Your Pinterest home feed is getting awfully crowded lately.
The home feed is the landing page when you sign on to Pinterest. It had been the place where the latest and most popular pins from those you follow appear.
But then Pinterest Picked for You Pins were added.
These are Pins that Pinterest says it picks for you based on your interests.
The site chooses those picks because of the boards you follow and the pins you post, click, or like.
According to a help page at Pinterest, the site even gathers your recent browsing history to recommend some Pins.
Well, apparently Pinterest has been picking too many pins for some users. And they’ve taken to the site’s official Oh, How Pinteresting blog to voice their frustrations.
One user comments the volume of ‘picked for you’ pins on the home feed is too much, explaining:
“Those ‘picked for you’ pins are far too many and not obvious enough. It takes me at least three times as long to go through my feed now — not only because if the increased volume, but because I have to double check before I click on a pin to see if it’s from someone I have chosen to follow.”
Pinterest Picked for You and Promoted Pins Not the Same
As if the addition of Picked for You Pins on users’ Pinterest home feed wasn’t enough, Pinterest also recently announced it was adding Promoted Pins too.
These are not the same as Picked for You Pins in that they are paid content from sponsors rather than picked solely based on your previous Pinterest activity.
Promoted Pins are nothing new for Pinterest.
They were first announced in 2013, and had become a regular feature by the following year.
But, until now, they’ve only been seen in search results and on Category feeds.
Still Pinterest claims that like the Picked for You pins, Promoted Pins are curated based on your activity.
Writing on the official Oh How Pinteresting Blog, Project Mananger Annie Ta explains:
“Of course, if you don’t like a Promoted Pin, you can always hide it from your feed and tell us why you didn’t like it. We’ll use your feedback to improve what you see in the future.”
Still, Ta explains the necessity of Promoted Pins to Pinterest’s business model, writing:
“We want to make sure Pinterest is a service that’s here to stay for all of us, and advertising helps us ensure that happens.”
But it seems users are less upset about the fact that promoted pins are included than about the sheer number of pins being added to their home feed. One user explains:
“I understand the necessity for ‘promoted pins’ but absolutely HATE the ‘picked for you’ pins. I have more of these in my feed than pins from people I have chosen to follow.”
Another user adds:
“As a business account holder, I get Promoted Pins– makes sense to monetize, and we all knew it was coming. The “picked for you” pins that are now flooding my board, however, do not make sense. I have carefully curated my home feed. From the beginning, I understood that good pins come from good pinners, and the key to quality is not quantity.”
Image: Pinterest
I actually deactivated my pinterest account because of this. It wasn’t fun anymore, it was just a web page full of ugly and redundant images that I had to wade through to maybe see something that I liked. If they had used something like moderation – maybe one of every ten pins? – but it was more than half my feed! I can’t believe anybody is happy about this.
Cama
Same here. It’s become an advertising site and not the site I had carefully tailor-made for myself. I reached out to pinterest who said I could click on the little x. Unfortunately the picked for you pins overwhelm my feed. More of them than the relevant pins from followers I chose. Pinterest seems to be saying we are going to pin whatever we choose TO YOUR FEED regardless whether you want them or not. Not only will I deactivate my account I will post to our business blog of nearly 500000 subscribers and my personal DIY blog of 49000 followers Basically, pinterest is controlling our news feeds and there’s nothing we can do about it more like big brother !
Kaye
Picked for me is so annoying, I don’t even use the feed anymore. I have a board called Places I’ve Been, but Picked for You has all kinds of places I have no interest in whatsoever, much less have never been to. If people really want their stuff read, they should tell the powers that be they are ruining it for the very people who made Pinterest interesting in the first place.
Kaye
In addition I feel as though Big Brother has decided my future, my taste. The most irritating and dehumanizing thing was that when I wrote Pinterest directly, they did not even deign to address the issue!
val
Deactivated my account today, ahhhhhhhhh. It had become a constant source of irritation.
Karen Hill
Getting ready to do the same! Tired of all the “picked for you” pins. I’m quite capable of picking my own!
lisa b
not necessary,
Go to your Account Settings and switch them off:
Personalization
We sometimes show you Promoted Pins and recommendations based on your activity on Pinterest. Is it okay if we:
No Also use sites you’ve visited recently? Learn more
No Also use info from our ad partners? Learn more
Sam
You can’t turn them off…unchecking personalization options does not get rid of suggested or promoted pins. Pinterest sucks now.
jae did
that is a joke… i have NO checked and it still spams me with all the promoted pins.. i now write on all the pins
I will NEVER use a pin OR follow the pinner that has been PROMOTED. Just to let you know.. BOYCOTT PROMOTED PINS
mandylifeboats
you cannot turn them off, clicking NO does nothing. you can X out of picked for you and promoted pins only to have them show up again and again. i have been on this site for years and it was a useful tool but now it irritates me.
Lisa
I did just this – but today they started again – derived from other items I had picked, not boards, so more insidious. There were about ten this first time I noticed. I find them lacking in genuine interest. Derivative, inconsequential, they are not any advance over the ones I already have, and so they are resented, ugly, and must be stamped out.
By clicking the X on the lower R, then the hide all pins inspired from, on the lower left one might be able to rid the feed of some of these….
Jennifer
Not true. I’ve deactivated all the personalization settings and still get more “picked for you” crap than stuff from people I follow. Quit using the site for months because of this then came back hoping it’d improved. Nope, it’s worse.
Colette Lajoie
I checked my settings and they were already set to “no”. Still I get those annoying pins from pinterest.
Madge
Thank you for all these well written accounts of my thoughts exactly, I thought I was alone in this opinion. Pinterest started doing the “Picked for you” again, so until they stop I will boycott (again). Why do they do this when clearly a lot of people don’t like it?
wendy
I agree…the picked for you pins are horrible. they are not even on par with the items I pin. Example: i am a knitter and have knitting boards…why am i getting crochet pins?!?! I get more of these than the pins i make.
As soon as i delete them…more appear and sometime the same ones I deleted days before. I used to go on pinterest all the time…Now i dread having to delete the pins and have not gone on for over a week because of it. I am going to go back to saving ideas on my hard drive. Its a horrible feature that you cannot opt out of. I have not had one picked for you pin that I have liked. Not one.
Cathy
I AGREE THE PICKED PINS FOR YOU ARE HORRIBLE; PLEASE TELL THE TO STOP, SO IRRITATING.
Monique
I could handle the ‘picked for you’ Pins, if I actually LIKED them. I think I have loved ONE, and had several Pins show up that I already have on other boards. Most of the others are ‘meh.’ The choices for why I don’t like it don’t give me the choice of “this isn’t my style” or “I already have this.”
