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Mumsnet Premium membership - please support us if you can

999 replies

JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 13:17

Hi folks,

First and most importantly, I hope you and yours are safe and well, and that you all stay that way.

After 20 years of unreasonableness, rofls, wtfs, advice and support, and the odd lawsuit, it's fair to say that we are as close as we’ve ever been to existential difficulty.

Like many ad-funded businesses, the COVID-19 crisis has seen us take a big hit to our revenues. 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.

We’re doing our darndest to find every single saving we can - lots of our staff have volunteered to reduce their hours, we’ve cancelled all non-essential services, I've taken a pay holiday and we will use every scheme and loan available to us from the government and the bank to help tide us over. But we still need to find alternative revenue streams to ensure we don’t run out of funds in a few months...

To put it frankly, it’s squeaky bum time.

I know this is a very tough time for many of you and some of you are only just keeping the lights on yourselves. We’re sending you our solidarity and we most certainly don’t want anyone to stump up anything they can’t afford, but if you can help, please do subscribe now to our Premium service.

We’ve banged this out as fast as possible in response to the current crisis and it’s definitely not the finished article, but it’s free of banner advertising, so if you’ve ever been vexed by those (or use an ad-blocker) this might be right up your alley. Banner ads also tend to make pages render more slowly and take up bandwidth, so if you’re surrounded by bored kids streaming with their mates, step this way.

We’ve opted for a price point that we hope is doable for most and which covers the potential lost ad revenue for the majority of users. We hope £4.99 per month or £49.99 for a year (less than a pound a week!) feels a reasonable exchange for the value Mumsnet brings you, but in any case you can unsubscribe any time.

Over the next little while we’ll look to add some extra features: things that people have requested regularly like editing, sorting posts by the OP, and reading offline.

Rest assured we remain committed to always providing a free version of the site, as we fundamentally believe that access to the advice and support Mumsnet offers should not depend on your ability to pay.

And if you can’t spare any cash right now… then of course we get it. It would still be very helpful if you removed any ad blockers or clicked on affiliate links around the site when you shop, joined our insight panel or even shared the best Mumsnet threads on your social channels whenever you can - it all helps.

If you have any questions at all feel free to post them here and I'll get back to you. We also have a page of FAQs that might answer your question.

Hold tight everyone.

Love

Justine and the team at MNHQ

OP posts:
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ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 08/04/2020 14:03

Can I just check - if I do subscribe will that be visible to anyone on the site? I wouldn't want this to become a two tier site, either with posters or with moderators.

MarieQueenofScots · 08/04/2020 14:04

Whilst I appreciate these are tough times, and I wish you all the best. I'm disappointed that the edit button, which is a basic function of most forums, and one which has been requested over the years is being put behind a paywall

Yes absolutely this. I would have been happy to subscribe for "premium" features such as no banner ads. hHowever the most basic and oft requested features should be available for all and not dependent on a user's ability to pay.

YangShanPo · 08/04/2020 14:04

I'd also like a special username, like HQ posts but more important.
Regal purple background should do.
What about the suffix "royal" after your user name.

LoveLongLife · 08/04/2020 14:05

I'm a bit disappointed to see you're offering functions like edit that people have asked for, for years, and not that cash is discussed it's all of a sudden possible?

Naaa. That's alright thanks.

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:05

@TomHardysCBBC

You normally make millions in revenue and suddenly there's none left?

Last year we had revenue of £7m and pre-tax profit of £570k. We have a a couple of loans too which were due to be paid back this autumn - we've deferred payment on those for a year. We really wouldn't be asking for help if we didn't need it. But equally we hope to make Premium something really valuable that people will be happy to choose to pay for irrespective of the situation with advertisers. Over time we plan to add features and Premium member offers so it seems like a no-brainer to subscribe and we can rely on advertising less.

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Vegansarefriends · 08/04/2020 14:07

I would pay to keep the AS off the site, it might send the stalkers elsewhere.

WhoIsBUhere · 08/04/2020 14:07

I remember paying 5 quid for the year to receive private messages. Those were the days.
I understand why you're doing this but I wonder if you could have a two tier fee system. Concessions and no concessions. Is that too much, administratively?

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:08

@LoveLongLife

I'm a bit disappointed to see you're offering functions like edit that people have asked for, for years, and not that cash is discussed it's all of a sudden possible?

Naaa. That's alright thanks.

It's a fair point Longlife - we are planning a very limited edit function - only a 15 second or so window - because to my mind it's something that could easily be abused and could make the boards inoperable. It's not a feature that I think would be wise to make standard (nb we don't expect more than 10% of Mumsnet users to subscribe).

