Introducing Pay or Consent on Mumsnet

[BeckyAMumsnet]

Hello everyone.

We wanted to give you a heads-up about a change in the way we deal with cookie consent. We are introducing a Pay or Consent model, giving you two different options to continue accessing the site:

1. Continue for free with cookies and ads: this is the option that most people have enabled already.
2. Subscribe to Mumsnet Premium: For those who prefer an ad-free experience with no cookies/tracking for ad purposes - Besides ad-free you’ll also get first access to our product tests plus all revenues from Premium are put towards our campaigning work

Why are we making this change?

The pay or consent model is becoming increasingly common across online platforms as publishers adapt to changes in advertising levels and data privacy regulations. Like many other publishers, we relied on advertising to generate income but changes in tracking regulation and the growing use of ad blockers have made this model less viable.

We know that Mumsnet is an essential space for many - a place to seek advice, find support, and connect with your fellow Mumsnetters. That’s why we’re committed to ensuring that the site remains free at the point of use for anyone who needs it but it’s not fair that those who install ad blockers or rejected cookies are piggy backing on the back of other users who haven’t.

At the same time as introducing this, we’re going to reduce the price of Mumsnet Premium to £2.99 a month because we want to be fair to those who’d rather not accept advertising cookies. This is less than the cost of a flat white a month from most decent coffee shops and we very much hope you think Mumsnet’s worth it! Nb anyone who’s signed up to Mumsnet Premium already at the previous price (£4.99 per month) will have their payments reduced within the next week or so.

We’ll be here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, as always, for supporting Mumsnet.

it’s not fair that those who install ad blockers or rejected cookies are piggy backing on the back of other users who haven’t.

Wow. How on earth is it unfair to want to protect privacy and avoid the ridiculous amount of scam and unwanted advertising on the internet these days?

I have an ad blocker installed. I saw the pop-up about 20 minutes ago, clicked “Accept” and can still access ANY thread with no ads. I use the mobile site (not app) on an iPhone.

I don’t think it has anything to do with this particular thread not having ads on it. I doubt very much that Mumsnet could stop an ad blocker from working. Instead what they do is stop you from accessing the site at all if you have one in place. Usually if I try to access a site that does not permit ad blockers I get a “gateway” message that tells me I can’t get in unless I disable the blocker. Common on many media sites, fine by me.

I realise that by saying this in here I am effectively telling MN to fix their new system as it has failed testing. Whatever. I actually don’t mind them banning ad blockers. And maybe my free testing for them will make them suitably ashamed of the rude way we have been treated?

@sarvangasana Rogue intern?! Ooh what did I miss? 👀

Until very recently I had never used an ad blocker on MN. But without it, I was getting repeated McAffee virus hoax pages, and crashes, and all of this has stopped since I used an ad blocker.

I will more than happily disable the ad blocker when these issues are resolved, I totally get that MN needs to make money and advertising doesn't bother me, but unsafe pop ups and scam virus warnings really does.

Likewise.
I wonder if it’s because I use private browsing. 🤷‍♀️

Ive never been asked about accepting cookies either.

The adverts are awful on my mobile. They effectively freeze the page, make scrolling difficult. This happens many times a week.

The posters on this site produce the content that I browse and engage with. I am hugely grateful for the people who have posted on the numerous threads I have visited over the last few years.

You should always reject cookies on every website, or have your every move, and everything you do watched and analysed.
I worked with a marketing team for a short time on a project, and the analytics tools are amazing. If you reject the cookies, they can’t see what you do, where you land, how long you stay on a page for example.
All of that extra info is gleaned when you accept them, plus more I probably didn’t understand, but it’s too much information about you, taken away from you.

Oh, gang. You must have a communications specialist on board who strongly advised you against a) releasing this now, immediately after the CSA scandal and b) using the terms "not fair" and "piggybacking" to describe those who reject tracking cookies... And if you don't, you need to hire one asap!