Sounds like Pinterest tipped the balance too far and need to pull back. And advertisers need to get better at creating Promoted Pins that add value to the users.
Frankie
picked for you are not paid for, Pinterest choose them based on other things you have pinned or websites you have visited. Promoted are and will say promoted pins and who they are promoted by. This article is inaccurate and you can remove picked for you pins. I have found that the pins picked for me have always been great.
https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/types-pins
Shawn Hessinger
Hi Frankie,
You’re correct. As we explain above, Picked for You and Promoted Pins aren’t the same. In fact, folks seem to hate the Picked for You pins a lot worse … perhaps because they understand the importance of keeping Pinterest operating and free for users.
I hate Picked for You because there are so damn many of them! Were, I should say. I haven’t been back to Pinterest since they ruined it, but I keep checking to see if they’ve made the feature optional, because I used to enjoy Pinterest very much.
I assumed they were promoted, because they are also incredibly redundant. If they aren’t even making money on the Picked for You pins, then they really should stop doing it, because everybody hates them.
Lisa
guess what maybe we wont even use this ‘feed’ feature f it continues to be so cluttered with rot. I have entered NO to being tracked, and to getting these posts, but suddenly there they are again, very ugly. Why did Pinterest not pay attention to my settings? what made them so arrogant that they felt it might be ok to OVERRIDE my settings?
Biff Syokely
How long have you been working for pinterest???? i’d say i’m not interested in 85 to 90 percent of them and have either seen or liked or actually already pinned the rest of the stuff they show me and then show me and show me again and again…as far as the promoted ones that’s fine they have the right to monetize theior site but i don;t want to study the book of mormon or need feminine hygiene products or advice and don;t need crucifix jewelry for babies and toddlers etc. and i still don’t need those and i still don’t and i still don’t…and I still don’t……..
Schroeder
I deactivated! Life is too short for this sort of presumptuous intrusion.
Libby
So I just tried to see if there was a way to get rid of these ANNOYING picked for you pins – and found this link – http://bethmcmillan.com/blog/?p=1254
It totally works, but leaves blank spaces where the picked for you were. The most shocking thing is HOW MANY pins Pinterest puts in there, it’s out of control. I hate it.
I’ve noticed lately the ‘Picked For You’ pins have gotten crazy and ruined my carefully curated feed. One here or there was okay but now that it’s almost every other pin I agree with the other comments that Pinterest is less enjoyable.
Jen
I completely agree!
Melissa
I too deleted my pinterest. I only followed a small number of boards that posted thing I enjoyed, I logged in the other day to find that my 60 or so usual pins on the home page had nearly doubled, I counted, with pins that had nothing to do with the things I follow. A few promoted pins here and there I can understand, doubling my feed with what amounts to spam for me and making me wade through it to find the boards I followed? No thanks, I’ll just go back to flickr.
Sara
I too am unhappy with the Picked for You pins – too many, not necessarily appropriate to my tastes, and quite frankly an invasion of my Pinterest time which was sacred 🙂 I don’t go on Pinterest much anymore because of it. Oh well, at least I will get some of my life back.
Anne
HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT! They are using an insipid data mining program to flood my page with these insidious “Picked for You” pins. Taste is something subtle, not to be replicated by a data mining program, and the pins they have cluttered my page with neither reflect my taste nor interest me. They keep me from being able to follow the pinners I chose to follow. “Picked for You” pins have turned Pinterest into little more than another opportunity for ‘would be’ marketing mavens to bombard you with self-promoting annoyances. Suspending my account. Will not come back until they get rid of this crap! Thank you for a place to sound off about this.
Sally
100% agree. Our carefully culled interests have been hijacked. Pinterest knows exactly what they have done and boldly incorporated no mechanism for opting out of their picked for you nonsense. This week me and my 48 employees deactivated. Pinterest is NOT a tool anymore.
Cait
Picked for you pins are terrible because they are so unrelated and usually ugly, too.
Every time I open my feed the first thing I do is hide all the picked for your pins as otherwise I feel I can’t enjoy my feed. Hiding the pins is a waste of time though and with each one I get more and more annoyed.
Pinterest does not seem interested in this feedback though as nothing has been done despite many comments on their blog post about this feature. I have also emailed them twice to complain.
Dawn
I HATE the picked for you pins. Suddenly half of my page is filled up with the bloody things and they are NOT what I’m interested in. If this continues, I am definitely going to cancel my account. Pinterest says I can just go through and delete them one by one – but there are so many it takes up my valuable time. Booooo!
Shawn Hessinger
Don’t hold back, folks. Tell us how you really feel. 🙂
Sara Martin
They are – YOU are just NOT listening!!!!!!!!!
nancy
We have!!!!!!!!! Just listen to how much we hate it. Pinterest is not fun anymore I don’t go through any of the news items I ask to please stop the weekly news and it stopped for two weeks and it’s back I hate it!!!! I don’t pin anymore and I stopped following.
Jennifer Benkhauser
Personally I am sick to death of pick for you pin all my home feed is cluttered with useless crap & I don’t need you lot telling me what to pin!!!! Furthermore you tell us to take surveys which we participate in , and then you staffers ignore what we say, go totally off on a tangent, that I wondered, personally why you bothered with the surveys in the first place…
Barbara meyer
I hate all these picked for you crap that Pinterest now posts on my opening feed. I am 70 years old and now my page is cluttered with info for brides and prom dresses, baby clothes and over the top eye makeup. Whatever I manage to get rid off is back the next day and with a vengeance. Methinks I will be parting with Pinterest…life is too short.
Jama Bell
I HATE the picked for you pins! My home feed is now overflowing with things I’m not interested in!
Turn it OFF!!! Or at least give us a privacy setting option to opt out of it! This way those that like it can keep and those of us who don’t can turn it off!
I too will cancel my account if changes aren’t made!
Bogusnot
I can’t take it! I’m deactivating my Pinterest account. I don’t enjoy their “picked for you” crap.
Sara
I hate the ‘Picked for you’ pins – they are very badly chosen and an absolute nightmare to get rid of each time you look at your Pinterest page. I have deactivated my account until such time that Pinterest offers an opt out option*. Sadly, it seems that while we love Pinterest, Pinterest does not love us.
*Hopefully, the opt out option will be such big news that the whole world including me will hear about it. Then I’ll come back to Pinterest.
