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.

HebeMN thanks for your message. I hadn’t made any changes but on coming back to MN the problem with BBC Sounds has now stopped. So it wasn’t anything I did, but I am happy that the issue has resolved.

So you're basically saying that people like me, who are blind and therefore unable to read a post when an advert is taking up the whole, magnified screen, have a choice between paying, or not using Mumsnet. How ableist is this?

It is ableist and not inclusive. I’m really sorry. This policy seems to undermine the site’s own overall commitment to support parents. The site should be useable by all parents/anyone.

MN wants me to disable my ad blocker, I don't have one on my phone.
Is making the site awkward to use.

Can I ask if there are other sites/forums which handle accessibility better?

I hope you don't mind me flagging this up up to @BeckyAMumsnet as it's important and I haven't seen this issue raised before here.

Hmm, hitting the continue without removing ad blocker has worked.
Yet another glitch?

No it didn't.
MN and my anti viral are incompatible

This policy seems to undermine the site’s own overall commitment to support parents

The "supporting parents" is advertising fluff which is basically a side product of the real purpose, @FrutenGlee - which, this being a business, is to make money

Hence the many questions which we were told they'd "get to" remaining unanswered, the pointless "clear cookies/which browser were you using/send us a screenshot" and all the rest when problems were reported, and the use of volunteers to maximise the bottom line

As said so often, as long as user numbers are enough to please the advertisers nothing's going to change, but then I wouldn't expect it to

Edited as posted on wrong thread

Is your phone set to block third uncontrolled trackers (which should be a sensible security default)?

MN seems not to be just wanting to enforce ads but also the less savoury third party trackers. Most sites deliver ads whilst leaving the option to restrict third party trackers.

@C8H10N4O2 yep, new phone with sensible security settings. I don't often MN on it (being very long sighted) and won't be changing the settings.

MN also has:
Dynamic ads that fail to load and freeze the screen.
Full page pop up ads that don't have a close option.
A strong desire to download executable programs that claim to want to update an anti virus that isn't the one I use.

Hence they have seen a lot of people install ad-blockers in the last few months.
If they solved the IT issues people would go back to having MN as a trusted site.

@MNHQ your Disable Adblockers thing is now disabling my access to all of Safari! It was really alarming.

I’ve been clicking to comply - while I contemplate just how I’ll bear leaving MN. It’s a far less satisfying on screen environment now - not relaxing at all.

Honestly - this is just wrong.

You’ve had about 15 years of content from me - I hope my vast number of posts have been useful for other posters and lurkers, but the experience is becoming horrible now.

Exactly. I didn't actually have an ad blocker until MN became unusable without one.

I have an ad free browser I keep solely for MN use.
Even shitty news website are at least readable (if you're motivated enough!) on most browsers, but MN becomes unusable.

You think organisations just provide you with free entertainment because you are so lovely?

I'm amazed at the arrogance of people who think they are so special that they deserve free entertainment

I am a "piggybacker" and am not disabled. . MN can do as it chooses on these matters. I don't like MN enough to pay so I would just have to endure the ads I suppose.

Oh dear God. Abusive and boundaries. Are you serious. You don't HAVE to use mumsnet. You are not forced to use it. It is highly offensive to suggest this is abusive behaviour.

I'm amazed at the arrogance of people who think they are so special that they deserve free entertainment
Are you now?

Agree that Mumsnet is not a charity, altho I wish it was, but there are UK laws to comply with about websites and accessibility for businesses to follow and this policy sounds like it’s making the site totally inaccessible for some posters

No. We literally provide the free entertainment, as the posters on the site. The content is made by all of us. We’re unpaid.

No. But as a business manager myself, I'm highly experienced in differentiating the value I can get from customers. Mumsnet seems to have decided that there's a minimum value they want from each and every user, and are going after their pound of flesh.

Instead, they could look at it like this:

• We provide a website with a popular forum
• We want to maximise visitors: some will read and never click. Some will pay for the premium. Some will click through ads and spend. Some will write content that drives clicks.

Spending money trying to eliminate the number of people accessing the site without viewing ads is chasing the wrong hare.

Clean up the forums, boost your security, and make the website worth coming to. Don't chase a handful of loyal followers who are creating your content.

I'm another who has a solution which blocks ads without an adblocker, but I'm not telling MN what it is. If they were halfway competent they'd know what.

Yes, do you not understand that they'd have fuck all to sell if it weren't for all of us providing the content @tipsandtoes? The ovulation calendars and sponsored content aren't it!

This is also super important for balancing the interests of the company Vs the interests of the individuals from a data protection perspective.

If they've done this work right, they should, for example, be able to explain how an individual accessing the DV support pages will not be tracked and revealed because of this model.

MN CHOOSE to host specific forums, including forums that specifically attract special category data. The onus is on THEM to protect that data.

There have been recent developments in this area, in that Meta will not track ANY data to Facebook advertising from sites providing support that could lead to risky information appearing in an ad. They've gone for domain names first - e.g. charity names, health data - because those are low hanging fruit, but rumour has it they will be going after forums next.

Again, it's plain stupid to double down on this approach rather than just, you know, making g the site a better place to visit?

I'm amazed at the arrogance of people who think they are so special that they deserve free entertainment

As others have carefully explained to you - we are the fucking entertainment.