Very annoying pop up videos

So you can imagine how they are struggling financially now.

Hardly. Take a look at the accounts. Turnover exceeding six million, an increase in 16% over the previous year. It paid four million in dividends to it shareholders.

I have an interesting advert at the top of the page for a firm of cleaners:
Come Home to a Clean House this Winter

It's not annoying, it's not flashing and it's not intruding in the middle of the thread.

I shan't be following any of the intrusive videos so any embedded adverts are lost on me.

FN Oh dear. I stand corrected!
I know that the finances have been discussed before on various platforms.
I’ll leave it here anyway.
Basically, like everyone else, I haven’t got a clue what’s going on with the ads, and it seems apparent that we aren’t going to find out anytime soon

Sorry I meant NorthFace, not FN, I confused you with the poster FarNorth. Apologies

FannyCornforth

Blinko , thanks. Yes, it’s a bit off not giving a proper response.
It would have nipped all of this in the bud.
Anyway - here you go: 🙄

Cheers!

I know we've been told, ages ago, but still I'm not sure how to make emojis that aren't shown below.

Hey Fanny You’re not a secret agent from GN are you sent to placate the troops 😮

Farzanah

Hey Fanny You’re not a secret agent from GN are you sent to placate the troops 😮

Oh don’t start all that again! 🤭
When I first joined there was all sorts of stuff said about me being a mole and an ‘influencer’.
I find the ads annoying as the next person, but it’s clear that we’re banging our heads against a brick wall with this.
The same as the Active List not working and lots of other issues that are frequently raised

What does COLC stand for FannyCornforth?

Blinko, I find the emojis on my keypad work on here in the usual way (on iPad).

Cost of Living Crisis, sorry Delila

Sorry Fanny Didn’t know you’d been “outed” before wrongly it seems 😱I wouldn’t care anyway, I find your posts entertaining.

callistemon you will be more then welcome. We are west of Swansea .🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

MrsKen33

callistemon you will be more then welcome. We are west of Swansea .🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Thank you!
My scones are usually a disaster, so I'll enjoy yours.
I can't guarantee that the strawberry conserve will be home-made either

Well I see HQ have done zilch about removing these exceedingly annoying adverts in the middle and a repeat down the righthand side.

Clearly their statement ‘we’re working on it’ meant absolutely nothing. It has totally spoilt GN for me.

Do they have them on Mumsnet ?

HQ appear to have ground us into submission.

It’s increasing difficult for websites to make money, especially with the problems Twitter is having and all the algorithm changes to Facebook. Google is about to be heavily affected as well, with AI search results that answer questions without linking to websites and the demise of third party cookies. It looks like a paid subscription model doesn’t work for them, so this is pretty much their only option.

The people complaining here are only a tiny tiny fraction of GN users who see the adverts.

GNHQ can’t control the kind of adverts that gets the results sponsors want, so if they want the money they need to go along with it.

I find them annoying but just tune them out. And while I understand why people use ad blockers, if you want GNHQ to keep running then you have to accept ads and take the ad blockers off because otherwise it won’t be financially profitable.

If they don’t get the ad revenue they need and need to make cuts, it’s not MN that will be closed down first.

If that is the case it might be better if HQ said that, and GN members might be more sympathetic.

There are very clear guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on accessible web design and these changes do not meet those guidelines. Failure to do so is even more worrying when an audience is older and more likely to have the physical disabilities which can make web access more challenging.

HQ can argue that some elements can be clicked off but for someone with arthritic hands, every unnecessary click causes more pain. For every person whose vision is disturbed by moving images these videos are a painful intrusion.

Failure to make web content easily accessible to people with disabilities is a breach of the Equality Act 2010. Far too many people involved in designing web sites and authoring web content have no clue about the guidelines and their obligations under the act. That is a corporate failure.

Here is Mumsnet’s Review of the Business from their 2021 accounts:

Our mission is to make parents' and grandparents' lives easier … We put purpose before profit.

These words sound hollow in the light of what they have done here.

Another aspect.

In advertising, reach refers to the number of people in a target audience that are exposed to a single ad served. The reach does not increase with subsequent exposures to the same viewer. Reach at its core does not consider the effectiveness of the ad on the consumer – it is a simple formula for measuring and putting a number or percentage on audience exposure.

It’s common to look first at demographics when mapping a target audience. But previous behaviour is equally as useful information. What impact have your ads had on the user so far? The quality of impact, or level of engagement with your brand, is a key indicator of where you’ll find success.

(Source Simulmedia)

We all know that many people find ads annoying. There’s a thread running here where people are discussing that very thing. The quote asks What impact have your ads had on the user? From the level of complaints, extremely negative.

I don’t believe that members object to ads in general and they do understand that the company needs revenue to operate but these particulars ads are being served up in a way that people clearly don't like and, furthermore, breach the W3C guidelines on accessibility. That will only encourage more people to install ad blockers.

Thank you for your explanation NorthFace

I think what really annoys me is that HQ gave the false impression they were doing something by saying ‘we are working on it’ when in my opinion they were doing nothing. I felt they were stringing us along. If they had said ‘in order to continue GN we have to increase our advertising’ I would have accepted that, but I think they were devious and were not transparent.

Members have been questioning these 'adverts' since October, and at no time has there been any explanation offered as to their function, just 'it is under discussion.' An honest acknowledgement that they are there for financial purposes would be acceptable, I think.
Threads that are deemed to offend are removed summarily by HQ with little explanation or apology.

They’re also not going to reveal ongoing internal business discussions, though! And they have to be careful about phrasing so they don’t alienate their advertisers. Given the number of these threads, they probably are looking into it but it’s not something with an easy or straightforward solution.

I don’t like the ads - I don’t like GN/MNHQ very much either! - but this is a more complicated situation than people are making out.

I made those scones. They were awful. I could have cobbled the road with them.

These ads are still driving me bonkers! So fed up of seeing the woman putting the buttercream icing on the cake, and it takes up so much of the screen!