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.

Sorry but especially in the light of what's happened, I'm not clicking on a random link in a word with no clue as to what it is and where it goes...

If you hover your cursor over the link, you can see the url.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5274828-urgent

HQ simply don’t seem to care. They’ve posted their thoughts and made it clear what they think of members. All within a day of some horrendous pictures being posted. Not only were they posted once but last night too. They’ve lost control of their page, respect from their members and they’ve still not been back to answer a single question on this thread that is now 25 pages long. Disgraceful.

I wonder if maybe MN thinks we’re just the squeaky wheels and that other posters don’t care about this issue so we can be safely ignored. Thing is the people who care most and shout loudest about things they effectively volunteer for (like posting on a support site for parents such as MN) are the ones who probably feel more emotionally invested in the site’s success and well being which makes us more loyal and likely to carry on posting providing content than people who just pop by and would be just as happy posting or chatting elsewhere. I don’t really understand the logic of making long term prolific posters so unwelcome.

Oh my god. So much for the special preventive "tool".

Oh god not again!

To be fair it’s not their fault. The hackers were highly skilled and managed to breach the security set up by MN following the last incident.

just kidding! The person used bb code to display an image using image preview, it turns out. MN response was an oops sorry. Shrug. Sorry you saw images of CSA.

HQs responses are utterly shit, it’s all just a massive fuck you - pay us some money - fuck you

I don't think that's called for at all. You may choose to interpret it like that, we can all wake up in the morning and choose our attitude, as they say.

I'd be more inclined to see the HQ team as good folk doing a job, they're not trying to be everyone's best friend, and they do have a business model which people can decide is something they'll buy into or not, as the case may be.

accusing them of sticking two fingers up at people who use MN, says much more about you than it does about them.

I wonder why @MNHQ said they’d respond to questions on this thread then just didn't? Why make promises that you have no intention of honouring? Easier just not to make the promises, surely?
By the way, my ad blocker is still enabled and I’m still able to access the site with no subscription.

They are sticking their fingers up though. Their silence is deafening. They’ve never responded to any of the questions raised on this page. It’s shows utter contempt for the members.

If the members really feel that, obviously they don't have to stay. I'm guessing that thousands really aren't that bothered, judging by the continued heavy traffic on the site.

😂

I made a few adjustments on my browser settings (iPhone, Safari) and now see NO ads, even without a blocker. No problem using the site either.

Sorry @ClematisBlue49 I missed this. No, we have not amended users' privacy settings behind the scenes. If you previously set your preferences to 'Reject All,' those choices would not have been changed without your knowledge .

I opened MN on a different window to this and it was covered with adverts for MN’s own annoying recommendations webpages- the first one taking up most of the visual space was a massive pink Rabbit sex toy recommendations one and next one for air fryers, etc. I really don’t want sex toy visuals on my phone when MNing. Surely that’s not the default?

This was today. I had previously followed instructions upthread via the privacy settings area on the website. I closed that window with the adverts and reopened this one in which the adverts are hidden. Something had changed but maybe it was a glitch?

For some wierd reason I can’t listen to BBC sounds at the same time as having accepted the new privacy settings on MN and MNing, so I will be on here quite a bit less..

Morning @FrutenGlee. That's very strange! Thanks for letting us know. Our consent model shouldn't affect any other sites (and vice versa). Could you try clearing your cache to see if that helps? Using a different browser might be a way round it too.

Wow @HebeMumsnet .. there are so many posts you’re not answering! Picking and choosing the select ones to make you all look good, yet ignoring hundreds of others! Shame on you and your colleagues 😡

That’s all very well but we shouldn’t have to use a different browser to use MN.

Some serious fixes need to be made to this site, before it becomes completely unusable.

Safari is completely unusable for me now, this has gone on for months. Clearing cache and all the other ‘helpful’ suggestions have done absolutely nothing.

Mine have definitely changed. I had mine set to 'reject all'. As of today I’m getting pop-ups telling me I have to turn off my ad-blocker. I went to Privacy Settings to check they were still the same, and now I have to either accept cookies or subscribe.

So the claim that nothing has been changed behind the scenes doesn’t hold water, I’m afraid.

Same for me. I had to sign the new consent, with no choice to undo the adverts via privacy setting, so I thought that was it. I like the site a lot less with adverts.
But as of today I now have the site back as it was without adverts. Not sure what that means but I haven’t changed anything in settings. Long may it last.