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.

Personally, I have no problem at all with adverts on commercial sites, as this is clearly the alternative to a subscription and how they make their money; much as it would be nicer without adverts, I don't expect them to give it all away free of charge.

What I DO strongly object to is personalisation and tracking. For me, that is where advertising becomes stalking.

Absolutely fine if, like ITV, you target specific demographics that are likely to be interested in your particular content and then advertise to that group the products that you think/hope they will want to buy. That's the acceptable use of intelligence in marketing.

This doesn't mean that I will happily let somebody do the online equivalent of watching over my shoulder 24/7 and going through my filing cabinets and bins in order to hone in on what they believe I should buy from them.

My privacy is not your property. I detest that ubiquitous phrase "Your privacy is important to us" as it's designed to sound reassuring rather than predatory and like the exact opposite of what it actually means. In truth, it means 'your privacy is important to us in the same way as your handbag is important to a mugger'.

And as for the weasel 'legitimate interest' excuse that so many sites employ... I can only wonder if the people who legislate on this terminology and its officially-defended use never find themselves having to search the house whenever they need a (brown) envelope.

Ha ha me too, learned about blockers on here and had forgotten that this and many other sites have ads for other people!
Occasionally I try to log in to a US site that won’t let me continue without disabling the blocker and I tend not to bother as it’s too complicated. But most of the time I usually just forget the blocker is there.

I don’t mind a policy change that disallows ad blockers but I’m a bit taken aback by the terminology used to refer to those who have been using them. Feels rude and uncalled for. I’d have been fine with £2.99 a month if you’d asked nicely.

I don't mind the adverts.

But this feels like very poor timing.

I don't even know if I have an adblocker running, I don't remember installing one but I see very few ads on my laptop compared to my phone. However, I've no issue with this in theory (if I can work out the settings). Lots of websites do this, including the majority of news sites, who probably have similar traffic levels to MN.

@BeckyAMumsnet serious question: there are multiple long-running threads in site_stuff about problems with ads on this site. Ads that are causing web browsers to lock up. Ads that are outright malware. Ads that are blatant scams. I've experienced all these myself on this site but not on other sites of a similar size. Mumsnet's response to those threads and problems has been cursory at best. The bogus ad problems remain and it's the prime reason why many are using ad-blockers here.

Why is mumsnet pushing ahead with this change in policy as a priority over fixing the awful ad supply chain problems you've got?

This nonsense (a la The Sun website) on top of the massive failings of the other night, has pushed me over the edge as far as me continuing to use Mumsnet is concerned

@Hardlyworking Well fuck you very much. Maybe if you actually managed the site properly instead of flailing around in the dark like a dos based bulletin board from the 1980s you would do a lot better.

Exquisitely put.

Actually this is great. I needed a kick up the arse to stop me wasting so much time in here. This means that my ad blocker will now act as a barrier to access so I get a free anti time-wasting app!

I wouldn't mind the adverts so much if they didn't keep taking over the whole screen and crashing my computer. Using an ad blocker is the only way to make the site a bit more usable so this sounds like a terrible idea. When your IT is up to the capabilities and standards of news websites then maybe, but at the moment it seems more like it's run by school children. And after what happened the other night this seems in really poor taste - don't you have rather larger fish to fry?

The ads on here are exceptionally annoying, the full screen ones that randomly open across my whole computer screen, that you can't close when you're in the middle of reading something, drive me nuts.

@heyhopotato There isn't any ads on the iPhone app! None at all

Bye then!

Would be happy to pay a small subscription for a well managed site which was invested in with appropriate moderation and investment in tech solutions - clearly Mumsnet is not that (and surely Sunday night's shitshow clearly highlights that.)

Would be happy to disable the ad blocker on a website where the level of advertising was proportionate and well managed - again clearly Mumsnet is not that!

You need to get your house in order and have an attractive, well managed offering before starting to charge for it.

Mumsnet is virtually unusable without an ad blocker due to the poor management of ads, and I'm not prepared to pay for the current offering, so it looks like our relationship will be over.

There are. I obviously can't post pictures but there are multiple

Exactly. I've installed an ad blocker because of issues with ads on this site.

This is terrible news. Is there really no other way to monetize a website? Feels like greed to me. We generate your content and you want to sell our privacy too?

Sadly don't have an iPhone

@oneofmeiscutebuttwothough I don't get any? I don't use an adblocker either. Just searched through the app and can’t see any. There are some on the new Beta app that I'm 'testing' for MN but I stopped using it a while ago and I'm back to the regular app as the new beta app is unstable as f!

And here's me thinking that you only made your £2 million plus profit of the back of the free content provided by your users. How silly of me.

Try reading the room maybe?

Exactly. I opened it thinking it would be an extremely overdue plan for addressing site safety. Words fail.

Looks like a lot of people will leave, if it happens.

I have one at the top of each thread and then multiple amongst the posts

That “free content” only makes money if it delivers people to advertisers though?

Yes, this is my feeling too - with MN and with countless other sites.

If they just featured unobtrusive adverts that interested people could click on, it wouldn't actually bother me - but for most, they aren't content with monetising in this mutually convenient way.

It's when sites are determined to kill the golden goose and make the adverts so irritating, obtrusive and obstructing actual functional use of the site, that if the only options are to be bombarded and stalked and have your site experience wrecked or to block everything, you know what people are going to do.

In principle, it's a bit like when companies that you use/buy from abuse your goodwill to endlessly spam you with marketing emails.

If they send you a well-thought-out email every fortnight, you'll likely glance at it from time to time and, sometimes/often, it will lead to a sale for then. If, on the other hand, they send you an email (or more) every single day, most people don't just pointedly ignore 13 out or 14 emails and focus on the 14th: they simply unsubscribe completely, meaning that you've lost their eyeballs, and potential sales to them, forever - because of your desire to treat them as nothing more than your commodity.

Agree completely with this. It definitely feels like a we can't be arsed to resolve any of these very reasonable complaints so instead you can just put up with it or pay for it to be sorted.

It also feels like a ridiculous thing to be launching just days after the weekends issues. In all honesty given we are the content it seems like a huge fuck you to all those who have tried hard to help make the site better for those using it.

Haha what a naughty freeloader I am.

When will this be happening? Because I will happily step away from this site when that change is made.