Mumsnet Premium membership - new offers are now included

[JustineMumsnet]

Some of you will remember that we launched Mumsnet Premium back in the spring - many thanks to those of you who’ve signed up and we hope you’re enjoying it.

We wanted to flag some Premium-related news and invite the unconverted to give Premium a whirl.

From now, Premium subscribers will get first access to our popular product tests (where brands give Mumsnet users free stuff in exchange for feedback). We’re also lining up some brilliant experts and slebs for our brand new Zoomchats. Places on these are limited, and Premium users will have first dibs.

We’ve created a Talk board for Premium subscribers where the MNHQ team and I will be doing regular webchats there to give you a behind the scenes look at MNHQ - a chance to ask all those tough questions you’ve been cooking up 😉

Our aim for Premium is to come up with new offers each month. We’ve got some of your favourite brands on board, such as Seasalt Cornwall who are giving Premium subscribers a free jute shopper worth £6 for orders over £25. Protected Species are giving a whopping 50% off selected outerwear, and you can also get 20% off Hornit bikes, 10% off Bugaboo and more (see all our offers here.

You can learn more about Mumsnet Premium here

If there's anything else you'd like to see that might persuade you to give Premium a go, then please do let us know. Big thanks!

I will not be paying for premium as long as our content is being splashed over the Daily Fail etc. Pay for the privilege to chat and then be used as free newspaper fodder?! No thanks.

@fruitpastille

Protected species is mentioned on pretty much every coat thread. I've never heard of them outside mumsnet. They are still overpriced with a discount. I could afford premium but not necessarily one of those coats

Actually I have to say... this is the one thing that I used a mumsnet discount for and it is amazing!!!

40% off three years ago.
Still looks as good as mee

New

'Slebs' is derogatory.

I would love the idea another poster suggested if a Mumsnet Union which paid for as part of your premium subscription could offer legal advice on a wide range of topics often posted about on here? I think I would definitely subscribe to something like this, but as it stands nothing innovative motivates me too.

@Augustbreeze

I like the idea of a sort of union for mums, Mumsnet!

Agreed great idea!

It's hilarious that when Mumsnet first mentioned premium the suggestion of a donation pot, where people could donate as much or as little as they wanted and could afford, was discounted on the basis that it would make a "two tier membership".

Yet now Premium members have priority access to product tests, new content and chats with MNHQ...not a two tier membership at all then

@JustineMumsnet

BoomBoomsCousin:

What happened to the edit function you promised when you launched?

Still in the plan BoomBooms - but not necessarily just for Premium members

I would feel more "premium" and less taken for granted if you put some kind of premium on fulfilling the expectations you set months ago.

ShowOfHands, that's how I felt when I subscribed, 100%. MN has been such a phenomenal resource for me and women I know for so many years that I felt it was absolutely right to give something back at a difficult time, despite having just been served notice of redundancy. The thought of my beloved FWR going dark at a real crunch point for the rights of women and girls made it a no-brainer for me.

@TheMotherShipAhoy

ShowOfHands, that's how I felt when I subscribed, 100%. MN has been such a phenomenal resource for me and women I know for so many years that I felt it was absolutely right to give something back at a difficult time, despite having just been served notice of redundancy. The thought of my beloved FWR going dark at a real crunch point for the rights of women and girls made it a no-brainer for me.

It wasn’t mumsnet that helped you.

It was the women that posted advice to you.

Mumsnet was the platform that enabled that however its not exactly trade marked setting up websites, has it? And so because of this... premium is of no value for those that rate mumsnet because of the help it offered then.

I disagree entirely. I've watched MN evolve. I've watched the way campaigns it has backed and the way it has moderated and the stance it has taken. Yes it was the women (and men) who made it what it is but Mumsnet absolutely was the instrument which allowed it to happen and there is no other place like it, particularly atm, for allowing women to self organise in the way it does.

Ignore the first way. Sometimes I notice the lack of an edit feature.

Hello, of course it is the content provided by individual contributing users which has and continues to be of great help to women (and men) seeking advice and support. This sharing is enabled and facilitated by MNHQ.
I don't see your point.

