Is it just me or is this website becoming almost unusable?

Ok, I know it’s a thankless task running an open resource like stw, and I’m not criticising you for this, it’s just been a bit frustrating when the content that people like me come for is obscured by the advertising that helps pay for it all.
Hobson’s choice, ‘n’all.
I hadn’t realised that there were premier settings available, but I do now.
But I’ve registered for grit.cx now……..

I’m reading this on my iPad, and I’ve just opened this page on my iPhone as well, and I can’t see any issues with ads popping up, or intruding into the text space.
When I first open a page, I get it full width, with the adverts down the right-hand margin, and Chain Reaction across the bottom, but a double-tap on the text expands it to fill the page, so I see no issues with that.
With the phone, it works better in landscape, but that’s just because the screen’s wider anyway.
But then, I’m always logged in, otherwise what’s the point, I can’t comment if I’m not.

The issue us raised a couple of times a week but the mods generally don’t respond.

Sorry, but I’m not having that.

The mods always respond, I challenge you to find me a thread where someone’s discussing advert issues and we haven’t tried to help (even though as Mark said there’s nothing we can actually do about them other than report it). If there are any we’ve missed it’s an oversight rather than intentional.

We don’t have the resources to always reply to emails directly (and it’s a logistical arseache), but I can assure you that everything that comes in gets read and dealt with as far as we’re able.

I agree with the mod [ not always as I am sure they will attest 😉 ] but they are pretty pro active on these threads – even though they often get flamed for trying – well he did on one I read recently.

Sorry, but I’m not having that.

The mods always respond, I challenge you to find me a thread where someone’s discussing advert issues and we haven’t tried to help

Not always

Not always

Duplicate thread, we were already discussing it here (and on several others).

Though as I’ve just said, “if there are any we’ve missed it’s an oversight rather than intentional.” I don’t recall seeing that one before. It’s easy to miss one when there’s half a dozen threads discussing ostensibly the same thing. If you want to guarantee it’ll get picked up, send an email.

Fair enough, you challenged me 🙂

I’ve moved on, it’s so last year round here anyway, I’ve found somewhere new 😉

Dude, your flounce is showing.

(-:

Mleh

Cougar – Moderator
Dude, your flounce is showing.

(-:
‘Swhat comes of wearing such short skirts! 😉

Ooh mods getting feisty, it’s hardly a fair fight when you have the equivalent of the BFG 😉

Now the ad for the mag is obscuring the topics.

Was a P but stopped because the never staying logged in and subsequent issues accessing with the ads making it hard to log in on Android. Sort that out and I’d go P again. Don’t and I’ll eventually give up due to the frustration of using the site nowadays.

I have a yen to ride my bike through Reiss. Dunno why 🙄

I don’t get this issue about not staying logged in. On a PC and two Android devices I have to log in once a month or so. It is a pain waiting for the full ad-inclusive page to load before getting the login option Butvi just hit the Subscribe button and log in there.

I assume those getting logged out always select the remember me box?

The pop up ad at the bottom is infuriating.

The search function is absolutely awful.

Other than that the site is magic.

Jamie – the remember me button doesn’t work if you switch between different devices.

cheers_drive, yes it does.

no – there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to me getting logged out ( and yes i do tick the ‘remember me’ box ), as i’m logged in on work PC too, so it’s not just a case of logging in from one device kicks you off on another one.
i often have a bunch of tabs open to different threads and when i get logged out i have to wait while each tab tries to load a video, and a bunch of ads, simultaneously. eventually the active one gets far enough to show the log in, which i click, and wait, and type, and wait, and wait some more, and tick the ‘remember me’, and wait, then enter.
all rather laborious.

The adverts at the bottom of the screen, which jump all over the place whenever you scroll, are making the forum almost unusable on an ipad.
This must be counter productive and detrimental to the other advertisers in the usual locations.

£1.49 per month….

I’m “p” and have turned off ads now, can confirm mobile browsing is now a pleasure.

But if i’m signed out, or for the none “p” members, I can’t see the benefit of seeing the same advert EVERYTIME you look at a new post. You see the Reis catalogue ad first time and click on it say, second time close it down, third time why do you need to know about Reis catalogue offer again? rinse and repeat for the next 1 hour of browsing.

It turns browsing STW on a mobile for none “p” into an infuriating game almost of how accurate can you press the X without loading up the same advert again. Even if you can accurately hit the X everytime, its a right chore doing it, and really detracts from a great mobile forum.

Reiss.

@deadlydarcy i’d rather never look at that site again, yet alone memorise the correct spelling :p

I need a new suit. I’d like to get one from Reiss. There’s none near me. I wonder if I can catch the National Express. Does anyone know if Reiss take PayPal?