That’s me, too. Just waiting to hear that they walked back that crap, or at least made it optional.
jessica
Pinterest was the ONLY social media site I enjoyed using. I HATE Picked for you pins because they fill up my feed and are NOT my taste. The whole idea seems like spam, and I don’t see what the gain is for Pinterest. Get rid of them. I don’t want to leave.
Moonly
Why have you taken it upon yourselves to stick your nose into my carefully chosen collection of pins to add a bunch of stuff I have no interest in??
I have a board named ‘My Style’ – MY STYLE .. things I would like to have in my wardrobe.
I’m in my late 50’s – my home feed is now suggesting daisy dukes, bralettes, roller skates and hello kitty printed t-shirts – REALLY????
– and have you ever considered that someone might make a board called ‘STYLE’ or ‘RECIPES’ etc and fill it with PORN! – this porn would then flood all the home feeds of many a pinner.
Deleted my account.
Teri
We need an alternative to Pinterest… I just get angry when I go there. It used to be one of my favorite pastimes. I’m going through my current boards and saving the original content to Pocket. When I’m done I will be deleting my account.
jane thompson
AHHHH! Stop the freaking Picked for You pins immediately! Do you not read the amount of hate mail addressed above. Small Business Trends – I hope you are forwarding all this hate mail to them. They need to know!
dave r
There are way to many “picked for you” pins. There should be an option to turn them off. And, the promoted pins should be a different color or be placed on the right side of the page. I hope there is a change soon! I want to see what my family and friends post, not want pinterest wants me to see!
JoM
I clicked the little ‘x’ that hides the ‘picked for you’ pins that are ‘based on your xxx board’. I did that with every board and I no longer see them on my home feed. Also, go to your ‘account settings’ and make sure the privacy button and the personalization buttons are set to ‘no’. Also, clear your search history often.
However, the ‘promoted for you’ pins on the ‘everything’ page are just absolutely horrid. I see the same ad(s) over and over and over and over and over. I don’t care if they’ve paid to post their pins, the sheer number/repetition/length/ and comments on those pins is nothing short of obnoxious. I’ve expressed my opinion on these numerous times to Pinterest … falls on deaf ears. I’ve asked numerous times for them to please provide an opt-out button … falls on deaf ears. I’ve changed my settings to “no” for searches for both picked for you and promoted pins, I clear my history all the damn time (in your account settings). I no longer enjoy ‘browsing Pinterest’. I also click on those damn ‘promoted pins’ and flag them as spam … because they are. Maybe Firefox or Chrome will come up with some kind of ad-blocker for these. Losing interest in Pinterest very quickly.
Michele
Go to your settings and under personalization click no under receive ads from our partners. I actually locked down a bunch more due to this change. I think this is the one that worked, but it doesn’t hurt to review it all and make your setting tougher to get into. I still seem to have a few slip in, but not many and iit was out of control or I wouldn’t have bothered. Hummm guess that backfired Pinterest, should be more subtle. LOL
Karin
Re: picked for you pins:
Silberman needs to grow up. If he had a board or executive committees they would sit him down and say, “young man, here’s how you run a business. #1-ALWAYS respect and listen to your customers #2-there is a difference between a healthy business model based on profit and self-defeating greed. Word gets out. #3-take your ego out of the decision-making process, seek mentors and ask for advice”
Pinterest is run by immature PINHEADS!
EarthMother
This genius girl geek developed a java script bookmarklet that REMOVES “Picked for you” pins from your Pinterest feed. Love her! Love it! Just drag it to your bookmarks toolbar, click, and watch them all disappear like magic! http://bethmcmillan.com/blog/?p=1254
JoM
Is there one for the ‘promoted pins’ as well?
lisa b
if you click on the right of the promoted pin a window opens asking if you want to learn more, or BLOCK ALL PICKED FOR YOU PINS INSPIRED BY YOUR XXXBOARD. Just click on the ‘ block all’ and they disappear. I counted and made a list of all, it took a few days, but they do not show up now.
However, when I click to hide the promoted pins now, they do not let me respond as to why any longer.
I considered them all offensive. Many do ot respond at all to my interests, and there are so many words it is disturbing to the flow.
Michele
Lisa B. is correct.
It takes some time to sift through them, but once you tell it not to post pins inspired by a SPECIFIC BOARD, then it stops. I only get Promoted By pins now, which is still infuriating, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was when both ‘services’ were hitting my feed.
I hide Promoted By pins and report them all as ‘offensive’ and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE. I also flat out refuse to click on any of them, no matter how tempting a rare, select few might be. I figure if they’re going to vandalize my feed, I’m going to throw a monkey wrench in their analytics, as much as possible anyway and if we all did it it would be anarchy!! 🙂
Unfortunately, the promoted crap will never stop. They are just another greedy corporation that disregards customer service for the sake of money. They’ve gotten too big to be cool. I remember the days when they proudly announced that you would never be able to use Pinterest to hawk your wares and promote your own self-interest. It was an offence that could get you 86’d from the website.
Pinterest was awesome for the first 2-3 years and I am glad got to use it while it still was. Now I just tolerate it because I’ve worked so hard curating my favorite boards and I couldn’t bear to part with them.
Sandy B
I don’t have that option to block all pins cone up when I click on the right of a promoted by window.
K D
I agree with all of you. Pinterest’s Picked for You pins have to be the most infuriating idea Pinterest ever devised. Most of the Picked for You pins I receive are from pins I previously posted. Why would I want to see these again. If I do want to see them, I know how to go to my board and view them. Picked for You should be an “option” that we can opt out of because no one I know likes it. Advertising has nothing to do with this. Most of mine are from private individuals with no advertising so that blows a hole in that theory. I spend too much time clicking that I do not want to see this than I do enjoying Pinterest and believe me, I used to enjoy Pinterest but not so much anymore. Pinterest really missed the boat on this picked for you idea.
I’m so sad, these “picked for you” pins have really ruined pinterest for me. I’m pretty over it. Really loved it when I was in control of my image selection. So weird, there must be a better way to monetize it.
bleah.
mmg
Saw this on the pinterest FB page today….Seems to work to get rid of the stupid picked for you pins….
“Picked for you Pins are suggestions based on what you’ve Pinned onto your own boards. You’ll see an x button next to the text that says Picked for you below the Pin. If you want to stop recommendations from this board, click Hide all Pins inspired by this board. If you’d like to just hide the Pin from your home feed, go ahead and select to Hide this Pin.”
donna
That is def a great option, but the thing is, even though I have clicked to hide them, they come back the next day! It is not a permanent fix. Not to mention Pinterest does not give a viable choice for if you just do not LIKE this feature as one of the choices for why you are hiding the pin. Sad, cuz so many LOVE Pinterest. Thanks for sharing this though…for those that might not know it!
