Mumsnet's Talk Guidelines
Mumsnet Talk is not a pre-moderated forum. Our policy is to keep intervention to a minimum and let the conversation flow.
That said, we're also here to make parents' lives easier, so we do have a few forum rules to make sure we keep Talk a good place to hang out.
You can read all the whys and wherefores behind our rules below but here's the nutshell version:
- No personal attacks
- No posts that break the law
- No trolling, goading or misleading
- No trollhunting
- No spamming
General Ps and Qs | Post deletions | Swearing | Nickname-changing | Spamming | Deleting a thread you have started | Trolls and troublemakers
We'd appreciate it if you could use the same courtesy when posting messages on Talk as you would use when speaking to someone face to face. Please do bear in mind how difficult this parenting business can be, and if there's one thing all of us could do with, it's some moral support.
"If you ask for opinions, don't have a strop if people actually offer an opinion you don't agree with." YeahBut
"If you start a thread that gets a lot of people interested, don't forget to come back and tell us what happened!" theresonlyme
We are all for freedom of speech. That said, we will remove posts we consider to contain personal attacks, to break the law and/or to be obscene, racist, sexist, disablist or homophobic – once they are brought to our attention. (Please note that any subsequent posts repeating the words in the deleted post may then be deleted, too.)
Remember, we do not pre-moderate posts. We rely on our members to let us know about any posts that break our Guidelines.
The quickest way to let us at MNHQ know about a post (or thread) that you think should be deleted is to report it. You do this by clicking on the Report link, above and to the right of the post in question. (This link is a red exclamation mark if you have Customised to Mumsnet Classic).
We look at every reported post as soon as we possibly can.
Swearwords and offensive language
It's not our policy to delete swearwords (we are all adults, after all) but we do draw the line at obscenity, racist and disablist language, and wording that is truly beyond the pale. So, if you're not sure which side of that line your swearword of choice may fall, it might be best not to use it.
You are free to change your nickname as often as you like but please note that we don't allow nickname changes for malicious, misleading or inflammatory purposes. All nickname-changes should be done within your one Mumsnet registration; please don't re-register to name-change – multiple registrations can ring alarm bells at MNHQ.
We have no problem with people posting the odd link to other sites/blogs that other posters might find useful or helpful. But we will delete anyone's attempts to "spam" the boards with links, as a way of promoting their own product, services, survey or e-petition, as it annoys our members. If you'd like to know more about promoting your product on Mumsnet (without being flamed on the boards), please read about our advertising opportunities and/or have a look at the many free listings opportunities on Mumsnet Local. If you'd like folks to know about an e-petition, you can post on our Petitions Noticeboard. And we also have a special section for requests from journalists or academics who'd like to ask Mumsnetters to help them with their research.
Deleting a thread you have started
We don't generally delete whole discussions threads, unless they're libellous or racist or otherwise break the law, because it's frustrating for those who have taken the time to write often carefully considered responses and then, minutes later, see them removed. That said, we're here to make people's lives easier, not the reverse: if you have a pressing reason for wanting a thread you have started to be deleted, please report it to us (by clicking on the Report link, above and to the right of the post in question) and we'll take a look.
If a thread is deleted, please resist the temptation to start a new one repeating and rehashing everything that has been deleted: most Mumsnetters consider that to be very bad manners and, of course, it's highly likely that the new thread will be deleted, too.
As we hope you've already found out, the vast majority of Mumsnet discussions are genuinely informative, supportive and friendly (even when we all disagree with each other!) but, from time to time, we are visited by "trolls" for whom friendly supportive chat is definitely not on the agenda. For those who don't know, a troll is someone who poses as someone else in order to stir up trouble, deceive and mislead, or just to fulfil their own perverted agenda.
If you suspect someone of being a troll, please don't trollhunt (accuse them publicly on the discussion thread of being a troll). If you're wrong, you could cause untold hurt; if you're right, you'll merely be giving them just the kind of attention they're after.
Instead, please report your suspicions to us (either by reporting a post of theirs or by mailing us at contactus@mumsnet.com) and we'll check them out.
Please bear in mind that we'd rather err on the side of being taken in than of accusing a genuine poster who's in need of support of being a troll. For more on this, do have a read of our separate Policy on Trolls and Troublemakers.
(Oh, and if you fancy a bit of a larf, here is the Gizoogled version of our Talk Guidelines, featuring the genius line, "Remember, our phat asses do not pre-moderate posts, n' you can put dat on yo' toast".)
