Annoying ads in Pinterest

[JoBear2]

Hey everyone, my Pinterest is full of ads of nothing related to my interests, eg: handbags, clothes, bikinis and shoes when all I look at is crafts and cards. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get rid of them. I worked out that you can get rid of one at a time but that's too laborious as there are SO MANY of them. I searched through my settings but couldn't find anything to help. Can anyone point me in the right direction? :confused:

[AussieJenny]

I only get about one or two per page, not enough to bother me. I select "Im not into this pin" whenever it is underwear, or particularly in-your-face clothing. So now I get shoes mainly, its given up trying to sell me push-up bras!
I think craft suppliers don't advertise on pinterest.
I like to look at antique jewellery, so it gives me pins for that. Some of them seem to be ads from auction houses but that's alright, they are pretty to look at and I am not tempted to buy.

[whim6915]

I was getting hundreds of those blasted 'picked for you' things so I went into my profile and found the Home Feed setting and turned those off. You could look at your personalization settings and see if there is something that is causing all those ads to appear. I only get a couple of ads per page now and it used to be dozens. Good luck

[shazsilverwolf]

This is so funny! I have just come from Pinterest, and was having a good old rant in my head about those blasted ads! And the first thread I see is this one, What really annoys me are the clothing ads- it's so obvious they are not based around my browsing history at all- I mean, they are not black, for a start! Every now & again I get irritated- or bored- enough to do the ' I'm not into this pin' thing, but I wish they had an option that said' Because I wouldn't use it to wash my floors with'! rofl. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there is no way to opt out of ads. You can block the 'picked for you', but not general ads. It also seems to come in waves- I won't see any for a week or so, then suddenly there will be a few every time I open it up.

[Scrapjanny]

I hear you. I was particularly annoyed with one this weekend about a female issue, complete with a color chart and every detail they could fit on it. They obviously don't know how old i am either.

[stampin stacy]

Pinterest USED TO BE such a wonderful site.

I could sit and look thru pics all evening but rarely go there anymore because of the ads, especially the inappropriate ones. Usually when I report a pin it either disappears off my feed or at least flips over to a blank square but one the other night stayed on my feed no matter what I tried. I absolutely do not want to see diagrams of people's private parts, ICK.

I'm afraid the inability to get rid of that picture was one of their latest "improvements".

[wavejumper]

(sigh) I am with you guys and I cant even find the individual go away thing. :(


I am going to go look at my profile now.

[wavejumper]

I went and checked.

Ok-I dont get tons of ads...but I do get some and I dont know why. What I already had set up
a) I made my board private so search engines cant see it
b) I dont have ANY social media turned on
c) I only follow one person's board (another carder) and only share my board with her.

I dont know if any of this is helping me. I dont see any of that underwear stuff....I would be writing to Pinterest and blowing up the screen yelling if I was!

Knowing me and how I enter as little data about myself in any online site as I can and still have it run...they may not even know I am female!

[UnderstandBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stampin stacy

I absolutely do not want to see diagrams of people's private parts, ICK.

UGH - I can't imagine the target market for that hanging out on PINTEREST.


I never go there anymore. They ruined it.

[lynnewithane]

Huh. I don't remember seeing underwear or private parts.
So, I just went and clicked on it. I saw tons of cards, a pineapple wreath, some recipes, a couple of exercise pins, and an ad for Dyson. Actually, I saw the same one twice. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I got into Pinterest very early on. There were crafts, but no cards, and you would see the same pins over and over. I don't think I've ever messed with settings.
What's currently driving me crazy is an ad about an inch wide on the left whenever I pull up SCS. Even if I x it out, I still lose that much of my screen. I view it on my iPad, so it takes up valuable space.

[fionna51]

The ads are frustrating me too. I also see a TON of what LOOKS like a regular pin, but in actuality are trying to draw me in to follow stuff that doesn't interest me at all. Or to join group boards. Two weeks ago the amount of "stuff" in my feed went about ten times larger...abruptly.

I would quit pinterest like Lydia, but there's too much on my boards. Maybe I should just quit daily feed and just use my boards.

[khogan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fionna51

I would quit pinterest like Lydia, but there's too much on my boards. Maybe I should just quit daily feed and just use my boards.

That's what I do. I got so fed up with my feed that I just stopped using it. There were times there wasn't a single non-ad/picked for you pin on my screen. Pinterest took a great tool and ruined it.

[UnderstandBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fionna51

I would quit pinterest like Lydia, but there's too much on my boards. Maybe I should just quit daily feed and just use my boards.

That's what I did - I really only use my boards - I haven't looked at the feed since they broke it.