Michele
And they will keep coming back until you tell it to “HIDE ALL PINS INSPIRED BY ______________ BOARD”. It does work, BUT you have to do it for every board until it ‘learns’ that it’s hands off for that particular board. Also… every time you create a new board it will try and make suggestions based on that board UNTIL you tell it not to.
“Promoted By” pins are the only ones that you can’t keep from showing up.
uliu
“Hide all pins inspired by this board” does not hide “picked for you” pins or “promoted pins” for me. Trust me, I have tried, multiple times. They still show up and with far greater frequency than the pins from people I follow. Probably 3 out of 5 pins that I see in my feed are pins that I have zero interest in, because Pinterest does not understand that a person pinning recipes is not necessarily interested in buying custom cookies that look like Grandpa. Even pins that I marked as “offensive” show up again and again. I don’t have any men’s pants pinned, not do I have any pins with “funny” sayings about men’s private parts. Why would I be interested in men’s pants with an arrow pointing to the crotch and a “funny” saying about nuts? And do these keep showing up in my feed?
lisa b
Go to your Account Settings and switch them off:
Personalization
We sometimes show you Promoted Pins and recommendations based on your activity on Pinterest. Is it okay if we:
NoAlso use sites you’ve visited recently? Learn more
NoAlso use info from our ad partners? Learn more
donna
Consider sending out a Tweet…or a FB message!
@Pinterest PLEASE! For the love of Pinterest, allow us to OPT OUT of the “picked for you” feature.#PFYisruiningpinterest
Tmp
Hello Pinterest!
Are you getting the message? If so, what’s the delay? Terrible timing on your part to introduce this dreadful “Pinned for You” feature when your in the midst of promoting ads. It’s backfiring big time. I was actually considering setting up a business page and spending on promotions. Not anymore. You’ve turned me and my potential customers off. It’s horrible that you’ve ruined what used to be the best social app experience for many. You need to act fast and also issue a much needed apology. Do it soon before it’s too late!
Shelly
I’ve done the same. Deactivated my account due to pinterest’s picked for you data mining crap. It’s been several months and I’m more disappointed at pinterest management’s unwillingness to respond to customer feedback. I am hoping an alternative to pinterest crops up. Like others of you I carefully culled my boards and pins. That pinterest picks flood my page is frustrating and time consuming. Now is the time for someone to come along and create a site which competes with pinterest. It will likely thrive since there are obviously those of us who valued pinterest in its earlier form but who now are put off with the picked for you junk. They have, quite simply, hijacked their site and are bullying pinners into seeing what they pick not what it’s customer carefully chooses and categorizes on their own boards. Hurry please, someone out there start a new site and throngs of us will jump the pinterest ship and head on over to the new site
Cat
I hate the promoted pins. I was able to find the right button in the convoluted world that is Pinterest to stop the “picked for you” junk. Nothing works so far to remove/stop the promoted pins.
So join my in boycotting those companies! I’m sending each one an email telling them why I will not do business with them. I add their biz name to a list. They are doing it to reach customers so let them know it backfired!
This has really sucked the joy out of my home feed. I spent many years putting together the pinners who truly inspire me and now most of my feed is junk I have zero interest in.
I would happily pay a subscription fee to be guaranteed my home feed was free from this mess.
joe
So would I.
Just like I do with Pandora.com. I pay a little and NO COMMERCIALS!
Pinterest should offer that! AS A CHOICE.
Jhoti
Ahh..so now it comes out! Make Pinterest as it exists now unbearable, then offer an clean version available for a fee! I have been using Pinterest by avoiding my main feed entirely and browsing from my boards page, but if this is the direction they are heading…I am out!
Lillifrancis
I will probably deactivate my pinterest account soon. Very soon. Due to the picked fir you pins. Not an enjoyable experience.
Thanks
Forestperson
I just can’t see the point of picked for you, unless you are not really active on Pinterest. Then it might get you going. But as someone said above, the most infuriating thing is to get pins you’ve already pinned yourself. I can see the point of Promoted pins, because they have to make money, but picked for you is just patronising, and I wish Pinterest would stop, otherwise I will lose [P]interest.
Lana
I am extremely SO pissed at “Picked for you” feature which I NEVER ADD or ASK for. THAT #@$@#$ picked the WORST pictures of the year that I DO NOT NEED TO SEE THEM are about animals who are abused, dead, homeless, boney, dump, etc… WHY? I never ADD or ask for them!!! It just spew all the pictures right to my face for NO reason! If you looked / surfed at adorable dog pictures *bam* They had to picked the pictures for you to look at… don’t they know how horrible the pictures are? Who gonna to enjoy to look all the awful pictures? That’s not Pinterest. It should about sewing clothes pattern, Halloween ideas, cooking, gems, gorgeous little houses, fabric, etc…
Now, I am always afraid to open Pinterest ever since because of that. When I was about to open and I had to scroll down real slowly until when I saw a single an animal’s dry fur and I *KNEW* that picture is gonna to be worse… I had to shut it down real fast. Game is OVER. I was thinking about cancelling Pinterest as a member… for real!
P.S. Sorry about my bad English.
JoM
I checked the ‘x’ that pops up when a ‘picked for you pin’ appears on my home page, the ‘x’ that says something along the lines of not seeing any ‘picked for you pins based on your xxx board’ selection (paraphrasing because I can’t remember exactly what it said). I did that for every board I have and I no longer see the ‘picked for you pins’, which they totally suck and are stupid.
If that doesn’t work, try this. Download the add-on Greasemonkey for Firefox and follow the directions from this link: http://bethmcmillan.com/blog/?p=1254. You will not see the ‘picked for you’ or the ”promoted’ pins. Works great and Pinterest is enjoyable once again.
Biff Stokely
i did that too and the amount of picked for you garbage seems to just get worse day to day week to week
Adrian
I also hate it that on the opening page all your OWN pins are shown. Why would I want to see them? I KNOW I’ve put them on my boards! I’m not following myself! I can’t work out how to turn them off. Why do companies like Pinterest do this? I.e. set up something for you to use, and then not allow you to use it in your own way. This is why I gave up with Facebook, and I might give up with Pinterest soon if they don’t improve it pretty quick.
Amanda
I like the picked for me pins.
Amanda
I also like seeing my own pins.
Adrian
Well, good for you Amanda. But what about those of us who don’t? Pinterest should allow people to change settings and choose for themselves.
I don’t like them at all and have tried to opt out. Just saw one that looked interesting though tonight and
when clicking through – website not found. This is unfair.
