An update on Ad blockers

[JustineMumsnet]

We wanted to give you a heads up that we will shortly introduce additional software designed to prevent the use of ad blockers. So, if you're using an ad blocker, you'll shortly see a series of prompts asking you to disable it before continuing to browse the site.

We know this is going to cause some annoyance to those of you with ad blockers in place but we do have costs associated with running our platform and the way we meet those is via advertising revenue.

We try to keep the display ads to a minimum (particularly for logged in users) and turn down a lot of the more intrusive ad formats. Nonetheless we do understand that some people find ads really annoying. If you would prefer an ad-free experience, Mumsnet Premium is available as a subscription option for £2.99 a month or £29.99 per year.

The last thing we want is to cause loyal users financial distress, so if you have particular reasons why both seeing ads and paying for Premium is problematic for you, then please do get in touch with us at [email protected] and we’d be happy to look at what we can do to help.

I’m not confused 😂

It’s also not affected me in the slightest, but I’m talking about others who may be.

The issue here is NOT the ads but the way they make the forum unusable. They cause a lot of issues, all issues that stopped for me when I stopped being able to see the ads.

There’s loads of other forums that use ads in a non-obtrusive way, so can still make their money without preventing their users being able to use the forum for its intended purpose.

Otherwise, what on earth is the point?

Unless, of course, allowing the ads to cause these issues is in MN’s interests and to force users to pay to subscribe.

@MyrtleLion you won’t leave. No one will leave. A lot of hot air

I tried following the instructions to turn off the blocker but I don't have the option they say I should have and if I instead click on the 'contact support'' option it also won't load the support page. Couldn't use the site at all last night but haven't had the disable message (yet) this morning.

Meh, some will, but likely those who had one foot out the door anyway.

Oh, I do know of a few who left when the announcement first came out.

That was 24 hours ago 😂

let’s see whether they’ll be back
likely under a different user name

I think that's the idea. It's to force people to pay the subscription. The 'squeaky bum' plea obviously didn't work.

Yep but the defenders are out and justifying it as best they can.

People are worried about Russian bots and misinformation and trolls...

They should be worried about employees of Mumsnet that sit at pcs all day and push threads in certain directions under the guise of normal users...

No, not this one! I meant the one where they warned us all it was going to happen 😂😂

That's great for you that you don't look at them, but a lot of us have said that there have been numerous problems with glitchy ads. The problems are always when I'm using it on my phone, hence why I use an ad blocker when I use the desktop version

This thread is an example, with screenshots of the ads malfunctioning and being unable to close them, making the site unusable as you couldn't navigate anywhere. It took 3 days for them to sort it out. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5284807-jet2-ad-constantly-popping-up

😂😂

I use my phone, always have. iPhone. The ads used to cause lots of issues with the page freezing and constantly reloading. I don’t see ads now and miraculously the issues all disappeared at the same time.

That’s the problem with the ads on THIS site.

I have dyslexia and ADD which already make screen reading and distractibility an issue, so adding flashing/moving/changing adverts on the same screen I'm trying to read from makes for a really shit experience. I tried putting a notepad over part of the screen to block these ads out but that wasn't great, so I use an adblocker.

So there are 3 options. I can either continue to use my adblocker to make the site accessible, or I can pay the subscription, or I can leave.

I will not pay the subscription out of principle that the site should already be accessible. If MN didn't allow distracting ads I wouldn't have a problem with them. Also, I appreciate MN is a huge site but I only use the chat forum, and I don't consider it a quality one because, for example, although there are lots of different topic sections, MNHQ don't care that so many posts are in AIBU just "for traffic" when they aren't AIBUs.

Perhaps MNHQ can remove ads just from the Chat area or only have static ones?

The same as many on here - I only installed Adblocker on both laptops because of this site. And I have no objection to seeing ads, if they are static and just...well, there. But it was the stupid MacAfee thing covering my screen and pretending it was 'installing' that made me install the Adblocker, because I couldn't get rid of it and it would freeze the entire site.

So I'm not going to uninstall Adblocker, because I don't want a load of junk, full page screen-freezers again. Sidebar ads (which I still get a few of) or header ads are fine, just not the jumping up and down to attract your attention ads, or the 'sit in front of your entire forum page' ads or the video ads. Or, indeed, the miscellaneous 'MacAfee'...whatever they were.

Guarantee that they’ve been back, just under a different user name! 😂

@AlexandrinaH you know people that flounced before any change was actually made?

I don't want to leave because I've found a brilliant community of women here. And I have found a way round the disable my adblocker popup. If they make the site unworkable because I can't disable my adblocker then they will have forced me out. And given how much time I spend on here, that might be a good thing!

I can’t stand the flashing, moving ad at the top of the page on my iPhone. It makes me feel ill.

What is the work around?

You can click on "Proceed without disabling" which is in tiny writing at the bottom of the pop-up.

It will keep popping up and sometimes it won't have the little message to proceed. At that point refresh the page and you'll get the pop up with the message.

I have actually tried to disable my ad blocker and was curious to see what all these disruptive ads look like. However, disabling my ad blocker by whitelisting Mumsnet hasn't worked. Mumsnet still thinks I have an ad blocker on my PC and I haven't been able to get rid of the pop up at all. This means that I am no longer able to use Mumsnet on my PC as I cannot find any way of getting past that 'disable your ad blocker' message. Now posting from my phone as my only way of accessing the site (until Mumsnet comes for the android app too). I have tried the workarounds people have suggested here.

i don't even get the ads when I'm on Chrome. I get a big grey square that takes up 80% of the screen and never goes away.

Looks like the 'disable your ads or else' popup has gone for me today.

If ads were STATIC, small and unobtrusive, no one would bother paying for an ad blocker ( which some do)
Years ago ads were small banners that were easy to ignore- Let’s face it, does anyone actually buy stuff from ads?

No one I know does, it’s all personal recommendations or googling honest reviews if someone is looking for a new appliance.

Interesting. I'm on Firefox. I'll try again later, and also have another root around on the pc to see if there's anything else that could be blocking them. I wouldn't mind unobtrusive ads at all but I simply can't cope with flashing, moving ones. I have got a lot out of this site for 15-20 years and it will be a real shame if it becomes impossible to use. I'm usually on the android app anyway and only use the pc for looong posts, so at the moment it's not affecting me too much. Until they add ads to the app too, of course.

The ads make the site unreadable. You will lose lots of regular posters sadly.

Also on a phone, large, jiggly ads gobble up data and battery power, as well as trigger frustration in visual migraine sufferers.
People who need a peaceful looking page 📄 are the ones using ad blockers most likely.

Ads probably also interfere with text reading software.