This site is now as absolute shitshow

[JeffTheSquirrel]

MNHQ, you know why.

I find I’m spending only about 10% of the time actually reading a thread. The rest is clicking fucking x’s to close down ads, trying to stop the glaring, moving ads at the top, scrolling past mid-thread ads that go on for ages, or scrolling past ‘promoted by’ bollocks that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic that you’re in.

This site is now like Reach media.

Such a shame.

Just adding my voice to say that something seriously needs to be done, if you don’t want to see a mass exodus. There is a lot of goodwill here (I’ve been around for decades, I’m sure you can check). But fuck me, if you don’t tone down the ad invasion, me & many many others will be off.

Still, I’m sure the shareholders are happy, eh.

It's a shame, really, because I don't think most MNers would object to reasonable, unobtrusive ads on the page in the least - as people will understand that MN has to earn revenue to keep going somehow.

It's just that it's been pushed so far, with all of the dancing ads and videos that take over the whole screen, consume vast amounts of your data as enthusiastically as a toddler on Haribo and make it generally unusable - especially for a lot of folk with various disabilities and neurodiversities.

As is normally the case, if you push things way too far, you end up losing even the good deal that you originally had.

To be fair, it isn't just MN.

YouTube is intolerable without using a browser like Brave - especially all the long, unskippable ads when you're waiting to watch a 30-second video.

Google itself is constantly tracking you and grabbing your personal data, which is why the likes of privacy-protecting DuckDuckGo and Startpage search engines began in the first place.

That is absolutely the case @SprayWhiteDung !

I think most people understand the need for ads if they aren't prepared to pay for something. Ads are on other sites I use and they're fine.

Personally I didn't mind many of the static ads. But the flashing and flickering and jumping around has increased and become unbearable.

Not to mention the huge ads that paralyse mobile phone screens. Then the same message from MN over and over again asking for examples. I can't, my screen is frozen!

Agree totally about YouTube as well.

At this point I don’t even care that I see so many ads, I just care that it constantly crashes, zooms to the top of the page when I am midway through typing a sentence, goes blank and then I just have letters pressing magically on their own on the letters -but none appear typed in the box until several seconds later-the issues are endless!

Totally agree just posted virtually the same thing on another site stuff thread & the bloody slow motion typing is rage inducing along with the page whiteouts & endless freezing or reloading.

For those who can't bear YouTube - download NewPipe and use that instead. It's YouTube (as in, it's all the same content) but without the ads and you can download stuff as video/audio files too.

To everyone who has said “just download the app”, you do know about the privacy/tracking invasion of an app, yeah? It’s a no from me.

And re using a different browser, it’s the way I’m going but why the fuck should we have to?

Are you actually listening @MNHQ?? I can tolerate a few ads, but when they are overwhelming, and genuinely about 90% of the user experience it’s intolerable. If they weren’t so in your face, I might have even looked at them.

And no, I won’t do any screenshots, screen recordings or anything else of the diverting guff that you always come out with. And then never actually sort it, even when users have obliged.

I’m giving up tonight it’s unusable constant freezing blank white pages & constant reloading are you actually doing anything @BeckyAMumsnet about it?

I agree; I posted on the other thread saying the same. Constantly freezes, page doesn't load, freezes again. I have also been here DECADES and can't bear it any longer. It's terrible.

It’s frozen, crashed and reloaded 3 times just trying to read the few new responses on this.

Nothing from those at MN though!

Honestly, £2.99 per month put all of this to bed for me.

I don't really understand why regular MNetters would rather keep complaining than just pay it.

It's less than the cost of one cup of coffee a month and as I've been using MN for years, it's money well spent on my 'leisure' time.

And no, before anyone claims it, our details are not stored by MNHQ.

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel tbh. It's worth it. I spend considerably more every month on things that bring me far less entertainment!

I pay for some sites - one that provides me with content. But we are the content here, that's why I don't want to pay. Plus every time there's an update to the site, it's an absolute disaster.

We may be the content but MN provides the platform we enjoy using to interact with millions of others.

The ads have created an absolute shit show, which is why I came to the conclusion I either need to pay a couple of quid to remove them, or delete my account.

But what I wasn't prepared to do was allow it to keep stressing me out and it really was, until I removed them with Premium.

How do you disable their complaining pop up please?

It used to take you to the last seen post, so they're able to do it, they just don't give a shit, like with most complaints on here.

I agree with this. Happy with some reasonable ads, not happy with migraines, freezing & battery drainage or data hacks.

I’ve tried this and it doesn’t work for me, not sure if I’m doing it wrong.

threads still,don’t open on the last read post like they used to. This hasn’t worked for around six months. Initially a few promises from mnhq people of looking into it and now radio silence.

@BeckyAMumsnet any news about if this is going to be fixed ever?

the other thing which has started recently is when a thread now opens on a page I’ve read, I click on “1” to take me to the most recent page and it doesn’t open the most recent page, but will open a page mid way through. The second time I click “1” it will work.

And I see people have been tagging mnhq workers for over a week and they don’t even bother responding. Very poor customer service. 🤷‍♀️

@CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolutiontap on the three dots on the right of the post, tap on bookmark and then when you reopen the thread it takes you to that post.

You do realise that unless you’re paying to use a service you aren’t the customer, right? The companies who pay to advertise on the site are the customer. The users who have to look at the ads are the product they’re selling.

I don’t know what everyone else is seeing here, I’m on Safari on an iPhone and I get a tiny ad overlaying the very top of the page and a couple further down that I can just scroll past.

As for data leaks, if you’re using your actual email address rather than a throwaway to access a site like this, well more fool anyone doing that.

Yes i originally put customer in quotation marks but then deleted them. MN make it very clear through their actions what they think of the site users. I’m certainly under no illusion. However while we may not be customers they ought to be careful because without site users there will be no advertising revenue. The lack of maintenance to the website could well be their Ratner moment downfall. It’s only going to take a rival to kick off a more user friendly website and people will leave.

It is sometimes like using something from 1998, granted. I haven't had the experiences with ads that others have but the whole interface is a bit clunky.

MN is still unusable on my 'work' machine. It crashes the whole computer to the point i have to force a restart.

It still only works on my Gaming Computer,

They have the same set up in terms of they share the browser, but obviously the gaming computer has much better processor/graphics card, and more RAM... it still makes the fans go nuts.

I would love to know what the hell is going on within the MN code that the website needs such a high powered machine to work.

I've just had Active be replaced by this giant ad (Chrome on a laptop). It stays there if you scroll all the way to the bottom. No option to close it.

Oh, just realised I can't add a photo - it was a full-page ad for People's Pension.