Ad videos playing in threads and can't be closed down

[SuperbLyrebird]

I've brought these to your attention before and you said you'd look into it but didn't get back to the thread.

They used to be in Property but are now in AIBU and others. They can't be closed so are eating my data.

And they're not connected to anything I'm interested in either.

The recipe ones look like In-House ads. The lovely Aimee is back also, not sure what she's advertising.

Away from home just logged in on data, and this isn't fixed. Don't have a lot of data as normally on WiFi so this renders the site virtually unusable. Yes, it's not a lot, but it is unwelcome. For a longer thread, it completely eats data and you cannot close them down.

I love Mumsnet, but this is too much.

Why do MN always ask for the browser and device? Seems like a stalling tactic to me as they never seem to do anything about it.

I always get these. I assumed everyone did. But maybe not, it seems. They’re on this thread too.

Just adding another voice of frustration at both the ads and the lack of action from MNHQ.

They are driving me bonkers. Surely resolving this issue is not a difficult task for your tech team which leads me to that very reasonable belief that you're not actually that fussed if people are using up their data on this rubbish.

Hi - just dropping in to say that we're really sorry this is causing frustration, and we're working on getting to the bottom of this now.

Hi - just dropping in with a quick update. Following on from feedback, we've now paused these ads. Just to let you know that we'll investigate the best options for a good user experience in the future. Sorry for any inconvenience and thanks for all your suggestions.

Thanks @soniamumsnet. So you've just paused them and they'll be back again like last time?

Hi @IamanUltracrepidarian and others. Just dropping in to say thanks for all your comments which were so helpful!

We're going to resume these tests for logged in users across chat, aibu and property to see how we can improve the experience here, and this time, thanks to your feedback, we'll include the following features:

Auto play only on Wifi
Click to play on mobile data
No video will play once the player is out of view

Thanks again for all your ideas and please continue to tell us what you think works and doesn't work. The last thing we want to do is make life more difficult for anyone!

I noticed they weren’t auto-playing for me any more & came to say thanks for the fix, @soniamumsnet.

Better, thanks.

This sort of thing really should be default though; I work in a related field and its really poor practice to force autoplay like they were. We shouldn’t have to ask for this sort of thing.

I do appreciate the fix though. Thank you.

Thanks!

@soniamumsnet

Sorry, fix isn't working.

Main active threads page playing videos (eBay, O2) and I'm on data. Even posting on this thread I'm getting a BA advert which is playing.

Auto play only on Wifi

Doesn't help the issue that at least one person mentioned above of difficulty focusing and nausea when the video is running in the middle of the thread.

Please can you consider this issue?

If you must use autoplay videos (poor practice in my opinion, but presumably the advertising company is king here) can they be at the side of the page rather than in the middle of the text?

I have them too (chrome on a pixel 4) and volvic ads that play both video and music. I really hate them!

@illuyankas omg I just made a thread about this, I thought it was just me!! Bloody phone volume was up full, I nearly shit myself 😳

@soniamumsnet
No video will play once the player is out of view

I experienced adverts blasting out music (!?) even tho they were scrolled out of sight.

I've had the same. My phone was linked to the Bluetooth in the car and it scared the crap out of me!

Really annoying!

What is the point of these adverts? They must be the least directed advertising in the universe. I've seen that frying pan of red peppers and the revolting pot of poo with sawdust on top umpteen times, but still have no idea what it is an advert for. I'm vaguely aware that the word "weaning" appears somewhere. I've never felt even the slightest stirring of an urge to click through. Was this advertising campaign designed by rejects from The Apprentice?

They were giving me The Rage so I downloaded AdBlocker (sorry MNHQ you drove me to it).

Problem sorted.

Hi - just dropping in to see if the auto-play using mobile data fix is still an issue for anyone? This shouldn't be happening so please give us a shout if it's still a problem.

This is still happening with me, just did on a thread I was on and some song started blaring from an advert. Awful.

Sorry, @MNHQ, but issues such as are being reported about ads right now is why so many of us choose to ad-block your site. When I access MN using chome on my Samsung tablet, I realise how bad it is (because they took away the option of ad-blocker for android/chrome a couple of years ago, and I don't always rememember to log in using the ad-block browser). But if I'm on my laptop, which has ad-blocker for chrome on it, it's bliss.

By the way, for those of us using an ad-blocker on a laptop, why do we still have that banner across the bottom of the page with the yellow triangle saying 'You are seeing this message because of script blocking softway is interfering with this page. Disable any ad or script blocking software, then reload this page'

Firstly, it's not even 'Please consider disabling...', it's written as a command (not cool). And secondly, I use an ad-blocker as a default across all websites, so no - I'm not going to disable it. Ever. And I know I'm not the only PP who thinks this, or has told you this. So please just take the banner away, or give us an option to say 'Seen, read, acknowledged, but not going to change my mind'. So it's not there at the bottom of the page All. The. Time.

If anything, seeing that flipping banner every single time I log on to MN just makes me more determined to never disable my ad-blocker! Which I'm pretty sure isn't the response you want from us!