Suddenly seeing ads where they were blocked previously

[Catsmere]

Ads are appearing in the middle of threads. I'm not on Premium, I haven't changed anything in my iPad's settings. I don't want to see ads - I'm not even in Britain, they're wholly irrelevant to me. What's changed? Why are they suddenly appearing?

Hi there @Catsmere,

Nothing has changed recently. However, if you previously used an ad blocker, you might now be seeing ads. That was a change that happened back in September. Here's our post about it from the time in case you missed it:

Like all ad-funded sites we rely on advertising revenue to keep the site free to use, hence we don't allow ad-blocking software in our ts&cs.

From today those using ad blockers to access MN will start to see some ads again. All of the adverts adhere to Better Ads Standards created by the Coalition for Better Ads.

The Coalition’s Better Ads Standards identify the ad experiences that fall beneath a threshold of user acceptability and are most likely to drive users to install ad blockers. More than 150,000 people have participated to date in the Coalition’s research to develop its set of Better Ads Standards.

If you’d like to completely cut out all display ads there’s the option to sign up for Premium.

If you weren't using an ad blocker before, let us know. Seeing ads in threads is the norm, but if there's been a sudden change, let us know and if you can send us a screenshot of anything unusual that would be really helpful, too. Thanks!

Hi @HebeMumsnet,

Thanks for the info - it remains puzzling though, because it’s only today they’ve started appearing in some threads! (And now when I’m on my old iPad which is on iOS 15, the ad in this thread is blanked out.) Curiouser and curiouser ... I thought the first one I saw was a spam/troll post until I realised there were none of the options for replying or reporting that posts have. It’ll remain a mystery, I guess!