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.

Yes, considering we provide the content, without us they wouldn't have a job, so @BeckyAMumsnet should be paying us!!

@JustineMumsnet should have posted this announcement and made herself available to field responses. Quite craven to leave it to Becky.

It’s a pity we can’t get a message to every single member arranging a day or two of complete non use of this site…maybe @justinemumsnet would then realise just who actually keeps the site going …..

It’s in a massive pop up for all users, who have no choice but to interact with it. Well, the “agree to ads or pay us” bit is.

The pop up is very unclear about cookies though. However I am fairly sure that if someone has previously disabled cookies MN can’t just reinstate them without that user’s consent.

If they think that pop-up is obtaining consent to cookies they are seriously mistaken.

I am hoping for their sake that they haven’t actually gone so far yet as to restrict access to anyone who rejects cookies, so in fact today’s pop up is just a basic one getting people to decide “ads or pay for no ads”.

This!

The adverts are absolute shite too. Half the time it's something inappropriate. I will not be using the 'premium' to not see adds.
Paying a month for what?? It's a fucking forum, why are you campaigning for us to pay for it, and anyone who does is silly. There's hardly any benefit to paying for a premium. What a waste of money.

The adverts are absolute shite too. Half the time it's something inappropriate.

Mine were all in French earlier this week!

Has this been hidden off Trending? And still no answers to questions 😞

It wouldn’t do MNHQ any harm to study the examples of MySpace, Bebo and Friends Reunited.

I would pay to keep it open, I value the site and the discussion, and the fact I can chat to mainly women about things that interest me.

But it is the way it is handled, the complete disregard for the user and the fact that if they can't keep CSA images off the forum I don't think they will keep my bank details or identity safe.

I do think there are bad faith actors around, look on twitter at the threads celebrating that CSA images were posted. It would benefit a lot of people for MN to close.

There's nothing about Premium that appeals, is there really nothing better that could be offered for buyers?

I would need proof that bank card details would be protected to the highest level possible before I would hand them over, since my email and password was allowed to be publicly released.

It does appear that this thread is no longer on active

I think that's an act of bad faith, don't you?

Interesting that this has now disappeared from "Trending". It almost seems like you don't want users to know about this. Why would that be I wonder.🤔

It's definitely no longer showing in active which seems very deliberate?

Desperate is what desperate does.

This isn't new. It follows a long list of previously well loved communities that have chosen to penalise the user base in an effort to attract/appease investors.

It often comes before a decline.

This is exactly my own position about the bank details, Dror, except it's too late for that now after all the problems

If proper security's in place I'd expect it to have been publicised before now, and I'm afraid that assurances made on the back of people wanting money mean nothing to me

And why bank cards, why not paypal as an option (if not)?

Oh yes, so they can sell your data.

Deliberately hiding it. @justinemumsnet you’re just getting worse and worse. Shame on you.

I wouldn't be surprised if an unpaid staff member is left to deal with this thread
Rest of em off out for G&T and prosecco to await it blowing over.

How bizarre. Why spend all that time getting your comms team to craft a pointed insult to your users and then hide it?

I agree, I don't trust MN, time and time again things happen which could reasonably have been foreseeable.

The night watch not being paid, or having enough power is something that has been rumbling for years

If ‘failure to read the room’ was a person

@BeckyAMumsnet - I assume that those of us who already pay for MN Premium will see our costs go down? That will be very welcome - thank you.

Perhaps it was hoped the reaction would be rather different?

To be fair, the OP does say exactly that.