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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

[Xiaoxiong]

Well, I've just paid my £50 - I don't really see it as a premium membership, more as a tip jar for all the value that this site has given me over the last 10 years.

10 years ago it was pregnancy and the antenatal buses - then advice on everything to do with babies, then kids, then school, and over the last 2 years FWR has been an absolute bastion of sanity (I was "peaked" by Caitlin Jenner being named woman of the year, came to MN to see if anyone else was as furious as me and discovered FWR).

So thanks for all of it @JustineMumsnet

[IBoughtAllTheToiletRoll]

Just underscores my point yesterday. MNHQ would probably have done a lot better to ask the audience, rather than risk the our way or the highway tack ....

They’re surveying Gransnet to see if they’d like a Gransnet Premium. Assume there’s no cross-subsidy between the two sites if they’re doing that?

www.gransnet.com/forums/site_stuff/1276655-Answering-your-questions-about-Mumsnet-premium-and-how-this-affects-Gransnet

[DGRossetti]

I’m dubious about the lack of PayPal option. It screams scam because unlike Stripe the buyer has protection. If you’ve paid for a year and two months later, nothing works properly based on track record, people will be wanting their money back.

Which - if this drive fails and MN goes under - could be a very very long wait ...

[DGRossetti]

They’re surveying Gransnet to see if they’d like a Gransnet Premium.

I didn't suggest "ask your punters if they'll pay" so much as "why not ask MNetters what they'd suggest to solve the problem". That is not enter the arena with the exit already signed ...

[JustineMumsnet]

@teawamutu

I've subscribed because I think MN is hugely important, especially the FWR board.

But I would like you to reconsider allowing TRAs to either report without joining, or join, fail to contribute and then report. I think moderation should be on the basis of active members' views or you're allowing people who contribute nothing to game the system.

I just want to pick up on the idea that we simply remove stuff because it's reported by non-members or single issue activists and that this happens a lot. In fact we've had zero reports on trans issues by email since the beginning of the year.

And when posts are reported we look at the post in context and apply our guidelines to decide whether or not it warrants deletion. Posts on both sides of the trans/ womens' rights debate are reported overwhelmingly by long-standing mumsnet members who are active on the site. When it's clear that people are reporting vexatiously on posts that do not require deletion we deal with that appropriately, and we have banned people who are only here to promote a single issue or to censor the conversation around a single issue.

Ultimately our aim is to consider only one thing though, whether posts are made within our guidelines and if they're not, they go.

[KimMumsnet]

Hiya @Cismyfatarse - you should now be seeing fewer ads and shouldn't see any of the banner ones – the image-based ads that tend to take up bandwidth and slow down page loading times.
Kim

[JustineMumsnet]

@Xiaoxiong

Well, I've just paid my £50 - I don't really see it as a premium membership, more as a tip jar for all the value that this site has given me over the last 10 years.

10 years ago it was pregnancy and the antenatal buses - then advice on everything to do with babies, then kids, then school, and over the last 2 years FWR has been an absolute bastion of sanity (I was "peaked" by Caitlin Jenner being named woman of the year, came to MN to see if anyone else was as furious as me and discovered FWR).

So thanks for all of it *@JustineMumsnet*

Thank you

[MarieQueenofScots]

Ultimately our aim is to consider only one thing though, whether posts are made within our guidelines and if they're not, they go

It would be better if moderation was done consistently though....it’s way too subjective at the moment.

[00100001]

Why can't MNHQ refund subscriptions?

[alreadytaken]

so you were always planning to do this to raise even more money from the site than you have taken out over the years The virus provided you, you hoped, with much needed sympathy. I'm not that big a sucker.

I dont like the way you run the site, the allowance of bullying and trolls - and that includes allowing the bullying by trans activists.

I am donating more than usual to charity at the moment so I could support you but there are much more deserving causes. If the site folds there will be a gap in the market for a site that really provides a voice for women.

[JellySlice]

Ultimately our aim is to consider only one thing though, whether posts are made within our guidelines and if they're not, they go.

