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

[hiddley]

From a multi million pound enterprise? Preying on sometimes vulnerable women? So that you can subject them to more advertising?

You're not a charity. We are not here in sympathy with you. We are here because you provide a forum you can make money from.

How can you compare 'keeping the lights on' in a multi-million pound business to a vulnerable poster who actually can't afford electricity?

Have you completely lost your soul? Because you'll lose all your minions soon if you don't change your tune.

Here is where the white line appears on my phone. On my computer (can't be arsed to get out of bed) that is where the "keep the lights on" thing appears too.

Who pays for it PixelLady? Us! As customers to their invasive adverts. They are not on the breadline believe me.

You are being unreasonable: if you are not paying for a service then you and your attention are the product. How else would Mumsnet fund their service?

Not by claiming the electricity is about to be turned off.......

Never give more than you can afford and all that........... BUT Just click on our adverts and we're happy with you lot playing around down there you little minions.

YANBU it's gone downhill here and that dropping banner is making me think about leaving.

There's not enough protection since that big hack. They need to sort it out. Patronising shit about keeping lights on when there are people on here who can't afford the rent!

How else would Mumsnet fund their service?

All the Amazon affiliate links and other companies affiliate links, skim links they use.
Blog sponsored adverts
Sponsored posts
The brand deals
To name just a few, Obtrusive adverts aren't their only income source.

I have a thin white line on my phone too!

Almost at the top.

Was blaming for the kids for that.

Any site that is free to use is dependent on advertising revenue to pay for hosting, tech support, moderation etc. Where else are MN supposed to generate money from?

I'm getting really naffed of with it. It keeps coming down and covering half my screen and making the loading of the page really slow. I don't mind reading it once but every blinkin page is a but much. And nearly as annoying as the yellow page that we had a while back.

Its a free site and a well used one at that. Seems selfish to complain about the methods it uses to keep going. And keeping the lights on is clearly not literal. ffs.

I use Privacy Badger and it's brilliant. I still get the "keep the lights on" blurb at the top of the page but the ads never materialise. You can get it here www.eff.org/privacybadger. It also stops advertisers from tracking you.

Weblock on iOS a brilliant adblocker.

Apple started allowing ad blockers on AppStore in the last few years and there’s a shit load of crappy free ones but weblock has been around much longer and blocks on mobile data and WiFi, not just ads in the browser but also ads on YouTube and also in free games. A lot of people only install free apps, especially for the kids, and kids games and apps when free tend to be riddled with video ads, weblock stops them.

It’s £1.99 but worth every single penny. I pay for ad removals in a game or app I’m enjoying but sometimes it’s hard to see if you like the bloody game due to intrusive video ads. I recently loaded MN on pc and was shocked at how nasty the home screen looks with all the ads..

I started using adblocker because of mumsnet as it keep on making my browser hang. Thank to the adblocker I can still see the site.

What a load of hysteria about nothing Op and preying on sometimes vulnerable women, seriously? Women who use this free site because they choose to and not because they’re obliged to? How are they being preyed on?

I for one am sick to death of posters ranting and getting offended that basically MN is not run precisely how that particular poster would like it run to meet their particular needs on any given day .

I saw this yesterday but not today... not sure where the 'lights on' message has gone

Oh Oh! I just saw it! As the circle was whirling around at the top of the page waiting to load my post...
It does seem a weird, random message OP. It sounds like a plea for funds from a charity - Please help provide fresh drinking water, please help provide medical equipment, please help keep the lights on...
And I also had no idea what a 'whitelist' was [Am still not sure I know what it is actually despite explanation from PP]

I don't use adblocker. This begging message appears followed by ads taking over half the page

This!

The advert covers the top of the forum. Fucking stupid.

There was a long thread running in Site Issues all day yesterday and MNHQ had been posting on that from late afternoon onwards.

And I'm pretty sure that yesterday's daytime AIBU thread (or was it in chat) was linked to it, so they were getting a pretty good idea of what people were having to put up with.

People only installed Ad Blockers en masse when one round of fiddling with ads made the site utterly unsuable for all those accessing it via safari, and it took MNHQ days to even take it seriously and then only updated rarely. There's no way I'd MN without an Ad Blocker now.

I have the app on my phone. I have never had advertising.

Here's the site stuff thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3067667-Top-bar-advertising?msgid=72856221#72856221

and here's mine :)
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3067860-What-is-this-join-our-whitelist-thing-which-keeps-trying-to-load-on-every-page-of-MN

Oh that’s what the line at the top is. I did wonder. I don’t get the actual “whitelist” message though - I’m on Safari. “Please don’t adblocker us because if you all do we might literally not have enough money to pay the lecky” is a fair enough message I’d say, (I get it all the time on Sporcle, but they have the world’s most intrusive and dodgy adverts so they can get lost) but it’s rubbish if they’re showing it to people who don’t have adblockers.

Why don’t people use an adblocker?
There are plenty of other ways for mumsnet to remain profitable rather than have these annoying ads!

I agree with you OP, it’s fucking annoying and the ‘keeping the lights on’ comment suggests ‘poor old mumsnet’ rather than the multi million pound industry Mumsnet has become.