AIBU - that sadly, MN is losing its way?

Are loads of new users younger though? I think it's more just how people are ruder, angrier, etc on the internet and in real life tbh.

I just don't understand why so many posters seem to want to argue or pile on the OP.

Yeah, but I was thinking more of the ‘new’ generation of users I suppose, not us old dino’s🦖🦕🦖

I wonder if it’s a generational change of behaviour or just the way of the internet now?

I don't think it's an age thing as the average user of MNs is probably 50 ish?

I wonder if it’s a generational change of behaviour or just the way of the internet now?

Ive been here for yonks and always enjoyed a good old debate on AIBU, but almost every thread now it’s like at least 50% of PP’s are waiting to tear you apart and wilfully misunderstand and misrepresent over and over until an OP gives up.

And the sheer amount of replies of people having a dig or moan along the lines of ‘not this again’.. Can no one just scroll past😅😅😅

Late to this but I agree: MN was a place where you could get unsentimental support, peer advice, and not expect a kicking. AIBU is just fight club now: and not even witty fight club - it's just a bullies' forum. MN used to throw up such witty threads. God I miss it. Been here 19 years now...

In hindsight, the cliques and arse kissers were a bit annoying, but they weren't actively malicious. Many posters these days seem to be spoiling to ruin someone's day.

It does suck here now - too many bullies. I'd rather go to Reddit for advice tbh

Whilst at the time, I didn’t appreciate the clique and remember coming head to head with certain posters myself myself who were doing their usual thread police act 😄, looking back now I can see that they definitely brought something different and a uniqueness to the site which having frequented netmums up until then was a welcome breath of fresh air.

@MNHQ
Maybe the answer is to have some kind of mutually beneficial collaboration with Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics who were so keen on analysing Mumsnet usage a while ago. I’d be interested to see a proposal (although I wasn’t at all keen on the data scraping that Aston was trying at the time).

I agree. Especially with all the weird mumsnet ads appearing on the chat page it looks really fake and has completely lost its candour and honesty. It just comes off as really gauche and it feels like the threads are spammed to the hilt with these junk adverts. I also think there are likely many threads started by mnhq or bots as they just sound so constructed and fake. In addition there will be journalists posting to try and kick off a newsworthy bun fight. It all just feels like it’s lost that feeling of transparency and community.

This investigation by the Guardian is illuminating and depressing in equal measure.
I’ll have a read of the EVERYTHING IS REALLY SERIOUS thread to cheer myself up.

This! I have just reported something exactly like this and was told it can stand. An absolute unevidenced and dangerous bit of misinformation just asserted as fact in the thread. I don't really understand the point of the misinformation reporting option if they are not going to moderate it properly. Replying in the thread 8 posts on that it is a lie can easily be missed and as you say the falsehood just stands.

There was a point when it went the other way and almost everyone was banned for saying even the truth such as trans women were not biological women. Almost over moderated, and we lost quite a few excellent posters , who refused to return. I imagine it’s a difficult balance. if you remember the dark early days of the trans debate.

Its peaks and troughs, like real life. I found this site was remarkable in the pandemic for instance, when people were genuinely frightened and isolated. The huge rows about reopening schools galvanised an entire movement.

In the early days we had cliques and packs drowning out other views. It’s an organic process and reflects real life - I think of it as a societal mirror. Given we are currently in transition as a country the reflection maybe mixed! It all depends how you view it too, what’s relevant to you personally at any one time.

Speaking of nonsense, some of the Friday night drunk threads were HILARIOUS. If you were drunk, that is 😂😵

They culminated with New Year's Eve of ... 2017, maybe? It was utterly bonkers, I was genuinely crying/laughing (and a little tiddly, natch). The Professionally Offended reported so many posts, the intern MNHQ had left in charge panicked and shut the whole forum down. Thus ended the crazy drunk threads.

😢 She reappeared for a bit in 2020, but nary a peep since the pandemic. I'd like to believe she's still here with a new name, but nobody's that terse any more!

Well, the newly arrived, po-faced twunts are terse but they ain't sharp or funny. My Tardis trip did make me more nostalgic than I expected.

Was hoping to see myself on there, but I was never on board with the nonsense threads, I don't think I've got the right sense of humour.

This is great! Whatever happened to Hullygully

I time-travelled to 2012 and brought this thread back to show us all how things haven't changed that much ... and, to be fair, how much has:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1605484-MN-IS-NOW-OFFICIALLY-A-JOKE-FREE-ZONE-BECAUSE-EVERYTHING-IS-REALLY-SERIOUS-AND-GUARANTEED-TO-OFFEND-SOMEONE-SOMEWHERE-IN-A-CUPBOARD-IN-1970

(Caveat: despite a long and fairly prolific MN history, almost entirely with this one username, I am not, and have never, been classed in that group 😂)

I've been around for donkey's years, but I change my name more than I change my socks, primarily because I'm a chronic oversharer. I can however guarantee I'm way too boring to have ever been included in any popular group!

MN royalty really wasn’t that bad. Yes, there were a few posters who were deemed funnier or more relevant than everyone else but to be fair, they were funny, and they put effort into their posts and into building the community, even when being (intentionally, I always assumed) massively controversial. The fact that I can remember so many of their names even now is testament to the impact that they had in making MN something different to everything else out there. I’d have that back in a heartbeat, quite frankly.
(Caveat: despite a long and fairly prolific MN history, almost entirely with this one username, I am not, and have never, been classed in that group 😂)

Admittedly, MN royalty was a bit of a pain in the arse . But at the same time there were lots of other recognisable characters whose word I felt I could trust slightly more.

AIBU was always robust, but there was a difference between being politely direct without sugar coating and just going in for a kicking.

There are lots of lovely corners of the site and friendly long-running chats too. The regulars being little communities find it easier to fend off idiots trying their luck.