And many of us are asking you to modify those guidelines to enable us to speak honestly and truthfully. The guidelines are excessively restrictive, particularly when prominent transwomen who support debate, and who support women's right to the definition of woman and to women's spaces, are comfortable with terminology that MN ban.

We already provide content that brings people to this site in huge numbers. If you want us to pay for the privilege, then you need to improve our access, not restrict it.

Adapt the guidelines and there will be fewer deletions, greater confidence in MN, and more financial support for MN.

[canigooutyet]

They have no obligation to do so, and there is no protection is place.
Plus those feeling robbed will have a hard time because how vague what is actually included in the cost.
They can easily reduce the ads by one, they have met their conditions.

And that’s putting aside how shoddily this place is run to begin with without these —free— sub services. Or false claims about how impossible it was to add an edit button for years, yet suddenly they can at cost and what is that cost exactly? Nothing.

[canigooutyet]

@alreadytaken
If it folds, if there’s nothing to meet needs at the moment, there will be. Someone will create a forum. Nothing to stop you from creating such a site, it won’t cost you and by the time it starts to ads will generate some income. There’s also private donation options including via PayPal and more recently Amazonpay. Some offer an option of a yearly sub for a tenner, some include merch with membership plus an official store.

The amount of gin drinkers on this place they could have brought out their own brand of gin. Many more would be up for that than paying the equivalent of Disney+ for a month.

[nicerainyweather]

There's nowhere half as good as this in the other countries I've looked at (trying to improve my languages). Would hate to lose it.

[canigooutyet]

You wouldn’t loose anything. The people posting who make the site what it is will move. Links will be shared, new forums created etc. They won’t suddenly stop going on forums.

Bounty closed years ago, we moved and it became a very distant memory. Many of us moved to here and still post. Depending on interests there a many fantastic forums and subgroups out there.

It really is irreplaceable. Iirc correctly, many thought it wasn’t when bounty closed. I have some fab memories from there. Do I miss it? Not a chance lol.

[SleepyNightOwl]

I really don’t like the idea of paying and then being banned, and saying tough shit don’t get banned is ridiculous with the awful different set of rules on the feminism board.

[Bringringbring12]

“If it folds”

Seriously guys - spend two mins bringing up last year accounts

A phenomenal >30% operating profit
And top paid director (there’s only two) on c.£250k package

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

I think what’s actually happening is that you’re slowly coming to the realisation that defending women’s sex-based rights pervades all aspects of life, and the topic pervading all forums on MN is just the analogy. You can’t hide from it, because every aspect of life is impacted by it, so it’s unreasonable to expect the topic not to spill over into other areas of MN too.

Exactly. Well said. People think they can filter everything they don't like out. If people want to post in AIBU for traffic and different views or about topical stories in In the News, why on earth shouldn't they?

[lovely123]

No thanks, I would rather help charities who are in more need than a commercial business who clearly have not planned their finances too well.
There also seems to be some misunderstanding with some MNetters that the site will not be accessible to them if they do not pay, if you pay you simply get fewer ads, the site will still work for you.

[HereDefenders]

I think what happened is there was a restructuring in 2018 one of the founders (Carrie) was bought out - I'm guessing this cost several millions to do. I can't see otherwise why there are massive loans that need to be deferred and such a depletion in cash such that MN is now on its knees when it was previously in such a strong position according to the 2018 accounts?

[Bringringbring12]

@ HereDefenders

That either would have been raised in the 2018 or it will be in the next company accounts, which should be published soon.

If a co founder was “bought out” for “millions” then this is because the value of her stake holding was viewed as being very valuable

[HereDefenders]

Of course, any business making £2m profit per annum is v valuable.

I'm not just plucking this as theory out of thin air - most the info is public on companies house

[HereDefenders]

Unfortunate timing though anyway, but a pandemic can't be predicted obviously

[Bringringbring12]

I don’t think mumsnet are thinking “unfortunate timing” in any sense

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

[PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg]

Happy to donate - I've used the site for 16 years.

Not comfortable with handing over payment data - too many leaks & too many dodgy characters targeting that data.

I think you need a crowdfunder - I'll happily chip in.