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

OhCaptain reading a post on the site I think it's been done in a very short time to show how easy it actually is to have a fully functional site without the need to spend vast quantities of £££ on people who don't really do anything for the brand.

Brilliant, so someone has proven the point about all these 'premium' services are a rip off and created a forum very quickly. It's been the basic forum template for at least 14 years

And as pointed out Stripe do not offer buyer protection. It is also under the card protected purchases. If it goes tits under you will NOT get a refund.

MNHQ will have access to your real details through Stripe.

And remember just because the payment is encrypted doesn't mean it's not hackable. Why anyone would willingly hand over details to this site and its track record is beyond me. This and the other thread have been a real eye-opener on how easily people get scammed.

Guilt-tripping users to pay to stay here is a nasty thing to do. People apologising for not signing up. People signing up because of all the help and support from Mumsnet, those are clearly confused about who are they talking to.

This and the other thread should be ripped by the usual paper. Wonder if it's part of their contract and they cannot do it.

People paying to cover the cost of them not getting some ads, whilst still receiving ads, and the lost revenue will be peanuts to them. Those ads are a bigger revenue generator than the ads you have blocked. Madness, charging for free stuff.

Someone mentioned about Edit being abused. This is why you put in a 15-second timer. It gives you the last chance to edit mistakes we have all made. Many sites have this function, for free. Come to think of it, no 'code' needed for bold etc, this has all been standard everywhere else for over a decade.

And of course, people are going to question where all the profit actually went, because it hasn't been spent on upgrading any features. Which considering these are free as part of the forum, it's a fucking piss take they are now charging it's income generators a fee for a complete wank of a package. You have been conned. Plain and simple.

I don't think it's a piss take. They saw a hole and they filled it. People were asking where else they could go and they created a home for them.

Whether it is legit or not, only Justine will know. Has she/can she trademark things like AIBU? Would Justine run an expensive risk of trying to find out?

Mama I did wonder about trademarking of certain things on here.

@thighmageddon ah I see. Wow! That’s VERY interesting...

Just had a look at the new place - all that lovely new functionality for free... I'd be feeling very uncomfortable if I was Justine.

@OhCaptain
The template looks extremely similar to Proboards, a lot of forums use this. It gives everything you need to create something like this, for free, even with support from them, and unlimited members.

They even save stuff for free on the cloud. Could be the same cloud that was breached here previously. But Proboards is THE biggest forum provider, so how comes this issue wasn't on other boards. As a forum owner, I get emails from them advising about known security issues and how to fix them.

There is no need to have a big technical team. They get all the support, migration info etc for $400 a month. So they could make massive savings alone there. Plus the $400 a month would have solved all these "issues" they have been fobbing off everyone for years, like the very basic edit button, like button, can reply directly to others posters rather than having to @ someone, we aren't writing email address ffs.

I think it comes back to whether MN is designed to provide a good service to us, the users, or whether it has been designed with the backend (data analysis) to be more important to the people who own the site.

This is from the MN privacy policy (below) would an off the shelf forum provide all this functionality? It is this data analysis that is necessary to generate the revenue from ads. The bit about storing data on my device's reading habits was news to me, I have to admit. That seems very far reaching.

We store IP address, cookies, your device’s unique ID, page browsing history, ads you’ve viewed and clicked, searches you’ve made on site, approximate location, and any enquiries you’ve made. For registered members we also store username, password and email address; discussions you may have with Mumsnet site moderators; and a summary of decisions we’ve taken about you if we’ve reviewed your use of Mumsnet Talk for any reason. Registered members may also have given us more data on sign up, such as the age of their children.

We store your email address to register you and contact you (if you have asked for email newsletters) and we store things such as IP address, cookies and device ID so that our systems recognise you if you return to Mumsnet. We store things such as your device’s reading habits to show you things we think may be of interest to you (eg content or ads). When we look at this information across large numbers of users, it helps us see which parts of Mumsnet are well-used and which aren’t, and this helps us to decide what sort of content and features might be useful to develop. Subject to the permissions you have given us (as described in your permissions and choices below), we may also pass your device's reading habits to selected brands for these brands to show you things they think may be of interest to you (eg content or ads).

Can you imagine the surge in users MN has experienced in recent weeks? The timing is uncanny.

@Chillyourbeans All forum owners should have a feeling of discomfort on a regular basis. There are so many excellent boards out there, just people honestly believe they cannot get what they get here elsewhere. And of course not when for some reason you can share a link with Amazon but not about another site (yes I allow these to give my members the choice to post where they feel comfortable). But then I don't just see them as an income generator.

When it closes it will be it's own fault. The people at the top have become extremely complacement and honestly believed that people loved the place as much as them. The thing is, as income generators it's very easy to replace, and a new forum can be created within 10 minutes at the absolute max. Yea it's really that easy. The hardest part is picking a name.

Just had a look at the new place - all that lovely new functionality for free... I'd be feeling very uncomfortable if I was Justine.

