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.

You can opt out of the MN Swears by emails if you hate them Miaow - there’s a page somewhere in Settings or Account where you can say which of the emails you do and dont want (I get Competitions and Talk roundup).

Weird. I use my I phone app and used to get little ads for Fairy in the middle of a thread, every 10 posts or so. A bit annoying if I accidentally clicked as I was scrolling through but easy enough to close down again.

But they've gone and there are none at all now!

I didn't mind them as long as they don't pop up. They can come back. They wouldn't make me buy Fairy but a pop up wouldn't either!

Eventually mumsnet won't let you access the site at all if you have an adblocker on imo. Certain other sites already do this.

Yabu. I don't have an ad blocker. The ads only take up a a few mm of the top of my phone screen.

I uninstalled adblocker as a few sites I use would not let me read their articles as it detected its presence. It hasn't been an issue not having it on any sit except mumsnet. I am seriously considering reinstalling it just for mumsnet.
Other places on the net manage not to have adverts that interfere so much with the actual site. And I simply no longer go on MN on my phone.

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.

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.

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.

YANBU. It's bloody annoying.

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

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.

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.

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

^This

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.