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

I'm cynical about this and the timing of it when many people are personally being financially squeezed.

Many businesses are asking their staff to take a salary cut rather than for their 'customers' to pay more.

And how on earth did they come up with the figure of £5 p/ m when the users (and paid advertisers) provide the content?

I would have like to see a voluntary payment to donate to the NHS but no this is to ensure that the salaries of those who profit from the site are not hit.

Perhaps we could discuss this point rather than presuming it will continue if not enough people agree to pay subs.

If premium doesn't generate enough extra income then perhaps they could look at the immense monthly wage bill.

I've paid. I've been here bloody years and the site has always been a great help to me. I'm not fussed about edit buttons and all that jazz but happy to pay so that it keeps going. I wouldn't pay 5p for Disney Plus though!

I'd need to be happier with the moderation before I subscribed. Imagine paying then getting banned because a few people don't like your opinions and run crying to MN. If I'm paying I expect to get what I pay for.

That would be my stance too tbh. While allowing twitter to report even if they arent members..and banning long term well liked posters for little more than acknowledging biology, or for asking a question mods don't like in a webchat..etc, paying seems a little pointless. Obviously modding has to be done, and those breaking rules constantly be punished, but the way its going down is so unfasir, targetting outside reporting, resulting in people banned for using the 'wrong' pronoun or something!

Yes, because I've used this site for a long time and I know it is a fantastic resource for so many people.

It's my favourite nest of vipers.

I think that the price point hasn't been properly thought through - as a couple of people have mentioned, it's ridiculous to pay a similar amount for a quality streaming service like Netflix / Disney+ for a site that mostly hosts user-generated content and has an objectively poor user experience. There's no comparison.

Even at the c£2 per month mark you would need to offer some value for the premium tier vs free, otherwise you're effectively just asking for donations.

They are apparently using a conpany called stripe to take payments. Justine said they were a big reputable company on the other thread. Has anyone else never heard of them or is it just me?

The only part I look at is the chat room and that is provided by all of us without which there would be no mn, so no I will not be paying a fiver a month.

On the positive side maybe it will get me off my phone for a while.

Having worked in online media in the past , I can tell you that the margins the site makes on add are tiny. There are a few different ways they make money: an affiliate model where the site gets a cut for any purchase driven off the as, and a plain and space model where the advertiser pays for the banners. The latter has been hugely undercut by Google, who now provides the majority of the technology and takes a massive cut in exchange for the platform. There are probably two things happening: far less advertising spend by businesses that have been shuttered, and far fewer clickthroughs by users who know they don't have the money. So I can see why MN have made this move but agree that moving different functionality into a paying version seems stupid. Facebook does well by directly monetising the users, in a way that I suspect MN can't really do, as it would be seen as unethical.

Stripe are massive and well-respected.

Definitely no.

I will sign up and see how it goes. Although I don’t buy magazines these days, the fiver a month is about what a magazine costs these days I think.
My only concern is that it was subs that killed Bad Mothers Club, albeit that had a different demographic, I hope that doesn’t happen here

I am in the camp of seeing this as a donation to keep the ship afloat by any other name and it seems to me that the site is a lifeline for some and would like to help keep it accessible to them.

It may have been wiser to have a straightforward donation option. But my guess is that Mumsnet felt it had to offer something in exchange for funds.

I enjoy MN but that's quite expensive for what I'd get out of it.
I'd also have concerns about security both due to the hack a few years ago and the breaches of security by the intern mentioned upthread.
How would this work with contentious boards like Feminism? Lots of posters have been heavily moderated and some have been kicked off. Would you be moderated differently if a 'premium' subscriber.

Imagine paying then getting banned because a few people don't like your opinions and run crying to MN

This is definitely what would happen to me. I like mumsnet, but once I started a thread in AIBU. I have never seen such a horrible pile on. It was relentless and vile. Really personal, really upsetting. I contacted mumsnet and asked them to remove it. They refused to even moderate it. That's fair enough when free but not if you are paying, I'm not that much of a masochist.

I think I will.

I've had a.lit of support on here over the years, I've also spent many a night howling with laughter over hilarious threads. Arguably it's a lot more useful to me than Netflix and I'd miss it if it wasnt here.

I’m presuming this is a necessity thing they have had to bring out to sustain themselves through this. Most people paying won’t be doing it solely because they are that offended by the ads, they’ll be in a financial position where they won’t mind paying the £5 and to keep the site and associated costs running. It’s not really comparable to Netflix and Disney plus in that way I don’t think.

Given the previous issues with personal data being compromised on MN, what does @MNHQ plan to do to assure premium subscribers that their bank details will be secure?

Again, I'd be happy paying donations as and when I could afford it. Committing to a monthly payment or pay for a year, no.

The app is dreadful, the security is questionable, the main website is out of date. The only reason to visit is for the talk forums which is their content provided by us but moderated badly and lacks basic functions. I can turn on an adblocker and I don't think it's fair to have a tier system of users. There is already enough cliques on this site as it is.

20 years of frequenting forums and it always goes downhill when a pay function is introduced. I'll find somewhere else, I always do.

Nope not paying to write on a forum. Can just go elsewhere if needed.

Sorry no we are approx £700 per month down at the moment so every penny counts. Even without that I think it is expensive for what is being offered. I paid the same per year for Disney Plus which has much more entertainment value and caters for the whole family.
If things weren't as tight due to Covid-19 I may consider paying a sub for mumsnet but to be honest I don't think it would be worth more than £2 a month personally.

Stripe are massive and well-respected

I've honestly never heard of them or any company who uses them as a payment option. However for those who are paying at least its some relief that MNHQ won't have their bank details.

Maybe they could ask the Daily Mail for a contribution since the Mail has lifted such a lot of content.

Nope. I think they’ve made a big mistake with this one.