To wonder if the nit-picking pedants realise just how idiotic they sound?

[LoverOfCake]

MN has always had an element of pedantry over e.g. Grammar for instance, but these days it's gone beyond ridiculous to picking at people's behaviours etc and singling them out for the smallest thing. It could look like this:

Poster posts "I'm really worried about us all as a family. My children have serious behavioural issues, my daughter has been through a series of bad relationships, my eight year old told me to fuck off the other day, my husband thinks the answer to us rowing is using his fists, and he's also shagging one of the school mums. I'm currently locked in the bathroom after the latest row between us, my face is bleeding and I have a black eye. I need to go to the shops to buy food for dinner but I'm scared what will happen to me if I come out. So at the moment the kids have eaten the last of the haribo in the cupboard. Please help me mn." but someone will then respond "I can't believe you let your children eat haribo. Do you know how unhealthy they are?"

That is an extreme but isn't in comparison to some of the pedantry seen on here of late. Do these people who feel the need to read an entire thread and pick at one minor detail really think it makes them look good and superior? Because it really doesn't, quite the opposite actually.

[MyBrilliantDisguise]

It's when they say all that and someone corrects a spelling.

[upperlimit]

I couldn't possibly read all that unless you go back and add paragraphs and speech marks.

Yanbu.

[LaughingLlama]

You arw so eight. ts been like it for years. When i was in hospital last year bored stiff I played a little game "Guess the Pedantic Issue" whilst browsing mumsnet active threads!
I highly recommend it - unless you are a pedantic type - where i fear the humour my bypass you!

[LaughingLlama]

• So right!!
  Omg - im waiting to be told!!

[shakeyourcaboose]

Further example 'I think you mean Haribo given it is a brand name '... .

[RosaRosaRose]

True. But I do love the completely misses point of the thread posts.

[shakeyourcaboose]

Or asking why they aren't organised and have a mumsnet chicken meal plan on the go!

[RosaRosaRose]

upper limit how I hate that! Someone maybe scrabbling to get it out and off their chest, desperate! Rewrite with paragraphs and punctuation please.

[WorraLiberty]

It's never been any different on MN really.

Especially the ever so superior grammar and spelling police.

[PolkaDottyRose]

There is a great deal of unkindness on this site at times. it's quite shocking.

[GinSoddenWhore]

YANBU . There's always been a level of on here, to some extent, but there's a real special class of wanker posting here now.

[CocoPuffsinGodMode]

Even putting it down to being pedantic is actually being too generous to them. IMO there is a fair number of posters on MN who are here purely because they get some weird sense of satisfaction out of making someone else feel bad, or if they already feel bad, making them feel even worse! It’s like they pop from thread to thread looking for an opportunity to stick the boot in and they know just how to stay the right side of talk guidelines.

Unfortunately there are also loads of posters who may not set out to be nasty but are very quick to jump on any passing bandwagon. You only need one GF to post early on to “set the tone”. I know posters always come on to say MN is not a hive mind but some threads certainly seem to show a mob mentality!

[meditrina]

Agree, but it's not really to do with grammar.

It's all about being a git.

[GinSoddenWhore]

There certainly is a mob mentality, I agree with that entirely! It's strange to watch how the first couple of posts can set the tone of a seemingly innocuous thread. My first ever post here years ago was because I was worried about a woman who left her toddler and baby in the car while she dropped her older kid off at school. I got my arse absolutely handed to me! Nowadays, it's seriously suggested to call SS if someone leaves their child in the car while paying for petrol 😂

[ShakeShakeTheMuffin]

Pedantry is about correcting unimportant 'mistakes'. Your example is about picking out an unimportant detail rather than a mistake. Completely different. I'll get my coat.

[ShakeShakeTheMuffin]

I agree with your sentiment though.

[DailyMailReadersAreThick]

Pedantry is about correcting unimportant 'mistakes'. Your example is about picking out an unimportant detail rather than a mistake. Completely different. I'll get my coat.

Nope! Pedantry is about focusing on irrelevant details rather than the big picture.

[iklboo]

I'm a grammar, spelling & punctuation demon - it's part of my job. But I wouldn't post comments on threads correcting people.

Unless they're being a bullying goady arsehole with grammar & spelling errors. Then they're fair game

[SemperTemper]

I was just thinking today at how some people here seem so determined to miss the point of a thread.

[ShakeShakeTheMuffin]

Daily mail I stand corrected. Ironic I know after my post! 😀 I have only ever used the term to describe excessive application of rules. I've learned a lot from MN. ☺️
I would say nit picking for picking up on small irrelevant details but I've never thought as that as pedantic.

[Greebz]

I hate how posters take the piss out of 'huns'... It's so tedious and snobbish!

[frieda909]

The vulva police are my personal favourite.

You know, the ones who come on to every thread with the word ‘vagina’ in it so that they can say ‘actually, I think you mean vulva’.

[purplecollar]

The pie one got me. I can't believe people are still commenting on it.

[PolkaDottyRose]

The vulva police. Which thread is the pie thread?