, I can't use the website with that thing moving on the left all the time. It makes my eyes ache.

Please remove it, or give us the option to remove it?

It's annoying me too. Ditch it, MNHQ, pleeeease!

The floating bar (called the 'viewpoint bar', fact fans) is actually customisable - you can turn it off on individual pages by hitting the 'x', or on all pages through your Customise page.

Also on Chrome at least, you can get rid of the sharing buttons by altering the width of your screen until it only displays the central talk column (ie get rid of the white space on either side)...

@Primrose123

It's terrible, it keeps flickering down the screen so much that I can't Mumsnet any more.

Seriously though, I can't use the website with that thing moving on the left all the time. It makes my eyes ache.

Please remove it, or give us the option to remove it?

How are you viewing MN, Primrose (which device and browser?) The sharing buttons are static (ie they just remain in place as you scroll); they shouldn't be flickering or moving.

I don't want to adjust the width of my screen though, because I like to MN in a maximised window which is how I always use websites.

It's not affecting scrolling for me but I find it uncomfortable the way it stays in place while the site scrolls. This isn't limited to this site - I dislike any web element that does that and generally avoid websites which have this kind of "feature". It makes it feel like a pop up or something physical stuck to my screen which I want to brush away.

It doesn't affect me currently, but I know when I had a slower computer and a slower connection elements which stay in place like this can have a flickery effect when scrolling and can slow down the loading of the page.

WRT adblock, I don't like to use it on mumsnet but since you've started using the Adchoices I've been using it more often. (And have seen far more complaints about ads in general since Ad Choices) Especially since I've moved abroad, I now get German ads which play videos or sound without warning. I don't want to complain about something which probably affects a tiny minority of users so generally I ignore it unless it really bugs me in which case I'll take my mumsnet exception off adblock for a while.

We'll definitely have a look at it and see whether we can come up with a solution.