You can now the deactivate them by clicking on them. You can delete that pin or delete all the suggested pins based on a certain folder. I have deleted them all and my dashboard looks nice again. I don’t think that Pinterest understood my art tastes at all! 😉
Adrian
I have tried deleting picked-for-you pins on the dashboard, and yes it looks nice again – for 5 minutes! But then Pinterest starts finding new things to “pick for you”. I’ve given up following my favourite boards belonging to other people, because as soon as you follow them, Pinterest bombards you with things it thinks are similar. A site like Pinterest should give you the choice to tailor your own dashboard how you like it. It’s a shame, because I liked following other people’s boards, but I don’t do it now, I just create my own boards as a sort of memo area for myself. It’s greatly reduced the usability / flexibility / enjoyment from Pinterest.
Not impressed with the picked for you feature. I am with the rest of you that it clutters my stream. I’m more interested in seeing what my fellow small businesses have to offer that I chose to follow.
Tina
The picked for you pins have changed how I use Pinterest. I carefully curate my account, and am careful about who I follow. I follow boards based on my interests, and I like to follow my real-life friends to see what they are pinning. I used to browse my home feed all the time, and I found relevant ideas and enjoyed seeing my friends’ pins. Now, it’s so cluttered that I don’t bother. I use the Pin It button to pin items that I find in my own searches (google, reading blogs that I already follow, etc.), but I don’t pin anything from my home feed, and have actually pretty much stopped searching for specific things I’m interested in as well through the Pinterest search feature. I just use Pinterest as a reference now (bookmarking) as opposed to inspiration. It’s a bummer.
Kim
The amount of promoted pins has grown so dramatically that they are catching up with the pins from the boards I follow. This is so horrible I look at my page perhaps one time a day instead of 4 or 5 for enjoyment … it’s not really much fun any more. The promoted pins are NEVER for something I would be interested in. Here’s a good one for you … today I received a PP for a pillow shaped like dog poop. Pinterest has stooped about as low as they can go for money. I receive underwear and clothing ads from sleezy companies … I have NEVER pinned anything like this. If I add a picture of a cute puppy, I get TONS
jae did
I HATE these promoted Pins! I start leaving messages on AMY TAs pins to let her know what I think. She obviously does not reply to the pinterest blog asking what we think.. so I thought just bring my thoughts to HER PINS.
Connie
I loved Pintrest the minuteI started using it. Now it is painful to look at “my” pins. I would check my boards just to have some peaceful moments in the day. They have ruined it with all this junk! Will they care enough?? I agree, there should be an option to pay for no advertising. Until then..I’m gone.
cwu
Yup. Promoted pins changed the way I used Pinterest also. It sucks now. If they don’t change the policy soon enough, some geniuses will invent a new toy for us to play, very soon.
In the past, I used Pinterest everyday. Now it’s weekly, it will then monthly, then deactivate it eventually.
Michele
Dear Pinterest,
Can’t you just advertise in the margin like the rest of social media? Why you gotta be such a pusher??? NOBODY likes you, as you can see. We simply tolerate you because we have to…. for now. Might wanna pray nothing better comes along or we’ll all jump ship so fast you’ll go down like the Titanic!!
Begrudgingly Yours,
M.
Sara
I was able to stop the Picked For You items based on my boards. Unfortunately, you have to X out one for each board and eventually they will stop. But after a couple months of freedom from Picked For You, now I’m getting them based on INDIVIDUAL PINS!!!! I think I have a thousand or more pins, so I’m not going to try to X each one of these that come up. I’m done with Pinterest. Whomever finds the next great idea, please share with the rest of us here . Thanks!
Marci
I am close to closing my Pinterest too because of the Picked For You and Promoted pins. I have tried BLOCKING the person or corp but they still appear. I’ve tried everything I know of but they persist.
Is there NO WAY to correct, block, hide or stop this?
Is there an alternative to Pinterest worth trying? I know nothing about Flickr or Instagram.
There’s a free program called F.B. Purity which lets you tweak Facebook that I wouldn’t be without. Sure wish that guy would do a program like it for Pinterest! Ah, well, time to move on I guess.
Libby
Go here – leave feedback. Let’s get rid of Picked for you Pins.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OIIFuQJ7Tc9FvwDI9R4APgD_8Hm1-fpCfL0iX3s1rvE/viewform?fbzx=4350400058163568906
JoM
Although I’ve added the Grease Monkey script to block picked for you and promoted pins, it leaves my pinterest pages with TONS of holes.
I’ve been fiddling with my account settings. I currently have things set like this and I’m seeing very few holes (meaning many less picked for you and promoted pins) on my pages: Search Privacy is set to Yes (you will see the word ‘no’ showing); Personalization set to no (you will see the word ‘yes’ showing); I clear my search history in Pinterest very frequently. I was confused by the yes/no options — was the option showing what I was getting or was the option I clicked on the one I was getting? As far as I can tell it’s what you click on that counts, NOT what is showing.
Anyway, give this a try and see if less picked for you and promoted pins show up. Oh, every now and then I’ll disable the Grease Monkey script and go in and deleted the unwanted pins and give the reason as “I found it offensive”, cause I do!
JoM
Since I changed my preferences in my account settings I’ve not gotten any picked-for-you or promoted pins on my home feed and very, very little on the everything board and the home/decor board.
Try changing your settings to how I described in my previous post and see if the annoying pins go away for you. I even disabled the Grease Monkey script and I’m still not seeing the annoying pins.
Mickie
When Pinterest was new and you weren’t following anyone, you could only see what you were pinning in the feed. It truly did act like your own personal bulletin board. Then following people mixed it up a bit and made it more fun and interactive… for a while. Since those early days, they have gone the way of Facebook and cut the visibility of of what followed people post to almost nil, so really what’s the f***** point in following anyone anymore anyway, right? So, I decided I would try and outsmart them by deleting everyone I follow, that way, in theory, I could once again see only my own pins and visit or search for other boards on my own.
Well, no such luck. Ever since I un-followed everyone I was following all I see are random pins, as if I had done a search of ‘Everything’. NOT ONE SINGLE PIN of my own posting was visible!!! Can you even believe that!?!?! It’s like they saw that one coming and said, “F*** those guys. We’ll show ’em not to mess with us.”
Well, guess what? I have come up with a solution. Keeping in mind that I am one of those people who only uses Pinterest for my own entertainment and keepsake purposes and could care less about following people or shopping, etc. What I’ve done is an extreme measure but it’s the only thing that works so that I never see another Pinterest ad again… unless I want to.
