MSE Discussion: MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group

denisiw

WISHIWASRICH wrote: »

I think it's great. Just bought me a really good tumble drier.....ordered it yesterday arrived this morning...it's brilliant and without Which I probably would have bought a completely different model, so I'm more than happy already.

Me too. I've subscribed to Which? for very many years and still do. I've been more than satisfied with the things I've bought after being steered in the right direction from its recommendations.

Denis

northerner999

i have to question if those complaining about Martin 'selling out' need to take a minute to reflect.

Martin has built, from nothing, a resource that is FREE to all of us without a single obtrusive advert trying to sell us stuff. There is no geniune indication any of this will change, just scaremongering from people who - and this is not intended as an insult - have no insight to the inner workings of this website.

I have a lot of sympathy for Martin and the people who run the site. I have experience in building/running websites, including experience in people telling me I've sold-out repeatedly over the past 10 years or so for moving my site to work with a bigger company. My reasoning was simple: I couldn't devote the time to grow my site myself, and wanted to have some life away from one website which was really popular with a few thousand people but never going to make me a solid living. I could only grown my site by partnering with people who have much more technical expertise.

Martin's reasons are similar, if not the same. Did people really think he would never want to hand the site over and take a back seat? This deal sounds like a winner for everyone - the site gets money spent on it, Martin can prepare to ride off into the sunset IF he wants, Moneysupermarket.com will be paying money to itself when it pays commission to MSE rather than out of its group.

Regulars on here have not spent a penny on coming to this site or using its advice, and most have saved what for them are significant sums of money, it's a disgrace people are willing to turn on the site for trying to improve themselves. Especially when NOTHING is changing.

Plasticman

I've been using MSE since 2003 (I think) when it looked a bit like this: http://web.archive.org/web/20030323115503/http://moneysavingexpert.com/

Like most users at that time I used the site to try and save a few quid and 'lurked' on the Forum for quite a while before I finally decided to make the leap and join up! I haven't been on here or a while but it's good to see that some of the old regulars are still around. Shame that Martin's sold up but I can't say I blame him - it's his site and he's entitled to do what he wants with it.

It was good while it lasted :beer:

james123

Plasticman wrote: »

I've been using MSE since 2003 (I think) when it looked a bit like this: http://web.archive.org/web/20030323115503/http://moneysavingexpert.com/

Like most users at that time I used the site to try and save a few quid and 'lurked' on the Forum for quite a while before I finally decided to make the leap and join up! I haven't been on here or a while but it's good to see that some of the old regulars are still around. Shame that Martin's sold up but I can't say I blame him - it's his site and he's entitled to do what he wants with it.

It was good while it lasted :beer:

I too remember it like that the good ol' days hey

jimmywx11

i've noticed that the weekly newsletter has evolved into a moneySPENDING newsletter, rather than a moneySAVING newsletter....

for example

Top Deal: 3 for £5 Pilgrim's Choice cheese & other dairy items at the Co-op. £1.50

Beautiful Home colouring book (RRP £5) at Amazon. Super popular. £3.99

Connect 4 game at Argos. Four-midable bargain. 2 for £5 TRESemme haircare products at Boots. Hair's a good deal.

I'm not even going to bother to unsubscribe... it just goes straight to my spam folder these days.

RIP MSE

*Jelly_Tots*

I think Martin is great and this site has really been amazing for me and my family, which is why I am uneasy about this. It's not jealousy and fear of change, but common sense that makes me wonder that this move might change this website for the worse.
By the way, is Martin now MME (MoneyMakingExpert)?

Anubis_2

kaya64 wrote: »

you cannot delete your account i asked the same thing yesterday and it isn't allowed.

I know of a couple of accounts that have been deleted off here, they really can't refuse to delete it when it comes to the crunch. You would need to contact them.

Heidi-Rose

Fifer wrote: »

Sadly, I suspect you are right. There will be a period of stability followed by a decreasing level of activity by the founders and an increasing level of commercial activity.

Even if that was not the case, the commercial association tarnishes any claim of independence. Even if the site remained completely true to it's founding principles, the commerical link will destroy people's perception of indpendence and fairness. The site, however honest it may be, will not be trusted.

My thoughts exactly! As the site is now a product, how can it possibly truly unbiased?

So much of the content of this site is down to public contributions. eg. the forum content often gets put in the email. They even Facebook us and ask us to point out flaws in the email!! Now what we do for each other for free has been sold, and someone else is getting rich from our opinions and advice too each other. Talk about being used!! :eek::eek::eek: I think people will leave in their thousands!! ( where's my share? that's the last free opinion anyone gets from me! BYE

aliasojo

Heidi-Rose wrote: »

BYE

See ya. :wave:

Heidi-Rose

Northstar24 wrote: »

MSE_Archna wrote: »

The problems are:
The independence of the site is clearly compromised. No one can claim to be independent if they are owned by someone else.

The stated objective of the site was to help consumers, but it appears that it was (subverted to) to build up a large organisation to make money for the founder.

Independence could have been preserved by using the income generated from the site to allow investment and freeing up of Martin's time.

The users of the site felt like stakeholders, but were not consulted about the selloff.


Conclusion:
In this commercial world it would have taken a dedicated person to refuse the offer. I had supposed that Martin was such a person. I really admire him for giving £10M to charity but I think that his reputation has been irreparably damaged.

"The users of the site felt like stakeholders, but were not consulted about the selloff." WHY DON'T MSE GET THIS?? :mad: