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Original poster

Top bar advertising

488 replies

TalkinBoutWhat · 23/10/2017 13:17

MN, PLEASE fix this advertising bar at the top of the computer screen.

It is so large, that I can't actually click on any of the MN links that are at the top of the page. (eg, active, I'm on, etc).

Right now, on Site Stuff, I can't even click 'Site Stuff' to get other threads in this section. It's hidden by the ad, which is NOT scrolling up and away the way I've seen others do. It's just sitting there. The ONLY threads I can get onto are the active ones on the right hand side of the screen, and only the ones lower down the list as the top ones are hidden by the Ad. (Experian and Marks and Spencers, are the two so far....)

You did this before, we all complained, you apologised and said it shouldn't have been loaded on as you were testing something new. I really hope this was a mistake, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to navigate the site.

OP posts:
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ssd · 25/10/2017 22:47

thats good you found something that worked then

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 25/10/2017 22:50

It was ssd

It was driving me round the twist Grin

Ive no patience and it would go wrong right in the middle of an interesting thread

relaxitllbeok · 25/10/2017 23:15

I have a long-standing plan to try turning off my adblocker here when six months have passed without a massive thread of people complaining about how awful the ads are... That has been my plan for some years.

How about a Supporters scheme like the Guardian has? Easier to implement than a real subscription system, for one thing.

What MN really needs, though, is a decent tech strategy and competent staff to implement it. Pretty clear they don't have both, and my money's on neither :-(

ssd · 26/10/2017 00:05

relax, if you hold this site in such contempt, how do you manage to lower yourself to even use it?

hiddley · 26/10/2017 00:14

ssd - do you accept every service you use just as it is? Do you ever get annoyed about incompetencies? Do you just go around the place accepting things 'just as they are'? Do you never express dissatisfaction? First rule of customer service I learned many many moons ago was that negative feedback is better than losing a customer.
If you're happy with the way things are, good for you. Most of us on this thread don't really want to leave and are trying to provide feedback to make this place a better site for us.

ShoesHaveSouls · 26/10/2017 00:32

A subscription is a terrible idea. I love MN and have been here years, but I won't hand over credit card details, because they have a history of being hacked.

ContessaBonessa · 26/10/2017 00:47

hiddley I've observed that some people on MN are just very subservient. No matter what happens they'll tug their forelock to the MN gentry.

hiddley · 26/10/2017 01:59

Contessa, I suspect Justine is banking on the same presumption! Grin

ssd · 26/10/2017 07:58

how patronising some of you are

if I'm getting something for nothing, I tend to be grateful and put up with a few glitches or things I dont like , if it bothered me too much I wouldn't use it....but I wouldn't freely use it and sneer about it at the same time

ssd · 26/10/2017 08:01

hiddley, feedback is great if it isn't given with utter contempt like some posters here

I'm all for improving this site and it must be a pain if it isn't compatible with some browsers

LazyDailyMailJournos · 26/10/2017 08:46

if I'm getting something for nothing, I tend to be grateful and put up with a few glitches or things I dont like , if it bothered me too much I wouldn't use it....but I wouldn't freely use it and sneer about it at the same time

I couldn't use the site without an ad-blocker, because - as I've already explained - it was literally unusable! As in, page would not load and even having a tab open on my browser with MN trying to load in the background would crash everything else.

Laiste · 26/10/2017 08:50

The thing with the 'use it as it is or fuck off' business concept is that if the majority fuck off then the business ceases to be.

The alternative would have been for the users to have expressed their preferences and the business goes on. Which is what feedback is for.

As for it being ''free'' - it's mutually beneficial set up. 'MN' makes money, and it's customers have a forum. When it ceases to be an enjoyable experience for the customers that relationship is over.

brasty · 26/10/2017 09:03

What I don't understand about the use it, or fuck off, is that most companies want to know what users think of their service. Many companies pay a lot of money to find this out. Yes you always get the few unreasonable people. But when a lot of users are saying the same things, then companies:

  • either listen and change things
  • or figure that people will keep on using the service anyway so ignore it. This is what Ryanair does. It figures its flights are so cheap, that people will moan but use them anyway. This only works if people want the service enough, and there are no alternatives.

With MN what has happened is that people who do not have adblocker, have just decided to install this as their own solution. An easy solution.

relaxitllbeok · 26/10/2017 09:12

Odd that ssd reads contempt into my post. It isn't there - better say that in case MMHQ read it the same way!

At a guess what you find contemptuous is the suggestion that the tech staff may not be competent. That seems quite likely, I'm afraid - and it probably wouldn't be their fault. "Incompetent" isn't a personal insult, it's a judgement of the relation between a person and a job as it exists on the ground. For example, if you recruit someone, change the job underneath them, but don't allow them development opportunities, they end up incompetent. I have no idea what's happened here, and there are other explanations entirely, like poor strategy. (I'm professionally curious about what actually happens when one of the MMHQ folks says "we'll get Tech to look at it" and then nothing happens for months/years: there are several possibilities.)

Regardless, MN's a business, which has chosen a business model. We don't have to be grateful, just because their business model doesn't involve us giving them our credit card numbers, any more than we would if it did.

User843022 · 26/10/2017 09:56

'oh for christ's sake, this is a free site and millions of us use and and have gained loads from it, so there's a few advertising problems, so bloody what? give them a chance to fix it and stop being so bloody pompous, comparing Justine to the Ryanair boss...do you know what, if its that bad here bugger off and get your kicks elsewhere.'

Exactly. It's only ads! work on your resilience while they try to improve it. What a load of whingeing even after they've listened to your gripes.

'Regardless, MN's a business, which has chosen a business model. '

Zzz..

They said they'll try to fix things what more do you want, blood? Grin

hiddley · 26/10/2017 09:58

Justine appears to subscribe to the 'ignore them and they'll go away before this ends up on The Times' and my net worth plummets. 2 million profit in a year ain't all that small since it's only the two of them owning it as far as I know?

Notanumberuser · 26/10/2017 09:59

If I had to pay to be here I’d expect a lot more robust safeguarding of data because it would then include financial data and I’d also expect paid moderation 24/7 and none of this no one at weekends and evening stuff relying on volunteers that goes on at the minute.

Notanumberuser · 26/10/2017 10:00

Posted too soon - so the fact that I”m not paying means that I put up with no moderation evening and weekends and the crappy troll posts standing for hours and hours and I’ve made the choice to get an adblocker (which is fantastic!)

user1495832265 · 26/10/2017 10:07

I couldn't use the site without an ad-blocker, because - as I've already explained - it was literally unusable! As in, page would not load and even having a tab open on my browser with MN trying to load in the background would crash everything else.

It was the same for me. I didn't have a similar problem with any of the other sites that I visit.

User843022 · 26/10/2017 10:09

The notice about ads and white lists has gone from the top of my page so we can presume they don't think ''ignore them and they'll go away before this ends up on The Times' Confused.

hiddley · 26/10/2017 10:12

It's still on mine Myrtle.

hiddley · 26/10/2017 10:13

Along with the big drop-down ads.

hiddley · 26/10/2017 10:19

Actually, I lie, the keeping the lights on thing has gone. It's just a twirly thing saying 'advertisement', then said advertisement takes over half the page and pops back up again. I just end up completely blocking it out mentally. If they subtly included ads that didn't invade, you'd inadvertently look at them. The way they have this going, you're actively looking at the text to see when the ad goes away so don't actually see the ad at all. Silly really. But there you go. Unusable and ineffective. But if I made 2 million a year I wouldn't give a shite either! Grin

Multidimensionalbeing · 26/10/2017 10:19

It's backfired quite a bit the 'keeping the lights on' nonsense since it led a lot of posters to post why they'd installed an adblocker which led many more posters to say 'adblocker, what and how? Oh that seems easy...oh I've done it now and everything is SO much better'

I'd imagine far, far more people have now blocked the ads than those putting MN on their whitelist.

hiddley · 26/10/2017 10:23

Bit of an own-goal there I agree multidimensional.