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[JustineMumsnet]

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

I don't get if it would be "ad free" as per the new T&Cs, or just "less ads" as per the earlier info from @JustineMumsnet

There's such a big difference between the two and I'm not sure if it hasn't been clarified yet or if it hasn't been decided yet...

Paying for the app would have been a much better idea..

I ask again. I will pay if I can send a cheque. Is that possible?

Just seen paying for an app which I could download from the App Store which I trust. That’s another idea.

I can't fault you at all.
Sadly, I was made redundant after 20 years at the end of last year and decided to set up my own business.
Not been self employed/ in business long enough to have enough history to claim anything, and because I was made redundant and have been living off my payout, and was intending to do so as I needed to as me new business grew, I'm not entitled to any state support either.
I'm a single mum, trying to grow my business however my target clients were micro entities and sole traders, so I am worried.

Will it be possible to like or +1?

Justine is a very very shrewd and successful business woman. She’s seen an opportunity to bring forward plans and she’s leveraged it. Fair enough. Unfortunately - it’s back fired

I'm by no means a MN hater, but I strongly disagree that Justine (and presumably her senior management team) have been in any way shrewd about this - it's an embarrassing faux-pas and that's being polite! It's at best an amateurish, poorly thought-through 'knee-jerk' effort that has indeed spectacularly backfired, and I don't think it has done anything to enhance the MN Towers reputation.

This could be a millstone round their neck for years. Just like their appalling reputation for data privacy/lax security will continue to plague them, evidenced by the fact that the hacking issue still keeps cropping up as a reason why people are unwilling to part with financial details, because they lack trust that their data is secure. What a killer for any enterprise that wants to be seen as professional and credible, that their user-base has to set up a dummy throw-away email address purely so they don't need to disclose information that they fear isn't safe.

I really like MN and have made some friends here and learned a lot. I'd rather not see it go under, so I subscribed. If you cba that's fine too.

@PleaseStopCrying it's heart-breaking isn't it, that not being able to afford the subscription (because thousands of people nationally and globally have lost their jobs and in financial hardship) might make people feel they are 'letting the side down' because they cannot afford it. And equating that to not being arsed to dig deep and make yourself even more broke, is shocking.

By HQ even asking the question (no matter how it was couched - "only if you can afford it") it puts people in a position of obligation, especially vulnerable people who may see themselves in MN debt.

It's like having to refuse a friend who comes to you for help, no matter how you say "sorry, mate, I'd love to help but I'm absolutely on my uppers" it still leaves you feeling you've let them down

Surely HQ should have played through this scenario and realised that such extremes hardship in their own MNer community has not been seen since ww2 and thought of a different way of fundraising (crowdfunding, or Wikipedia/Guardian style donation approach).

Sorry but I got your email and I think asking for money when everyone is in the same situation perhaps worse, is just wrong.

Done 😊 I love MN and it’s a small price to pay.

Have subscribed - while my DC are older now and I don't post often, I would have been lost without Mumsnet a few years ago. Over the many years I've dipped in and out it's given me huge amounts of support, laughs and information - wishing all at MNHQ the very best.

I agree it's an awful time to ask.

People should really think about who this money is going to. The language ‘keep the lights on’ should be considered. Lots of posters are on a fraction of this. I guess it’s that classic don’t give more than you can afford thing.

Agree with this. I think it is quite shameful that a company which has made such huge profits in recent times and paid its top directors £250k pa are expecting people earning perhaps less than 10% of that to people them up with donations that they probably can’t really afford right now.
There are no offers in the supermarkets at the moment so most people are spending extra just to feed their families. A lot of people have been furloughed on 80% of their normal pay or made redundant in recent weeks and are struggling to meet their families basic needs. I really don’t think Mumsnet should be asking any of its users for money to get them through this difficult time. They should be doing what the ordinary folk are having to do - cut their outgoings and try their best to survive this difficult period.
And it saddens me to see a poster suggesting that people who aren't willing to subscribe , CBA to do so. People might not be subscribing for a multitude of reasons and nobody needs the pressure of others assuming it’s because they CBA.

Over the many years I've dipped in and out it's given me huge amounts of support, laughs and information

MN hasn't given you that, it's the posters who have given support, laughs and information. Even without MN forums there will always be plenty of people out there ready to offer those things, and more importantly they'll do so without charging for them.

I'm laughing at the old BMC joke a PP made

I won't be paying, I have absolutely no faith the site is secure and it's not worth it to me.

It's like having to refuse a friend who comes to you for help, no matter how you say "sorry, mate, I'd love to help but I'm absolutely on my uppers" it still leaves you feeling you've let them down*

I'm so glad its not just me who it is making uncomfortable. The simple fact people need to realise is that if MN should have to close (which of course will be terrible.) it won't be the posters fault.

However by MNHQ asking for our help it has inadvertently made people feel like if they don't dontate and it does have to close down it will be themselves some way to blame as they couldn't afford to help.

I appreciate MN don't mean it to come across like this but thats exactly how its going to feel to many. You only have to look at the amount of people appologising to see they now feel a sense of guilt at letting their friends at MNHQ down.

I won’t be subscribing due to multiple data breaches and blatant exposure of data “accidental” or not. The wage bill is very high, they should review senior executive pay, where else they can cut costs etc before asking for subscriptions. My own view is that this is a slippery slope towards a two tier offering giving those that subscribe the ‘premier’ site and erode the free one over time to the point you either have to pay or you leave.
It’s is a business, I get that but be careful you don’t kill the cash cow!

Done. Dh said 'well, you've had enough value out of them over the years.'

Best of luck with keeping it going, Justine and team.

That a good point jules and I think that once the free site is eroded and posters inevitably leave or stop posting there won’t be enough interaction left for the paying subscribers to want to continue subscribing. A lot less people will be willing to pay for a subscription to a site that is focused around user interaction if the interaction is significantly reduced.

I am neither of these. I had thought there was a debate to have. Learned very quickly that is not possible so don’t even bother now.

Yes, we used to think that too. Venice Allan even invited Stonewall to put their side at the first ever We Need to Talk event. They responded with the #NoDebate hashtag & multiple attempts to get it shut down.... that was when a woman in her 60s got beaten up & those of us at the event had the pleasure of listening to the TRAs outside yelling ‘BURN IT DOWN!’

It’s also interesting to note that Stonewall never agree to debate anyone gender-critical. They know they can’t justify themselves.

Yes, Just paid up.

It's where I get the latest feminist news - would hate to miss out on that.

I'm not really all that interested in 'debating' the issue, because you don't really get to have an opinion on facts. Nobody can be 'of the opinion' that humans can change sex, if you think that, you are deluded and frankly, wrong.
What I want is to be able to speak, normally, without being told I need to respect the 'opinion' of someone who has convinced themselves to believe a bunch of lies.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Oh, well if a man says so....I'm signing up....

Oh give over, WotchaTalkingBoutWillis, you're over on Feminist Chat telling posters how lucky they are to have it for free.

And if it's not your cup of tea, just avoid it. Just like I tend to steer clear of AIBU. I know a poster who has hidden Relationships.

I am neither of these. I had thought there was a debate to have. Learned very quickly that is not possible so don’t even bother now.

Wotcha - what specifically are you saying that you 'don't even bother now' to do?
I need to point out that I mean this question in the kindest possible way, with the sole intention of clarifying what you meant when you posted it. Not to goad, not to insult or troll or 'DARVO' you, or paint you as anything - just as a request to elaborate more on what you said.
Thanks.