I changed my browser’s default home page to my ‘Pins’ page and voila!! All my lovely pins and ZERO BULLSHIT. This works for me because I pretty much looked at Pinterest 5-7 times a week anyway and it’s kind of nice to see some things I love as soon as I connect to the internet and I have no problem what so ever in having to search for things I may want to pin. The one caveat is that you have to change the settings for every computer you use, but it’s a small price to pay for contentment.
So there. Bite me, Pinterest. I win.
JoM
If you go into your pinterest settings and change the following options, you will see no pins (either picked for you or promoted) on your home page and very little promoted pins when you browse the boards. (I posted this earlier in this form).
I currently have things set like this and I’m seeing very few holes (meaning many less picked for you and promoted pins) on my pages: Search Privacy is set to Yes (you will see the word ‘no’ showing); Personalization set to no (you will see the word ‘yes’ showing); I clear my search history in Pinterest very frequently. I was confused by the yes/no options — was the option showing the one what I was getting or was the option I clicked on the one I was getting? As far as I can tell it’s what you click on that counts, NOT what is showing.
I changed my settings a week ago and have the Greasemonkey script (that ‘hides’ the unwanted pins but it leave big ‘holes’ in your feed) disabled. I did see one promoted pin on my homepage yesterday so I went in and cleared my piinterest search history (in my account settings) and went back to my home page and the ad was gone.
Changing your settings seems to get rid of (or reduce by 99%) picked for you and promoted pins.
JMike90
I agree. I absolutely hate the ‘picked for you pins.’ And their claim they are based on my other pins and my behavior is totally false – why on earth would a straight guy who’s interested in architecture keep getting pins for wedding dresses and bridesmaid gifts? And, when I complain, the responses I get from them are so ridiculously condescending, it’s appalling. I must spend 5 minutes each morning deleting unwanted pins – yet the same type of pins keep showing up. Proof that they do NOT, in fact, take my feedback into consideration.
Take the feedback into consideration and fix your crappy site. If you’re so desperate to monetize your site, I assure you, pissing off your users is NOT will not help you.
JoM
(TYPING THIS IN BIG FONT SO OTHERS SEE IT)
CHANGE YOUR ACCOUNT SETTINGS TO: Search Privacy is set to Yes (you will see the word ‘no’ showing); Personalization set to no (you will see the word ‘yes’ showing); I clear my search history in Pinterest very frequently. I was confused by the yes/no options — was the option showing the one what I was getting or was the option I clicked on the one I was getting? As far as I can tell it’s what you click on that counts, NOT what is showing.
USE A SEARCH ENGINE OTHER THAN GOOGLE – I USE DUCK-DUCK GO – AND YOU WILL SEE MANY, MANY LESS PROMOTED/PICKED FOR YOU PINS
I agree that Pinterest sucks for allowing these stupid pins but if you still want to use their site, do the above an you will see less of the unwanted pins.
Mary
Thank you! This seems to be working for me!
I really liked pinterest, but only visit about now about once a week. I dislike very much the “Picked for You” pins and seemingly tried everything to eradicate this unnecessary activity. I should not have to clear my search history all the time. I only want to see those people I follow. I feel there is no choice. Sigh.
Andy
You lot really do need to get over yourselves.
Pinterest is a free site, and costs a LOT to run.
Perhaps after you’ve started your own immensely popular site and given everything away for free – and found a way to keep it that way (billionaire are you?) – you can moan about this free service.
Advertising is just the way things are. Deal with it.
The recommended pins are there to encourage you to spend more time on Pinterest. Which leads to more advertising, popularity of the site, and success for the creators. They are a business. Deal with it.
If you don’t like ‘your’ “carefully curated” site being spoilt, may I suggest you create your own digital mood board and just surf Google Images for the other stuff you want to look at?
Gerri
So- you are on Pinterest’s Staff- of course- you would defend the”picked for you”- over my followers pins on my home feed. They are non existent. I only see what I have pinned coming back as” picked for you..what s that supposed to tell me- Inow follow a new & different Pinteresta – the old Pinterest is gone for ever. I guess I just have to- in your own words- DEAL WITH IT!
Worzel
If Pinterest needs revenue, then it should give its customers a paying option to opt out of those annoying “Picked For You” and “Promoted” pins.
Many aps have this option, it shouldn’t be a problem for a big company like Pinterest to handle.
Katy
Pinners are creating content by seeking out images. We do that for FREE. When we pin images that become popular we are driving more traffic to Pinterest. So, we need a little give and take…
I don’t mind promoted pins, however, I am a vegan, I don’t need chicken recipes, I prefer alternative art, I am not interested in commercial art and so on.
Lynn
You’re a condescending tool, Andy. My board has become unsolicited advertising central and it’s annoying. The recommended pins aren’t encouraging people to spend more time on Pinterest, they are encouraging people to delete their accounts.
And while you’d like to insult our (my) intelligence with your savvy speech on moaning, free service, and the finer points of monetizing a business, surely even you should know that pissing off your users is a business plan waiting to fail. There are better, less intrusive, ways to monetize without alienating your client base.
Nina
If Pinterest wants to monetize with users like us, who carefully craft boards, perhaps there should be a subscription. People with over a certain number of followers might be free. One girl I know had 10,000+ followers on her makeup page. This promotes makeup to 10,000 people who want the information – a marketetr’s dream. The new system is clumsy and betrays the people who understood the platform to be a custom website and not another Walmart et al marketing channel.
Bettianne Hedges
The ‘picked for you’ pins have cured me of my Pinterest addiction! Thankyou
Brooke
Me too. I pretty much go there once every few months and see all the BS picked for you crap, remember that’s why I stopped going and leave again. Pinterest people, you all destroyed such a great thing. Once all your users leave and you see the massive error of not listening to what we’re saying you will regret this. Once we leave so do all the people paying for ads. We don’t even hate that ads nearly as much as the picked for you crap and those would not be so terrible if it were like 1 every 50 to 60 of our pins. I just can’t understand why you would continue to do something that your audience clearly does not want.
Ulla Agneta
I thought that I would deactivate the account today, but there is so much that is interesting. The “picked for you”are so embarassingly corny. I take them as an insult.
Sue
I CANT STAND THEM. Please lets bombard Pinterest with our complaints. Although that has had no impact so far. None of the above tips have helped. The picked for you pins just come back and it seems EVEN MORE!
ANGRY SHOUTING AND STOMPING!
Jeff
Andy if my personal understanding of what constitutes good business practice is true; I predict your companies arrogance is going to result in a case of biting one owns ass. With out these people you have no respect for you have no business ! Open your eyes!
