Will you all be paying for Mumsnet Premium?

[WorraLiberty]

I'm not sure yet but I'll probably pay for a month and then see what other features they bring in.

Thread by Justine incase you haven't seen it

YABU = No

YANBU = Yes, I might give it a try

Some people talk about MN being a lifeline for some but actually I think it’s the opposite.

There’s an awful lot of questionable advice given out re relationships etc which vulnerable users might believe to be true and put themselves in a worse position.

Aside from which, if people do see it as a lifeline then MN HQ appear to be happy to exploit that fact.

I think if nothing else this proves that MN HQ have absolutely 0 integrity.

And remember all the fuss when some users left MN and created their own forum? People talked about betrayal and everything and it was in the press. Maybe they had the right idea.

Is Netmums still around btw?

Sorry, should have added to my PP that it's almost as if HQ don't want to be questioned about something that's clearly a worry to many
Hard to see any other explanation for totally disregarding the countless security questions ...

Sorry - but why 100 staff? Why a fancy London office for an internet based company with no physical end product? We provide content, each post isn’t individually edited prior to posting. What are the staff break down?

I think this is seriously misjudged. Most site users don't actually like it. We know we're likely to be ignored, censored or insulted each time we post. We're not going to pay for the privilege!

Today 06:37 Eggcited

raviolidreaming Posted on the other thread

I deal with payments made by Stripe for a small organisation - I can see names, addresses, email addresses, and the IP address of the device used to pay. Someone at MN will have access to that info from payments

JustineMumsnet Then replied

Yes you are right - we have to have access to that same data in Stripe so we can cancel subscriptions etc.

So a site that has had numerous data breeches will now have access to your names, addresses, email addresses, and the IP address of the device used to pay.

What could possibly go wrong.

This by the bucket load,

@JustineMumsnet what is in place to keep premium members bank and security details safe?

Perhaps the 100 staff are involved in pitching to advertisers?
If so what the100 staff are doing is marketing us, the raw products, to their consumers.
Using a milking parlour analogy, the cow provides the raw product and the farmer sells it to the supermarkets, the lucky farmer was able to have a luxury lifestyle because the cows milk was worth a lot of money😊👍
But then supermarkets stopped wanting milk ☹️
Oh dear the farmer is very unhappy, they really enjoyed the luxury lifestyle but the supermarkets are not handing over the dosh anymore☹️
Oh well we can start charging the cows to use the milking shed.
Or maybe there is a better analogy?

Nope not me I won't be paying.

I would have made a donation from time to time but can't justify a regular subscription and I have been on here since 2009 and I not sure why all of a sudden they need to charge for their site.

kundalini

Well there is a recipe for Emma, Mark II to dox the posters whose posts she doesn't like!

I thought it said on the other thread (where someone quoted from FAQ although this isn't in the FAQ if you click the subscription link) that there is no visibility of personal data, just a link to a Stripe number? So is that not true then?

@WeBuiltCisCityOnSexistRoles

This is great  I hope all those people pompously telling Justine how she is Businessing Wrongly are doing well with their own successful forums with as many users as MN has 

But Justine clearly has been Businessly Wrongly if - given the huge revenue this site generates - she hasn't set aside reserves. Although I suspect she has and she's just using this as an excuse to roll out the Premium site that she says they were planning on introducing in a few months.

I had a lot of respect for Justine in the past but the way she has spoken to members on the rare occasions she does engage nowadays has been very dismissive- especially when people have requesting Lang's ridiculous ban be overturned.

And the wages bill is stunning.

I won't, sadly. There are more pressing things that I could spend £50 on at the moment. Sorry MN

Well if you have to turn to your content providers to ask for money and they don’t want to then yes something along the way has gone wrong.

I had a lot of respect for Justine in the past but the way she has spoken to members on the rare occasions she does engage nowadays has been very dismissive

TBH I'm less bothered by the dismissiveness than the reluctance to engage with the many queries about security ... though I suppose you could say it comes down to the same thing

UY sounds about right. The cows know they are mere fodder too ;

It would actually be nice if someone created a new website for those tired of the way mumsnet has evolved.
One that's witty and pithy and open to lively debate.
I'm so tired of long tedious self indulgent opening posts that could easily be edited back to a paragraph, posters turning every thread into an opportunity to whinge and whine about their own hardships and woes, and people seizing on every syndrome they read about, deciding they have it with no diagnosis and using it to earnestly excuse their behaviour.

It's become quite dull around here.

that there is no visibility of personal data, just a link to a Stripe number? So is that not true then?

No look up the page a few posts for the quote on a post by eggsited. MNHQ will have access to names, addresses, email addresses, and the IP address of the device used to pay.

Never in a million years.

Mumsnet is nothing but a bad habit for me. Maybe this will be the push I need to kick it.

Mumsnet is not worth more to me than my RHS subscription. If I had to chose between the two then RHS would win.

I think mumsnet needs to look hard at it's costs, decide what it wants to be and then create appropriate content. At the moment it is a bit of Jack of all trades and dabbles in lots of areas.

A key priority needs to be fixing GDPR for those who want to subscribe. They make £2million profit per year and have a £350k per month staff bill - Mumsnet is not a small business. In fact they have probably been mining and selling data for years.

from the point of view of the people who post here the purpose of the forum is chat and exchange of information
But from the point of view of the company and it's employees the purpose of this setup is to sell our attentions to advertisers, in which case the 350k is probably the cost of marketing and PR etc?
Perhaps a better business model for a site like this would be no adverts and the only staff are people who are actually involved with moderating and running the site?

There is also the 'too-big-to-fail' issue, when you look at platforms like Facebook and Twitter it could be argued that they are now a common resource that we have come to depend upon for the smooth functioning of modern society and therefore they should be be communally owned.

I won't, sadly. There are more pressing things that I could spend £50 on at the moment. Sorry MN

Not meaning to pick on any particular post specifically but I dont like the fact people feel the need to appologise because they are rightly prioritising their own families.

If MN has to close it will not be anyone postings fault for not donating. Please don't feel guilty that you are not paying. Unlike those at MNHQ there are many on this forum who are really struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. You shouldn't feel bad for prioritising yourself.

The repeated need for posters to feel like they must apologise is making me quite uncomfortable.

I’m amazed so many seem unaware of all the breaches. Not like they where ever in the news about it.

And only key staff having access to details. Should have been the case from the start.

Makes you wonder what breaches they haven’t previously reported.

Yes agree Please

Everyone joined this site on the assumption that you provide content and mn make a fair bit of money on the back of that.

This new ask should not make anyone feel they should give, or bad if they don’t. £50 is a lot to hand over for no real value.

No chance. There are other forums that are available. There's not enough interesting content that it'd be worth a fiver a month.

@PleaseStopCrying Wouldn’t surprise me if the apologetic posters start getting some begging emails laying on the guilt.

If it closes it is completely down to the owners.

But it won’t. With their lack of subscribers they will have to do what they should have been doing already, reducing their expenses.

And clearly their moderation will remain as will the trolls. They are encouraging it by saying if you think you get banned, do a monthly subscription.

Any other site pulling this stunt would be called out for being con artists. Do posters really think after 20 years they are going to provide anything that works. Any premium features will be pulled it won’t be their fault.

I'd like to see much more information about what these 80 odd staff are actually doing