Subscription .....

[crystaltips]

I hope that this is not being too controvertial .... but ....
I was reading the vlost thread and I am so thrilled that all of us are helping out. Many of us from afar feel helpless that there is nothing else we can do but contribute financially ... BUT

I do feel that somehow Mumsnet is missing out. I bet they don't get £1000 in a month - let alone a few hours ...

So at the risk at sounding unpopular ... dig deep MNrs and support MN as well as vlost. Becuase if we don't subscribe then this wonderful site will not be able to help others.

By the way, could you let bambi06 know? She is/was in the dark too.

Kind of related, but kind of different. What do you think:

I wanted to do a tiny gesture for bubbles (and Mr. bub) when Bo was stillborn. I didn't know her online as I was so new, but found her and her husband's posts incredibly brave, and I feel they made everyone think about how they'd handle similar situations etc.

I wanted so much to do something for them, but didn't want to CAT as it felt too intrusive and Internet stalkerish, nor send Elijah a pressie as it felt too weird, not having had contact etc. I was thinking about asking if one of the stillborn / surviving twin charities had been particularly helpful to them, and maybe making a donation in Bo's name, but again, acting as an individual felt too odd, so I did nothing.

Maybe there could be some regular way for MN users to give a little bit when someone has something go wrong big time, and MN could co-ordinate, IYSWIM.

Sorry if I'm not really making myself v. clear.

i understand what you mean hub2dee - there are so many tragedies on MN - i too felt that the bubbles' story was very moving and would certainly have given

I guess what I also mean is an established way to donate (for any massively bad event) rather than ad hoc diversion of MN subs, IYSWIM...

Hi Guys,
Many thanks for thinking of us. It is true that, as blu says, you can subscribe to mumsnet on wednesday onwards in the normal way. We aren't particularly agressive about asking people to subscribe because we don't want to make those who are struggling financially feel bad - and we don't want to be forever asking for cash/ having fundraising events.

We do ask people to subscribe after three months membership via email, and we send out an annual reminder to those that already have.

We are though, currently reviewing the whole subs scheme and how it operates and we will certainly give some thought to hub2hee's suggestion re some sort of permanent mumsnet donation system for special situations/ worthy causes. At the moment we do pay away a commission for each sub that worldpay handles - it's about 45p on a £5 donation - plus there are some tax/ vat issues, so we need to do a little further investigation about the most efficient way of doing this.

In general though we are working towards standing on our own two feet and not relying on the generosity of members to help us out. That means looking for more advertising (though certainly not pop-ups ) - and please do click on banners if you can remember to as that helps too - and encouraging you all to shop through our affiliate and discount partners (ie use the buttons around the site).

If anyone has any other ideas/ suggestions do please let us know. In the meantime rest assured we are more than delighted to help out in any way we can in special situations like this. We think you've been brilliant and at the risk of being hopelessly soppy - we're very proud to be part of it.

Justine, Carrie, Rachel and Tech

can we set up a direct debit type of a scheme - DH wouldn't notice if £5-£10 was going out of the bank each month, but he would if it was a larger amount in one go. (could this be an idea?)

Sounds like growing pains at MN HQ

Lots to think about with regards to commercial venture vs. charitable status and balance in between I imagine.

I think it would defnitely be worth putting in place some kind of established scheme to seperate subs to keep MN running (ie. hosting / software licence, editorial & maintenance costs, venture activities (book / TV), sensible business float, profit etc.) and charitable stuff (emergency aid, support of other charities, gifts to members etc.)

Possibly there could be a group of MN Angels who had authority to act in certain situations to assist others in times of need ?

Examples:

Donation made in Bo's name to a Bereavement Charity
Donation to redcross etc. in MN name after tsunami
Rescue assistance services to vlost
(Also maybe more light-hearted ones: a 45p Mars bar to the lady who has eaten too many - on her birthday perhaps ? History of Volvo Cars for Kanga - on her nth anniversary on MN etc. etc.)

Also, some kind of slightly structured system might allow for discussion of tricky ideas: What if someone else needs emergency assistance but is less popular / hasn't been around for v. long.

PS - You're not being soppy@HQ; I consider the network you have established is one of the most amazing phenomena in the UK Web industry. My report card would state: Exemplary Behaviour. 10/10.

H2D, I felt the same way after Bo's death - didn't want to bother Bubble with CATs but did want to do something.

I think an extra facility would be good.

Mind you, I got reminded by accident - included in an email to Katierocket - so this is the one sub of mine that IS up to date

Haven't read thread, but I agree crystaltips. I have subscribed since subs began and gave for vlost but that was on top of my subs.

tamum, I contacted mumsnet and asked them to send me a normal reminder as I too saw yesterday's 'sub' as a donation and not my proper mumsnet subscription. Mumsnet team have replied to say that they will send out the reminder as per normal rather than a year from yesterday.

Agree with hub2dee about mumsnetters not as well known. I've been feeling for Titania a bit since all this in particular - didn't she od recently but it all kind of got lost out of active conversations very quickly.

Hi Tamum and others kindly concerned about mumsnet subs. Turns out we aren't able to disallow monday and yesterdays' subs from the annual subs system, unless you sent a gift subscription (which a few did). It's because the new date has deleted and replaced the old date in the system - so sadly we can't even tell those folk who subscribed yesterday and didn't want it to count as their annual sub, when their subs would have been due. Sorry about that - Tech's just not nearly as clever as we thought he was .

So if you can remember roughly when yours would have been due, then please do subscribe then (if you want to).

(ps alternatively we could do a deal - say something like we promise no chat room if you all send a sub today? )

Yup, I'm up for that Justine

Seriously, I think I know very roughly, so I will just keep myself up-to-date!

Ooo - serious, Justine? Will send my sub right away

Erm, I just tried to use the subs on the front page - and it says I was logged in as justine@mumsnet?! I'm guessing that's a bad idea to leave it like that on the front link, you may want tech to go look at it :D

oops - will change - thanks

i sent mine in as a gift for vlost, so will that be ok? thanks

Yes that's fine thanks Nailpolish.

I've fixed this. Regards, Tech

I have yet to pay my subscription, although I promised to when I gave a donation to a worthy cause on MN some time ago. I'm sorry I haven't yet done so but my credit card has been blocked. We've just moved & have had tons of expenses, most of which were unexpected! All this to say that I WILL pay my subscription as soon as my card has been unblocked, hopefully within the next week!

Thanks for your message Sansouci. Don't worry, we certainly don't keep tabs on who has/hasn't paid. Please don't even think about paying any subscription until things have settled for you - the last thing we want to do is to add to your financial stresses and we know what moving house is like (we've all done it since setting this site up!) Good luck with the move.

Rachel, Justine, Carrie and JJ

i only just realised i should be paying subs after reading on the complaint thread. ive been using mn for six monthsish now, please tell me how, where, when, and how much. feel really bad that it didnt even cross my mind that all this is costing someone somewhere money to set up and continue.
so please point me in the right direction

Hi Stitch, If you click on home at the top of this page and scroll down about two thirds the click on subscriptions and follow on from there.