Angie
I stopped getting Promoted Pins when I changed my location to “Costa Rica” in settings. However, “Picked for You” pins have ruined my Pinterest experience and I rarely visit anymore. When I do, I go through the feed, click the “X” to Hide each “Picked for you” pin and for the reason, I say “It offends me”. Because it really does! I assume this will confuse their algorithm at some point since it will believe that everything offends me. 🙂 Probably won’t stop them, but maybe if we all did that, they would get the message.
Susan McCoy
I sent an email to Pinterest to complain about the picked for you pins and actually started getting MORE!! Seriously? Get a clue Pinterest, those of us who hate this picked for you nonsense really hate it! Give us an option to opt out completely.
Ann
I like to report them as spam….they want me to work for my board to be clean then they can investigate everyone of them too!
Taryn
Good idea. Maybe when they get flooded with spam complaints, then they’ll know how we feel. Unfortunately, I would feel bad marking somebody’s legitimate pin as spam even if its something I don’t want to see and am not interested in
gnommi
Has anyone written a script to get rid of these or something? I have no idea why, given that I only follow jewellers and nail polish bloggers, that my picked for you pins are 50% photos of dead Nazis and war crimes from the second world war. My feed now goes ring, ring, earring, Nazi corpse, green nail varnish, crap about babies, more crap about babies, wedding spam, Nazi corpses, Nazi war crimes, something about soldering.
It’s not just annoying, it’s offensive. If I wanted crap about babies and graphic war pictures I would look for them. I do not and have not. I am at my wits end. I’ve mailed several times to offer to pay to turn it off, and now I am just insanely cross. Another useful tool rendered worse than useless.
cathy
I recently had 40 picked pins on my news feed. I have started blocking both the promoted and picked pin sites. I see a difference and it probably won’t last.
Rainybooks
I’ve been using the app for 5 years and I loved it. But now its a sham. Promoted pins and picked for you pins, constantly updating, (updates are getting more atrocious and useless). When you click on a site for more info, it takes for ever or crashes! I’m searching for a replacement app to replace pintrest its just plain annoying now. Im not a religious person so I have a non religious board, and I’m constantly getting Christian picked for you. I’m done!
Jane
Ugh, this article was written a while ago yet the problem is worse!
Almost my entire newsfeed is “picked for you”!!! And today I got a
“how to use a condom” pin with a nice, big ugly condom picture.
Seriously??? Pinterest, you used to be my favorite site, I spent way too much time there, now…you just piss me off. LISTEN to your users!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE WILL NOT GET USED TO THIS, WE WILL LEAVE!
Taryn
Yesterday morning I had to scroll down through 48 (YES, 48 since the night before!!!) “picked for you” pins before I even reached something that was pinned by somebody I’m following. I even clicked the “x” in the bottom corner and am met with the message “Got it, No More Pins Inspired by your Recent Interests”. And then this morning, I’m still flooded with more “picked for yous”. I’m so sick of it.
Worzel
In November 2015, my home-feed had once again become inundated with irrelevant Picked For You and Promoted pins. I did everything I could to get rid of them, X-ing every single pin that came up (none of them were ever relevant). This did nothing to tailor the types of pins being spammed on my feed. So, I sent feedback and emails to Pinterest Customer Service, hoping they could adjust the settings since the power to do so is not up to users like myself. They responded with generic garbage about how you can tailor those Picked For You and Promoted pins by giving each one feedback, along with some lies about doing everything they can to make their customers (users) happy.
Finally, I got fed up and uninstalled their app from my phone. Then I stopped pinning new pins or checking the news feed to see who had been repinning my pins. Voila! The obnoxious Picked For You and Promoted pins don’t show up in my feed any longer.
Mostly, my boards are art-related and Pinterest suggestions are always in poor taste. I have enough inspiring art and projects pinned on my boards to last me a lifetime. I’m not going to deactivate my account with Pinterest, but I will stop frequenting it — using it only a few times a month to look up things I’ve already pinned and catch up on what I’ve missed from those I follow by scrolling through my spam-free feed.
hate this.. I hadn’t logged on in a while and my feed does not even look like mine. Its a MESS !!! so disappointing to see it flooded with ads and picked for me pins.
YUCK
Karin
Silberman is a clueless businessman. I would say he’s a PINhead.
Sjay
Stinking mad about “picked for you” and unsolicited ads. I have done all that was suggested to receive fewer of these pins, but just a few days ago I looked on my board and everything – EVERY PIN!!! was suggested for me! I have written and complained about the overwhelming amount of them I get, but if anything, it has gotten worse! Thanks a lot for ruining what was a great relationship. I’ve had it! I’m breaking up with you and we are never getting back together!
kingers
I recently started using Pinterest and I like the suggestions. They seem well-chosen and add to the experience. Having said that, people should be able to disable the feature.
kira
I deleted my Pinterest account due to this. Picked for you when it first started was bad enough. But SOMETHING in their system starting picking borderline soft porn inappropriate nude pics. Not judging – just not what I want to see. I don’t know what triggered this. It kept saying my music board, but most of it was old 80’s music. Nothing nude. Yes, you can “x” it out, but next time you access Pinterest, ithose pins will be right back. I complained but there is no way to disable picked for you. That is the major flaw. They need to give users A WAY TO OPT OUT. Geesh, I would even pay a small subscription fee if it meant no picked for you or promoted pins. It completely takes away from the user experience. The picked for you pins took up so much space I was not seeing pins from those folks whose boards I followed. I also don’t appreciate that Pinterest thinks a computer algorithm knows better what I am interested in than I do and clogs my feed with crap with no way to stop it. So I am done with Pinterest until/unless they end it or give an opt out. Not holding my breath.
Lara
I understand the need for occasional ads, but I almost never look at Pinterest anymore because there are so many “Picked for You Pins” and they are really annoying. I particularly dislike all the gimmicky graphic designed ads that aim to get you to click through to a website. Just because I have clicked on one or two things aimed at parents does not mean I want a Pinterest feed dominated by stupid tips and tricks for moms. I miss my old Pinterest feed that felt like it was really a reflection of what I wanted to see – in my case art and design and fashion based pins.
Chantelle
I agree The “Picked For You” plague is worse than ever. I used to be a mega-pinner but the fun isn’t there when you are getting all these things you don’t want to see in your home feed. It’s even worse that I am now seeing pins picked for specific boards. No thanks Pinterest.. Please listen to your most avid users and give us an opt out of “Picked For You.” If Pinterest isn’t fun no one will use it.
lex
Awful. Most of my feed is taken up by this nonsense. And deleting them is tedious and pointless. Plus you have to answer questions every time. Such a shame.