Indeed and all created is under 24 since the MN announcemnent. It does rather beg the question what are those being paid to maintain and develop the site being paid for. They must spend most of their working day twiddling their thumbs. The sites remained the same fpr about 10 years and others have said the format used on the other site is relatively cheap so why is MN paying so much money, Justine said the average wage was 35k a year. It honestly seems like they are being massively ripped off.

or whether it has been designed with the backend (data analysis) to be more important to the people who own the site
imo it's obvious we are just the front, the real purpose is extracting a profit from the work that we do for free, we dont rank highly, that's why we are patronized and condescended to.
There is a fair bit of gobshite and bad behaviour but it's all grist for the money making mill

Especially when all that they are paying out for is covered in their $300 a month bill. So why not simply canned friends staff they really don't need.

If they had merchandise you could understand why they would need more staff. But they haven't sold merch since 2003, and they no longer have that domain meaning anyone can now buy it.

The forum layout won't be trademarked simply because it's a standard template but without all the useful extras. The Logo and wording will be protected. So the other site aren't doing a thing wrong at the moment.

Many other forums have topics such as AIBU, Chat, etc. It wasn't exclusive to MN. One of the giveaways about MN users on other sites btw, the overuse of acronyms. The D in Darling wouldn't mean that if used ever, it would be dickhead

Oh and some of the best advice I have ever received in regards to parenting and health, has come from elsewhere. Remember it's YOU that created AIBU, not the site. Wherever you go, you will always find somewhere and it doesn't have to be a parenting site.

The Data Analyses is also included in their $400 a month fee for the forum.

Sorry kept accidentally typing $300 in previous posts.

Well just move off to another better site - all this whingeing and justification - just go

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks!

If they'd asked five years ago, or 7-8 years, I'd have paid, no question.

But the site has got so big, it's lost its USP. Now, because there's so many users, an OP asks a question and is drowned in 20 quick replies before a measured response can get to the thread. So outside niche topics, the level of discussion has plummeted.

There's no point to me as a user in having 1000s of people discussing stuff if 99.9% post so much dross I can't find the good stuff. I'd be better off on a niche board with a couple dozen geeks in whatever the topic is.

Add the terrible slowness of the site over the last 5 years or so, and the increase in people mistaking nastiness for wit - I don't think they've increased in proportion, necessarily, and the fact that it's impossible to discuss any feminist issue because the anti-trans people bring everything back to that, and result is I've only popped back over the last month because I've been ill and particularly bored.

But to be honest there's better debate in the comments forums on Duolingo - if you're interested in linguistics or food.

I'm not sure if I will pay yet. Although I've had a quick scan of this thread and Justin's one. I can't see the answer so sorry if it was said but £350000 a month on wages - how many people are employed at mn?

Well just move off to another better site - all this whingeing and justification - just go

It's not about wanting to leave its about not being so pig ignorant in the belief that what happens on this site couldn't happen elsewhere. If all the posters leave then MN ceases to be and all this begging request has shown is that not only are they out of touch with the thousands of their members who are currently in shit financial situations through no fault of their own. But equally MN isn't all that special and they would do well to remember they can and will be replaced should they expect people to pay.

but £350000 a month on wages - how many people are employed at mn?

I'm sure she said on yesterdays thread they employ approx 100 people.

No I sometimes think mumsnet is a black hole that sucks time and I regret ever going on it! So if they start charging, for me that's a good reason to stop using it

Same here. spend far too much time fannying around on here, reading threads, posting, if it was to start fully charging I don't think I could justify coming on here as I'm always terminally skint lol and it might give me a push to finally go cold turkey!

I'm not quite understanding how they are losing money, surely they should be getting more hits than ever to the site with people being at home?

The original thread says:

The businesses who would normally pay to advertise with us are slashing their marketing budgets, but lots of our outgoings are fixed and we so need to find new ways to keep paying the bills.

I don’t think it’s worth £4.99 and it would need to offer me more for me to pay that a month when everyone can still use the site for free.

Hang on are all these new wizzy features on MN premium or a new MN site?

Well just move off to another better site - all this whingeing and justification - just go

I do post on other sites some of which closed down.

People may think I am whinging, up to them.

However, when a forum charges for FREE stuff and not only still generating income from them, but also charging them for the privilege of getting fewer ads or the unicorn edit button, I am not going to stand back and say nothing about the blatant con the monthly and yearly fee is. There is NOTHING to warrant this.

If they wanted to save cash they should reduce staff. They pay the Forum provider a small monthly fee to do this, and aside from the analyst stuff, this is available for free. Plus there are also other free ways in ways to monitor ISP's etc if you don't want to use their paid service. Hosting fees can be expensive, but not so much to come begging for cash.

Those ads you will still be getting will be paid for differently as some do pay a fee, not just clicks.

I mean ffs just look at the issue with previously banned members. Again, there is stuff available for free and even paid for is still cheap, that blocks ISP's. Their overpaid staff cannot even manage this basic function.

As well as help with PR they need someone to go in and assess everything. Someone who knows what they are doing. It won't be cheap, however, it will slash a big chunk by getting rid of useless stuff.

The bit about fixed bills, we all have them. That sky 12-month contract, the new mobile, energy etc.

Funnily enough though, as a customer those companies are offering Joe Public some type of support including reducing bills for a while, pausing credit charges etc.

The same applies in the business world. So why is the money needed because it's really not to keep the lights on or pay useless staff?