@LetTheBirdsSing

Hello *@JustineMumsnet* I’m a Premium subscriber and I’m happy to continue paying. I use Mumsnet everyday and have found it invaluable over the years.

I agree with the PP who suggested that you survey Premium members to see what would make Premium worthwhile to them. I really appreciate the lack of ads and would appreciate some increased functionality for the site eg I hate the fact that if I accidentally bookmark a post I can’t then ‘unbookmark’ it and I constantly get taken back to that post. It seems like such an easy change to make. More generally there seems to be a bit of a reluctance to make improvements to the site’s functionality...I’ve seen people request an ‘edit post’ button for years.

Hi LetTheBirdsSing, We have been and will continue to canvass Premium members for their thoughts on what extras they'd value. It's a fair point about it taking time to make improvements. We're actually in a process of re-platforming the site - re-writing all the code, putting it in the cloud etc - which as you might imagine is quite an undertaking. So there is a bit of reluctance to build features in the old code, knowing we're just going to have to re-write them, and of course if we don't focus all our resources on transformation it will never be done. So it's a bit of a balancing act but we're hopeful that by mid next year we'll be able to add new features to Talk with much greater ease and speed and un-bookmarking and edit are going to be the very first things we sort, I promise.

Thanks for all the feedback on this thread - it is genuinely useful. Premium will never be for everyone and as I hope you've seen since launch we are committed to a maintaining a fully-operational free version of the site. But we are also keen to make Premium a valuable option for a portion of our users, so all your thought and ideas on how we might achieve that are really helpful.

I'm happy to pay just to keep it going tbh, I spend loads of time on here so worth it. Personally I don't want or need any extras but appreciate I'm probably in the minority. I cancelled a couple of magazine subscriptions so this is a worthy alternative.

It gives absolutely nothing of value. It's just a chat forum. If it disappears we'll all use another one.

I totally disagree, it enables so many people to access a resource - us - in a way nothing else does. Which other forum is as big or as diverse? I've been on here for 16 years now and would miss it enormously if it didn't exist any longer.

I've done 16 years here too and couldn't agree more @Signaturesoftheworkers

@TheMotherShipAhoy

Hello, of course it is the content provided by individual contributing users which has and continues to be of great help to women (and men) seeking advice and support. This sharing is enabled and facilitated by MNHQ. I don't see your point.

Do you really not?

It’s a platform. So for instance money supermarket has content and a platform.

But let’s be honest... we all come on here for the chat rather than content.

And so what mumsnet is doing is not appropriate really for a charge.

I love mumsnet
I really do
I love the talk forums

I'm on MN every day but I wouldn't pay for it.
I'm not in UK, don't fit the demographic for the offers/trials or whatever.
I've never heard of most of the suppliers/shops mentioned and after looking at them, realise they are WAY out of my price range.

PPs make a fair point. I pay subs for Netflix and Audible. They are great value for money.

What is MN offering ME for my 5 quid?

An edit function perhaps that is standard on any modern forum anyway?

I think you’d get much further by using a donations based model like wiki and other user driven sites

I signed up for Premium membership ages ago despite the fact that you (Mumsnet) are threatening to introduce an Edit Function. This will cause more problems than it is worth unless editing is limited to a very short time after a post is submitted and is also disabled as soon as someone else has added a further post.

I find the new “Quote” function redundant as I have never wanted to quote a previous post in its entirety. It is confusing to quote a lengthy post when replying to just a part of it, maybe just one sentence.

There is nothing about “Premium benefits” that interests me. I am paying because I get a lot from Mumsnet, want to see it continue and I am lucky enough to be able to afford it (I receive under the average income but my outgoings are low).

Please, if you introduce an Edit function, restrict it appropriately to avoid mischievous misuse, eg. by someone deleting or significantly altering content after others have replied. Some Boards and Topics are troll-magnets for misogynistic men and an unrestricted Edit function would be just handing them ammo on a plate. I seriously doubt that the Premium fee would deter those who are most determined to cause trouble.

It will an extra headache for Moderators too if posts deliberately break rules, are reported but are then edited before Mods get to check them out.