It's useful for many things - I have a Daniel Smith watercolor split group - and I have boards for each split so people can sign up. But it's sad to me that I can no longer enjoy my friends' pins in my feed because it's too full of junk. I really used to love that site and spend a lot of time on it.

[wavejumper]

Gee I get one friend's pins and very little junk in it. Hmm. Of course now that I said that it will be ruined.

That ad to the left here on SCS...is that a money maker for SCS like top and bottom?

[fionna51]

Another thing that I have noticed is that they are repeating pins made by folks in my feed. For example, my daughter pinned a particular pin ... only one pin on the board. But I have seen it 4 or 5 times in the last few weeks in my feed.

I have noticed this with several people I follow, but obviously I don't check everything.

[canada goose]

I just sent them an email with my issues of the above. Not sure what or if I will get an answer.so tired of having to scroll through my feed from all kinds of things I am not interested in instead of only from those that I wish to follow.

[JoBear2]

Thanks everyone for your responses - I appreciate them. I have looked and looked for a way to turn the ads off in the settings but can't find anything. You used to be able to turn them off but I just can't see a way. I am not kidding when I say that every 4-6 pins is an ad - mainly skimpy clothes and bras/underclothes and tons of bikinis. Makes me NOT wanna use Pinterest anymore.......it used to be so awesome :mad::neutral:

Oh, and I have emailed them about how frustrating it is. At least if they get enough people giving them feedback, it might make them change it back to being awesome.

[gregzgurl]

I'm another one that gets annoyed by the ads, but thought I'd throw out a thought: Pinterest is FREE and I'm sure it takes a lot of bandwidth and maintenance and all the rest, which is NOT free. The ads probably cover the costs of keeping the site up and running. Annoying, but understandable... (I've seen good blogs ruined this way, too...)

[UnderstandBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzgurl

I'm another one that gets annoyed by the ads, but thought I'd throw out a thought: Pinterest is FREE and I'm sure it takes a lot of bandwidth and maintenance and all the rest, which is NOT free. The ads probably cover the costs of keeping the site up and running. Annoying, but understandable... (I've seen good blogs ruined this way, too...)

Ads are essential for free sites. However, I object to them masquerading as site content. Here for example, you see clearly what is an ad space - it's not a fake post that's actually an ad. Designated ad spaces are welcome and I appreciate the distinction on sites like ours.

[fionna51]

I agree, Lydia!! I understand the need for ads to keep a site free. They could just reserve one column for ads. Or create an ad column and make the feed a bit narrower. Or reserve an ad column and a suggested post column. Something!

[gregzgurl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnderstandBlue

Ads are essential for free sites. However, I object to them masquerading as site content. Here for example, you see clearly what is an ad space - it's not a fake post that's actually an ad. Designated ad spaces are welcome and I appreciate the distinction on sites like ours.

Good point. There is a distinct difference, and an important one. Maybe that's the tack our complaints should take if/when we lodge them with the Pinterest folks...

[NYTripletMommy]

I no longer use Pinterest because of all the annoying ads. I used to love it but no longer :-(

[muscrat]

The only time I go to pinterest is to view a tutorial someone links me to.

[wavejumper]

It was ridiculously hard to send them a message. There is no "contact us". You have drill in. I sent it...with Lydia' point of appropriate ad placement, and then ad content and the ads hiding as pins.

I encourage more to complain and I am glad I was prompted. Thanks.

[lynnewithane]

Drill in?

[muscrat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynnewithane

Drill in?

Maybe she was on her tablet or phone. They change words for me all the time!

[bjeans]

"Drill down" is to get past the surface and find hidden info buried deep. Maybe like that. : )

[canada goose]

I went to Pinterest.com and scrolled to the bottom of the page where there is a "contact us" and a page comes up for your email.

I told them in my email "there was a lot negativity about the way their site has been evolving" on the internet. Let's see if that catches their eye or rather their "black eye".

[wavejumper]

Yes, thanks BJeans. I should have said drill down, and yes when you have to keep digging in more and more to find what you want. Sometimes this is accomplished with filtering and other times you are rooting around to find something.

For example I often have to do that for angel policies. If they are not clearly noted I have to start looking at Terms and Conditions, About Us, etc etc before I contact them to ask.

[lynnewithane]

Thank you. Familiar with "drill down", and should have gotten it from "drill in", but for some reason, my mind just couldn't grasp it.

[muscrat]

I had never really heard the drill down phrase so I was of no help!

[stampin stacy]

So here is a counter story to the "never use it" one we are all telling here.