Mark, hitting the x button doesn’t work. The add comes back over and over again and does make things pretty unworkable on iPad/iPhone.

STW is about the shonkiest clonkiest loading forum about at the mo, And the pay for a P to stop the shonky adds attitude is crap, I’d pay for a P for the extra content if I wanted it but to have to pay to make it usable without pop ups, random music and clunky loading is shite and I just use it less instead..
And for new visitors having a looksee it just looks like a dogs dinner…

this^^^

Oh my giddy aunt, I didn’t know I could turn the adverts off! That’s much nicer to look at now, thanks folks!!

B.

And as if by magic, or divine intervention, an alternative appears from behind the counter

Disgruntled, this way please…

Handy to show potential advertisers how much traffic the new site and forum has already generated 😉

It’s okay, I’m old enough to be allowed to be this cynical 😉

First rule of STW Club…

Our policy on Ad Blocking

The ads in a very real sense do allow you to use this site for free. If the ads were not there earning us money for the time we spend keeping this site running then we simply would not bother with a website at all or we would severely strip it back to just being a promotion site for the mag. It simply would not be economically viable without the ads there.

Now, in light of that but also taking the pragmatic decision that the technology to block ads is out there and there is nothing we can do to prevent people from using it, we have decided that any threads posted on our forum that publicise or promote the removing of ads from this website are actually counterproductive to not just us but you as well. No ads, no site.

So…

We ASK that you don’t act to remove the ads.. But it is just a request. But we WILL remove threads that promote the removal of the ads on our site and we WILL ban permanently any repeat offenders.

Nothing is free. The price you pay to use this site is the ads that are displayed on it. If you are a Premier User the annual cost of your account is used to generate the content that is made available to you. This fee does NOT contribute towards the upkeep of the website or the free to view content, such as news stories and reviews.

So in summary. Install ad blockers if you want. but don’t discuss it on our forum. But please consider the importance of the ads to the future of this free to use website before you take any action to prevent the ads on this site from displaying in your browser.

slackalice – Member – Quote
And as if by magic, or divine intervention, an alternative appears from behind the counter

Disgruntled, this way please…

Handy to show potential advertisers how much traffic the new site and forum has already generated

Mark Alker ?@singletrackmark 2h
Day 1 delivered 14.5k ads to 746 users

/prune

STW is about the shonkiest clonkiest loading forum about at the mo, And the pay for a P to stop the shonky adds attitude is crap, I’d pay for a P for the extra content if I wanted it but to have to pay to make it usable without pop ups, random music and clunky loading is shite and I just use it less instead..
And for new visitors having a looksee it just looks like a dogs dinner…

+1

STW is pretty much unusable for me now on even a decent 3G connection. It is by far the worst forum to use out of all the ones I visit, pretty much no features on it whatsoever compared to pretty much any other. Saying you need the ads to pay for the forum is a bit odd when there really isn’t much forum to pay for.

And of course the constant bleating about “£1.49” from the holier than thou subscribers puts me off paying it even more.

I’ll probably get banned for that last post exactly as I did when I made constructive criticism about the magazine a couple of years back.

I can cheerfully reassure you that your previous two posts are fine. After all, if we banned everyone for talking bollocks, the place would be empty.

After all, if we banned everyone for talking bollocks, the place would be empty.

You’d be first against the wall, Cougar.

….anyway, bit harsh to say robdob is speaking bollocks. As compared to most online forum, STW does have a milder feature-set. Regardless of whether it’s by accident, too late/too much trouble to change platforms now, or design, erm not sure about that one, it’s a fact.

What exactly was “bollocks” in what I said?

I was banned for 3 days for commenting on the magazine layout.
It takes a long time to load each page on STW on 3G because of the ads.
The forum itself is very basic compared to every other one I’ve visited.
The excuse I have heard for the ads is that they are needed to pay for the site.

So in summary. Install ad blockers if you want. but don’t discuss it on our forum. But please consider the importance of the ads to the future of this free to use website before you take any action to prevent the ads on this site from displaying in your browser.

The problem with this statement is that the programming of the website, more specifically the quantity and type of ads, is making the “free use” gradually unusable to the point where now, on a mobile on 3G, there isn’t a “free use” easily available because of the amount of data that has to be downloaded.

So eventually you’ll get less and less people seeing the ads because they’ll either subscribe or be put off by the ads and not return. So then the ads won’t generate as much cash but there will be less and less people sticking around to be subscribers. So the subs will have to go up, making people leave gradually.

A reasonable amount of well placed ads is great. I don’t mind that. But banners ads and 1/3rd right hand side of the page and pop up ads that follow your scrolling on your phone is too much. And not many are for bike stuff which is why I came on the website, to see bike stuff.

Does mumsnet have premium content and/or premier subscribers?