OP posts:
MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:09

@WhoIsBUhere

I remember paying 5 quid for the year to receive private messages. Those were the days. I understand why you're doing this but I wonder if you could have a two tier fee system. Concessions and no concessions. Is that too much, administratively?

It's definitely something we can think about for the future (thanks for the £5 way back when btw!)

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Grobagsforever · 08/04/2020 14:09

Done. I need Mumsnet!

ChandlerIsTheBestFriend · 08/04/2020 14:09

“Fewer ads”

So not ad free then?

Will there be any changes to the free version? Like a increase in intrusive ads? To encourage folk to pay for “fewer ads”

Or any changes at all really?

Mumsnet Premium membership - please support us if you can
DGRossetti · 08/04/2020 14:10

It's a fair point Longlife - we are planning a very limited edit function - only a 15 second or so window - because to my mind it's something that could easily be abused and could make the boards inoperable.

How do all the other forums on the internet manage ?

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:10

@YangShanPo

*I'd also like a special username, like HQ posts but more important. Regal purple background should do.* What about the suffix "royal" after your user name.

Ahem, there's no such thing as Mumsnet Royalty as you know Wink

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Eggcited · 08/04/2020 14:12

we are planning a very limited edit function - only a 15 second or so window

15 seconds to edit a post would render the feature almost pointless. I understand the limited time in order to avoid massively changing the tone or topic of a thread, but you'd have to have ninja skills to spot and edit typos in that time.

willowhazel · 08/04/2020 14:13

Last year we had revenue of £7m and pre-tax profit of £570k. We have a a couple of loans too which were due to be paid back this autumn - we've deferred payment on those for a year. We really wouldn't be asking for help if we didn't need it.

Profit of 570k ? You don't need more money then as you've already paid the business expenses out of the revenue. Mumsnet as a company can afford to keep running the site more than many people can afford to pay. This is the start of a slippery slope towards being subscription online. Mumsnet js a lifeline and not a luxury for many, especially right now.

I think this is extremely bad timing.

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:14

@DGRossetti

It's a fair point Longlife - we are planning a very limited edit function - only a 15 second or so window - because to my mind it's something that could easily be abused and could make the boards inoperable.

How do all the other forums on the internet manage ?

Not so many forums are as busy as Mumsnet and not all are anonymous and allow namechanges. But of course if we try it on Premium we can then test it out. If it's trouble free we can consider rolling out more widely (and come up with additional incentives for Premium)

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Danni91 · 08/04/2020 14:14

With the edit function 15 seconds isnt long enough to reread & realise your mistake after a few glasses of wine, surely a minute or two would be better?
Or you could add like fb 'see edit history' and then they wouldn't be unreadable just more time consuming... But right now I got lots of that ...

I will probably end up paying though.

TomHardysCBBC · 08/04/2020 14:15

So that pre tax profit last year of a half a million is gone?

BoreOfWhabylon · 08/04/2020 14:16

Done.

Mumsnet is keeping me sane during self-isolation.

Ninkanink · 08/04/2020 14:17

I would suggest an edit option where posts prior to revisions are saved. That way there is still a ‘paper trail’ and people can’t abuse it.

Ninkanink · 08/04/2020 14:18

@JustineMumsnet so Justine sees the above!

MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:18

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

Can I just check - if I do subscribe will that be visible to anyone on the site? I wouldn't want this to become a two tier site, either with posters or with moderators.

It won't be visible to posters or moderators in their day to day use of the site. It would be possible for a moderator to find out if someone is a subscriber by asking the admin team but it absolutely won't make any difference to our moderation decisions. It's less than a £ a week per individual so whilst we're very grateful to everyone who subscribes it won't afford any special moderation privileges.

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MNHQ
JustineMumsnet · 08/04/2020 14:19

@Ninkanink

I would suggest an edit option where posts prior to revisions are saved. That way there is still a ‘paper trail’ and people can’t abuse it.

Sounds like a good idea - txs will pass on

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nicerainyweather · 08/04/2020 14:19

Can you do something so that when you search for something, the most recent posts come up first? Eg today I searched for an online typing course for children. A lot of the recommendations that came up first dated from 10 or so years ago, and were probably no longer relevant.

DGRossetti · 08/04/2020 14:19

The edit function only needs to be available until there is another reply on a thread. At which point it's greyed it.

If someone tries to save an edited post after another poster has replied it's tough luck.

Also, when a post is edited, it can be marked as such, with a little text box (that can be mandatory) to say "E2A: ".

There are literally hundreds of forums that do it, so the option for some best practice nonsense from the project managers ...