DH wanted margarita's last nite to go with the Mexican meal I was making so I asked him to look up the portions while I was getting dinner started. Well over 5 minutes, probably closer to 10 I asked him what they were. He said he was still looking, he'd done a basic internet search and had gotten any and everything but what he wanted to know and was trying to wade through it all to find an answer. Might I add he was more than a little testy at this point too.


I walked around the corner to where I had my tablet, opened Pinterest, did my search and had the answer in less than 30 seconds.


DH was first amazed, then a little miffed I found what we wanted so quickly. LOL, he just kept saying "HOW??"


Sigh, instants like this makes really hard to hate the site and give it up completely, dang it.

[maryalena]

I hadn't looked at mine for awhile. I was following people I've never heard of. All kinds of stuff on there I would never be interested in and ailments I don't have, mostly ads disguised as content. I just cancelled my account. I did click the other button for reasons for leaving and told them why. Too bad. I had a nice little card gallery pinned in there.

[bjeans]

I deleted my account quite a while back, never got into it.

Now I have to remember to type -pinterest when searching on line for something, or the first page of search results is almost entirely Pinterest boards. Annoying. Life on line is turning out to be 50% useful, 50% ads. Or worse.

[MarianneLamb]

Loving reading everyone's Pinterest experiences. Thought I would share mine. A few years ago, I started seeing pictures of kittens on my page. Found out I was following a person, not their specific board. Once I figured that out (thanks, so much, Lydia), my page was oh, so much nicer. Then about three weeks ago, I started seeing ads, both "Picked for You" and just regular ads. I blocked a few, but there were too many different companies. I just started clicking on the three dots, choosing "I'm not into this pin" and then "I just don't like ads." I do that with all my ads that appear. These last few days, I have noticed many less ads popping up. I don't know how that works, but taking the time to hide the ad pins seems to help. Maybe I am just imagining things. I think it's a worthwhile site, and I will continue to visit Pinterest unless the ads get out of hand.

[Dorie95]

three dots? I'll have to check that out. Never noticed a way to block the ads either, it doesn't really bother me that much but it is becoming annoying~

[craftjunkiesc]

What I'd like to know is why they continue to flood my feed with these ads even after I send them the "I just don't like ads" message on E.V.E.R.Y. ad in my feed. If I'm gonna spend time telling them I don't like something about their product, the least they can do is fix it. Contacting them is near impossible, almost like they're in witness protection program. And when I do, most all solutions are "canned" responses with no real solutions at all.
Makes me wonder if they even pay attention to feedback or if they are just THICKHEADED.

[cobby]

Using the Pinterest app on my iPad. If I go to my account settings and scroll down to the Home Feed section, I have the option to turn on or off the "picked for you" pins. I don't see anything regarding ads specifically. I currently have mine set to "on" because I am not getting too many things I find objectionable in my feed. Mostly I get stuff related to whatever I have been pinning most recently. The only annoying thing is when they show me stuff I have already pinned!!

[beaddict]

I've done the same thing and have noticed a slight decrease in ads. Occasional ads don't bother me but they were about every 5th or 6th pin and that was rather annoying. I haven't been on in a few days though so who knows if they've kicked back up again.


QUOTE=MarianneLamb;21486005]Loving reading everyone's Pinterest experiences. Thought I would share mine. A few years ago, I started seeing pictures of kittens on my page. Found out I was following a person, not their specific board. Once I figured that out (thanks, so much, Lydia), my page was oh, so much nicer. Then about three weeks ago, I started seeing ads, both "Picked for You" and just regular ads. I blocked a few, but there were too many different companies. I just started clicking on the three dots, choosing "I'm not into this pin" and then "I just don't like ads." I do that with all my ads that appear. These last few days, I have noticed many less ads popping up. I don't know how that works, but taking the time to hide the ad pins seems to help. Maybe I am just imagining things. I think it's a worthwhile site, and I will continue to visit Pinterest unless the ads get out of hand.[/QUOTE]

[wavejumper]

Follow up:So I get this answer back from a lady who is a "pinterest expert" who introduces herself as a fellow pinner as well. She says thanks and I will forward this to the appropriate people. Uh huh.

Guess what I said when they asked if I was satisfied with that answer...NO. :rolleyes:

I *think* you can help yourself with your settings? I have everything turned "off" and my boards are private-only my friend can see them. And until recently I was not getting any ads and I am wondering if the ones I am getting now are actually passing through HER feed as I follow her. I have to ask her about that.

I still like the board...it is a great way for us to share stuff. We share a love of a particular stamp company so we both have up the stamps we want to get from there...I can follow her work which I look forward to, she is so talented . I do see what she pins as well which is interesting as we think alike. I didnt know that would happen by following her but I am ok with it.