Samantha
So here we are, a year later, and STILL the Picked For You pins dominate my feed.
MAKE. IT. STOP. They are literally the one and only reason I have stopped using Pinterest daily (now I use it for searches maybe once a month).
Promoted pins? Fine. Picked For You pins? AWFUL.
Faye
Where is the X on the pin for me to hide it. I don’t see one anywhere and when I right-click the pin, there is no box that comes up to ask if I want to hide it. I just signed up and HAD to choose 5 boards to follow—well, I didn’t know what one of the boards was, but it sounded interesting by the name. When I saw what it was, I immediately “unfollowed” it, but I want to hide the pins that are still on my “home” board. I’m a new pinner, so I really don’t know how to do anything here, but I do want to hide those unwanted pins. Can anyone advise. Thanks!
PS. I have not created any boards yet, and only have the initial board I signed up with. I haven’t pinned anything yet either. Also, I don’t have facebook. In case any of this info makes a difference in your advice. Thanks!
Michelle
Pinterest used to be really cool and fun. I enjoyed scrolling through the pins of my followers, and even reviewing my own pins. Now 9 out of 10 pins are “picked” and lets be honest, they’re mostly just ads. Why would anyone want to visit a website of all ads all the time? So annoying. I wish Pinterest would go back to how they were when I first started using it.
Devan
You can use our browser extension to hide “picked fo you” pins. See http://www.stoppromotedpins.com.
Okay, I tried this and it appears from a very short term (couple hours) bit of scrutiny that IT HAS WORKED. Therefore guess what I am going to your site to donate AND I am going to start PINNING this so that all my friends / clients can see how to get the GARBAGE off their feeds. THANK YOU, Thank you so much. GENIUS…
Jennifer
I have to say, I’m done with Pinterest. Now that they disabled comments, I’m not interested. Half the fun was seeing what other people said about pins and suggestions in the comments that made it better.
Lesllie
The dumbest thing about the picked for you pins is that they are often something I’ve already pinned! That is so stupid! If I try to pin one of those I get the message “Pssst! Looks like you’ve already saved this Pin”. How annoying! Why are they suggesting something I’ve pinned before! Also there are way too many of these picked for you pins. It makes Pinterest a lot less personal and more robotic. They are losing site of what they were.
Trudy M Cary
My issue with the “picked for you” pins, is I can’t see the pins from the people I follow now. There is a reason I follow them! They are buried so far down the page I have to spend hours searching them out. Not a fun page anymore. Why even follow boards you love when you can’t find their pins. Ugh. I tried changing settings and still see “picked for you”. Help me Obi-Wan-Kenobi….you are my only hope.
I am being shown “Picked For You” items which are my own items! Also, those who say changing your settings won’t work are correct, because I’ve tried it and am still getting these senseless “Picked For You” items.
Carol Summers
The *New and Improved* Home Feed tab option is supposed to allow one to opt out of Home Page *picked for you* items. I have set my options to read NO, yet my Home Feed page is still filled with *picked for you* suggestions, including some I have already saved, and perhaps even posted myself.
This *New and Improved*, *We are listening to our members* news release, is a load of garbage!
Even when I click and remove the offending posts, and am told, you will not see this again, the next time I sign in, it is back!
Pat. Morvat
I too am tired the picked for you sites. My interests are broad and not limited to the picked for you sites. I also suddenly am getting an amazing amount of foreign sites that have no translation. I am extremely hesitant to look at these sites and really do not any longer. In this age of terriosts who knows what is actually on these sites and people are downloading and saving their contents. Pinterest needs to be more cautious allowing these sites from Russia, Poland ,Pakistan and God whatever else languages they are pinning from, I do not want to end up on some federal government list as a potential terriosts sympathizer because the site had some nice crochet, or mixed media stuff.
Dee
I too am sick of the “picked for you ads”! I write to pinterest to complain and they write back to adjust my settings!!!! really???? they are set at NO and I still get them….what is worse is they do not even pertain to me…. I dont have a baby nor do I want one, I am not getting married, I do not need to sign up for a baby or wedding registry , I do not need a new sink or faucet, I do not need more clothes, I dont want diamonds, I do not need any photographer…oh I could go on and on but if you are like me you already know what I am talking about….
Pinterest is not fun anymore… they have gotten money hungry…..it is like opening a magazine and turning the pages only to see ads after ads after ads!
I have blocked the sites only to have them reappear…. whats up with that? If I block them why are they still showing up? I can go to my feed page and will have to block at least 5 ads on one scroll…. and to block an ad it takes 5-6 steps….
I agreee….there are a lot of foreign sites and they are risky to click on….
Pinterest….think about you are doing…. it is not fun anymore….
Oh by the way….. I emailed them again…. no answer….
Kelly
Now Pinterest is picking political pins for me!? And they are the total opposite of my personal opinion! That pisses me off to no end…and they are ruining my Pinterest fun!
jane
Pinterest has also been picking my political pins and they are also total opposite of my personal pins. I consider this a form of political harassment by Pinterest. I have been forced to opt out of “Picked for you” because someone at Pinterest does not like my political leaning.
Pam
The searches/data-mining are bottle-necking and they show me hundreds of the same items, and same type items, over and over again. Example: Last Thanksgiving, I was looking for pecan recipes. In March, I was searching for a lemon desert. Today (July), I STILL have a feed full of pecan and lemon pins (and I have done dozens of searches since). I cleared my searches and turned off personalization long ago. It did not return my feed to its former state. Hopefully, someone at important Pinterest is reading this blog, because their Help Desk certainly isn’t reading their emails.
Lynda
Remember when you had to be invited to Pinterest and how good you felt when you finally had some boards? Well, the site is so destroyed that I’m leaving. I’ve had it. You can’t turn off the promoted pins, and now some of my followed individuals are sticking ads in their feeds. I have to unfollow formerly really great pinners.
I am fed up with the “picked for you” pins in my home feed. Have tried to turn them off in my settings under home feed. Apparently you turn off the toggle and it should work. It doesn’t.
kmagee
I hate this pinterest site, because it blocks one’s ability to search out the items needed at every click. I have NO NEED to put my name etc all over the web just to find an item that I am looking to buy. All I want to do is search for the item that I NEED, not the prefixed prepicked for me trash that pinterest wants me to look at wasting my time. Many worthy sellers have been lost to me because of the absolute aggravation and loss of time that it takes to put up with all the gradoo of signing up and giving away my privacy just to shop. That is why I never buy anything on this site and never will, although it has lots of stuff I would love to research and buy. Just getting on the site with all the dammed interference is a huge turn off and waste of time.