Unwanted adverts

  • sadga · Member ·

    I see you have closed the thread re unwanted advertising. We are a small community group with limited funds and limited coverage (60 members max around the Ascot area) . Advertising at the BOTTOM of posts I can live with but at the top of the sidebar where I add welcome messages is confusing for our members. We really appreciate being able to have a free website so try to keep it simple. So thank you so far for supporting the likes of us but can the sidebar ads go, please?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • sadga · Member ·

    Well, I am gobsmacked at your speed. Thanks for removing the adverts – I have kept trying to open the website to make sure it’s true! THANK YOU.

  • gemmacevans · Staff ·

    Hi sadga ,

    Thanks for your thoughts, I’ll pass them on to our ads team. They are currently looking at different ad placements so you may see ads where they weren’t previously displayed. But as you have seen, this may change.

    These ads cover the cost of our free features so we try to balance that consideration with the best placement around your content :)

  • bowl1984 · Member ·

    Hi, my little blog has been invaded by big ads in the widget area pushing our info down out of sight. Help! Small bowls club. No money. We appreciate WordPress allowing us to be out there. Can we shuffle the adverts somewhere else on the page and we will all be happy. Please.

  • dandelionsalad · Member ·

    Just went to your blog, sadga, using a different browser so wasn’t logged in and there were ads both at the bottom of your posts and the very large one in the top sidebar position.

    Also noticed that in the past if one was a frequent visitor but not a logged-in WP user, the ads would disappear at the end of the posts, but not any longer with the “new” ad placement in the sidebar. The ads are on every post and never disappear.

    Obviously, this new ad placement looks very tacky and unprofessional and messes up the widget info on our blogs.

  • sovamm · Member ·

    Hi, we have a similar problem with the blog sovamm.wordpress.com It is a blog of a small Czech NGO with 20-30 members – that means 2000 – 3000 CZK membership fees from all the members per year. The cost of personal plan is 1020 CZK…
    As most of more than 12 angry bloggers, who have already expressed their opinion, I feel, that the basic problem is the advertisement on the top of the sidebar. In my opinion, it’s even worse when the place remains blank and the widgets are pushed down.
    I undestand why the ads are included in free plan and that the wordpress ads team is recently testing ad placement on free-hosted sites. But I really hope, that the team will finally decide not to put ads in sidebars.

  • gemmacevans · Staff ·

    Thanks @sovamm, I’ve passed your feedback on to the ads team.

  • sadga · Member ·

    I notice that when I log into our blog (as manager) I do not see adverts on the sidebar, which is good. However, all my members look as visitors so the welcome message and immediately relevant data are pushed way down with sidebar adverts on top so they may never see my messages. Can you please remove the sidebar adverts?

  • themagicrobot · Member ·

    Some more feedback for the ads team. I appreciate that ads are here to stay, but the ad at the top of the sidebar does spoil the look of many sites I’ve visited. I think it would be more acceptable to site owners if it was positioned as the second widget down so as not to mess up people’s intros. Also, at least on my site, that advert and the ones beneath the posts appear to be left-aligned rather than centred which spoils the flow.

  • roygangleri · Member ·

    +1 The humongous add on top of the sidebar needs to go.

  • sadga · Member ·

    Well, I was so wrong on 2nd Feb, (and 9th Feb) – the adverts were only “invisible” when I was logged in; but my visitors and our members had to scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar adverts to see my messages. However, I now notice that the adverts have been put at the bottom of the sidebar, so thank you for that. This is liveable.

  • themagicrobot · Member ·

    @WordPress.com staff thanks for listening to all the feedback in various threads about the advert at the top of sidebars. I see the ad has been re-positioned at the bottom of my sidebar too. That’s great. I hope it has been moved on other affected sites also. I’m quite ok with ads below posts. It’s a small price to pay for having had the ability to blog here for free for umpteen years.

  • gemmacevans · Staff ·

    @sadga — you’re welcome!

    @themagicrobot

    I hope it has been moved on other affected sites also.

    That’s correct — this change isn’t specific to your site, the new ad position has been implemented across WordPress.com sites using the Free plan.

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