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.

Can't see how that can be legal either. They've changed the goalposts since you opened your account. They shouldn't put barriers up that stop you closing/deleting your account.

Surely they've just not thought this through properly. I'm struggling to believe they were aware of all the consequences and went ahead with it anyway.

Never attribute to massive that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

No-one using the free version has an "account", they've simply registered as a member of MN. There being no contractual relationship, of course MN is free to change the terms of allowing free access.

Clicking on a button indicating that you will continue to accept ads is not a barrier that stops you from leaving MN. There is nothing difficult or disadvantageous about it for the few seconds it would take you to complete the leaving process.

That's a bit nit picky @phthia. MN refer to it as an "account" whether the user has subscribed or not so it seems reasonable for us to refer to it as such.

We're not entirely sure what clicking on the accept button does a as there have been mixed messages. We may or may not be accepting cookies as well. I don't think it's reasonable to force users to accept cookies in order to delete their account.

Needless to say, my post above should have read...

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

It's not in the least nitpicky when people are suggesting that somehow MN is breaking the law.

Oh? We don't have an "account"? Explain this, from BeckyAMumsnet:

Your payment details in Stripe are not linked to your Mumsnet account (e.g. we don't know if a user has Premium just by looking at their MN account) and only a small number of staff at MNHQ have access to this for issuing refunds/cancellations, etc.

That's a strange viewpoint. Do you think the law only applies if we're paying for access? They still have to abide by GDPR etc.

I always reject non-essential cookies but on the rare occasion I have forgotten/clicked accept by mistake, I end up spending the next few weeks unsubscribing from crappy emails.
I don't have an ad blocker but don't get pop ups on this site. I have just checked my privacy settings and pressed reject all and so far the site continues to be available, when it doesn't I will take my freeloading little self off into the sunset.

Wait now, I thought use of this site meant posts become the property of MN? I seem to recall a publication or two or three based on collective wisdom gleaned from posts?

Also, user numbers / traffic attracts advertising. Is there some tie in with anonymized data too?

What I'm suggesting here is that there's a symbiotic relationship between the platform and the users, and the claim that any one party is "piggy backing" is full of giant holes.

Weirdly, I get ads for companies operating in the region outside of the UK where I live.

One way to avoid tracking cookies is to get Firefox browser.
Open a "new private window" and tracking cookies are automatically blocked/disabled.

Also when you put the mumsnet url into the address bar and the window saying about accepting or paying pops up in very small print underneath the buttons it says:
"We and our 199 partners may store and access personal data like cookies, unique identifiers, etc etc."

Click on the "199 partners". It brings you to another pop up showing a list of vendors. (Heading is "mumsnet _ manage your data). Underneath the heading the small print has some blurb, but it also has a hyperlink (blue) towards the end saying "reject all".

Click that and you're on to the front page of the site. Scroll to the very bottom of the page (the blue bit) and along with "Help", "contact us" etc there's "privacy settings". Click on that and it will bring up the list of purposes, site vendors and they should all be turned off.

Then log in to the site and continue as usual.

I've also seen Brave Browser recommended as blocking cookies. Probably other ways too.

There's no reason not to pay Australians to work during their daytime.

The reality is we could all leave.

The posts would keep on happening.
We know journalists have planted posts before to create their own story.

The surge of weird AI posts are similar and I would bet my house MN have planted their own posts.
.it just still baffles me after all these years that nobody in the world cares about Justine enough to sit her down and give her some publicity training.

The very basics on what to post publicly and what to shut up about. When posts are appropriate (maybe not straight after you site has had actual CSA images on it)

So are we paying for constant glitching, exposure to cash, data breaches and the use of volunteers now? If HQ makes an extra 2million this year will they bother to do properly staff their business?

if you can’t close your account you can ask for all of your posting history to be deleted. Or can you submit a SAR asking for everything you have written, everything in which you are mentioned and every piece of information they hold on you? There is a 30 day deadline to complete them and I don’t think volunteers can do it.

And not calling sex offenders trolls.

You really thought that this was the right time to call your users freeloaders? This week? After what happened the other night? Tone. Deaf.

I'm surprised this thread isn't pinned. It seems important enough to be pinned at the top of active.

Not pinned and still not showing in active...

I am hoping that today we also get some more answers to the questions asked?

Maybe the poster is referring to when mumset was hacked and the emails and passwords were put online.

I’ve started a thread on AIBU to try and make it more visible, @TwentyTwentyFive @Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5268375-to-think-most-of-you-dont-know-mumsnet-are-now-requiring-acceptance-of-cookie-tracking-or-payment-to-use-the-site?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

How long til it's deleted, @OldChairMan?! 🤔

I'm still here, lurking as usual. My adblocs are working fine so I don't see any ads at all. I remove cookies regularly (not just from MN, but yes, from MN too).

Is this going to change? Will I soon be unable to look at any mumsnet? When? How?

(Incidentally. I'm one of those old ones who remembers the internet before there were any ads. Long time ago. Yes, it was before html and hence www, and wasn't as useful as it now is; slow, difficult, but still (we thought) kind of miraculous. I still sometimes wonder what it might have become had it developed in a world not built on profit to the exclusion of everything else. But it didn't. So here we are. But I still don't like ads and will avoid them. Will mumsnet succeed in barring me and similar others? We'll see.)

If someone pays premium HQ will that resolve all the issues that you’ve never resolved in this thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5123498-constantly-crashing-and-freezing?page=18&reply=141941316

considering there is an entire book called "AIBU" that has pages filled with quotes from this website, i'd say we have a relationship.

I’m still here, as blocker still on and all cookies rejected (in Settings, after clicking accept on the “pay for no ads” pop up).

I’m actually doing this as an experiment to see if the functionality matches the policy statement. I’m happy to be told I can’t use the site with an ad blocker, and I know other sites manage to do it.