For a start there's lots of valid reasons why people would reject cookies on this (or any other) site, including safety – particularly on a site where vulnerable women come to talk about domestic abuse.

FWIW I have no issue with the "pay or consent" model and I think it's naive of anyone to think that they can use any sort of website without having to pay for it somehow, either directly or via ad revenue / data collection. But to launch this now, and couched in these terms, seems v. ill-advised.

If you Google mumsnet news it’s in the papers.
Sunday night till early am Monday someone put child abuse images on MNet. Thats why we can’t upload images at the moment.

I didn’t know mumsnet had a ‘premium service’
i didn’t know mumsnet had adverts….icant remember seeing any & if I have had them then it’s extremely poor advertising if I can’t remember them!

Yes me too. I don’t have an ad blocker installed, but I’m thinking about it now.

The only reason I actually installed an ad blocker was because of mumsnet. I kept on getting malware attacks due to ads, and it only ever happened on mumsnet. There is along running thread about this on site stuff. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5178951-virus-scam-appearing-only-when-on-mumsnet?page=14 You know, the one that mumsnet ignores, despite numerous posters having long term problems. As mumsnet ignores the problem, I resorted to fixing it myself by installing an ad blocker. I think the phrase, you reap what you sow applies here!

I suspect a drop in ad revenue due to the images scandal

I'd have thought it was a bit soon for that @TangledTeabags - though who knows, because businesses are rightly highly reactive when it comes to being associated in any manner with CSA

Either way it's only too obvious why HQ were so keen to keep the issue corralled on a board which many never visit

I am perfectly within my legal right to block adverts. I'm not interested, i never click on them, i deal with them on sites that force me to use them, but my choice to block is because most of them are malicious, alarming, creepy, or irrelevant, and as someone who has ASD/ADHD they're distracting, and annoying and a visual sensory nightmare.

If using the accessibility available to me to make your site usable to me makes me a freeloader or an unwanted member of your website then i feel you're clearly making your disabled readers unwelcome.

That's nice of you.

Well this is a bit of a surprise, although perhaps not really as users are always the product, there to be exploited in some way.

My policy is not to use sites that won't allow me to reject cookies without paying. I think that's probably it for me, then. A shame, but a bit less screen time sounds like a good idea.

@BeckyAMumsnet my email address and password was released by hackers a few years ago, would my bank card info be safe if buying premium?

Would I be able to keep my settings as they are, with all 1000 posts visible on one page?

This has nothing to do with the CSA images. I’ve had this pay or accept pop up way before then.

I have to wonder if they were trying to bury this under the awful stuff at the weekend. The dead cat, so to speak. If not, their timing is SO tone deaf. Charging users when they don’t even pay the night watch?

@everyone
But, what other sites like this are as good???

I have now had the pop up asking me to continue for free or pay 3 times. Is this going to be a thing where you show it me every 30 minutes in the hope I change my mind and decide to pay??

I'd certainly be willing to pay for the use of this site only if you promise full paid mods 24/7. I would certain pay then. But no mods overnight? No money from me. Until then its using deep web browers that block cookies and create fake non-static IPs from any country.

The term 'piggybacking' is very....tabloid.
Not surprising since on google searches for MN content, a ton of the results are Daily Mail.

Always found the link between the two sites a bit chavvy tbh.

Many of us were the same, CharityShopChic, but sadly it's becoming increasingly obvious that the scam ads aren't going to be sorted out - and while HQ's message about thousands of them being blocked is all very well it doesn't explain why their continued appearance happens on MN but not on any other sites I visit

If you think the content posted here isn't worth much, go somewhere like Mail Online and search for 'mumsnet' to see how much content they've harvested, they don't do that for something that's of no value. If you read any of the articles they're not even journalist 'written', at least half of each article is quotes directly lifted off the forum.

Just because the MN team can't figure out how to monetise it without making life difficult for the content producers doesn't mean it's not worth anything.

And historically speaking, when a site penalises it's userbase for it's own problems, shit goes downhill generally.