Anyone else think it's bizarre to have a Middle East forum

I think it's good to be able to hide topics.

I hide FWR because I have a personal connection to the topic and find the content there upsetting.
Other posters hide Christmas because they can't stand reading about it all year round.
etc.

If I had a personal connection to the situation in the Middle East, e.g. if I had relatives in Israel, I would want the option to hide the conflict in the Middle East topic.

@MsAmerica

oh let's not go there! It's a organisers nightmare. Trouble is, when they reorganise it, everyone gets in a tizzy. They can't win.

however they're fairly willing to change or add things when asked.

so, no, I don't think it's bizarre at all.

Accept it if you can but email them if you can think of a better way to do things.

I totally agree. Many care but social media isn't necessarily the best place. The comment implying that if you don't post you don't care is typical of the threads there.

The threads on the Middle East section are very polarised and it is assumed by many that you are a 'genocide supporterif and 'happy for children to die' if you feel Israel have the right to defend itself. The fact that you are hoping for a solution for all and do care is ignored if you don't condemn Israel every post you make.

Probs just cos it’s of internet right now?

Just because people don't want to post about something on mumsnet doesn't mean they don't care. It's about like the posts I see on social media that say things like 'if you don't share this post containing graphic images of dead children to everyone yoy know, then you don't care about children".

@ARichtGoodDram and @Kalevala, you're both right. Like I said, I'm not saying I'm right about the topics, just noticing a tendency in myself to be a bit of a hectoring ogre (I'm really not all like that, it's just an unbecoming, self-righteous minor personality trait). I absolutely get the 'escape' thing, Dram, I can barely look at my own FB feed as it's full of SEN groups related to my DC and at the moment it's just too intense.

It would just drive some people off the forum if they had no choice. Forcing people to engage could also drive them to the opposite viewpoint than that being forced upon them. If people are interested then they will engage, you can't compel them!

Some people use MN as a temporary escape from day-to-day life. Not engaging with something on Mn chat isn’t necessarily the same as hiding from reality.

For example, I rarely engage on anything SEN related as MN is my 10 minutes away from constant battles over my child’s health and education. I don’t want to be reading the shitty attitudes some people have in my only breaks in the day. That’s not hiding from reality, it’s having a break.

A friend who was on here has family caught up in the ME. She no longer uses MN because of some of the threads and the fact they were everywhere. People are allowed to not want to talk about serious stuff on a forum.

@Kalevala, you're nicer than me. I think people ought to engage with things of national and global importance (such as the climate emergency) and not get an easy 'out' of being able to literally hide from reality ‐I definitely recognise my inner tyrant there and don't necessarily think I'm right.

Yes, that's why it's good that there are separate sections so you can hide if uninterested. It would be annoying if active was clogged up with things you had no interest in!

But isn't it the case that people can choose to hide topics they feel uncomfortable with, and so will not see them in Active? I think quite a few people hide Climate, just like many chose to hide Covid related threads?

It doesn't seem bizarre to me. The conflict in the Middle East is of relevance to a lot of people around the world, and a lot of people want a space to discuss these, whether to share news, ask questions or seek support from others worrying about similar issues.

Having separate boards for separate broad topics makes it easier to find threads or to avoid topics that people might not want to read.

I'm not sure 'care' is the word I'd pick having read some of the threads recently. Polarised views. Entrenched views. Whataboutery. Going back in time as an excuse for heinous acts.

Having visited I feel I will revert to mainstream mn and give the threads in this area a miss from now on. Reading people, possibly women, minimising rape of women or excusing it because of context, history, invading land grab, blah blah, isn't a great look. I'll happily join the hide from view majority in future. Disgust is my overriding thought of these particular threads.

I think it’s good it has its own board and not strange at all.

There are a lot of big and unsettling issues in this world, and nobody has enough time or the mental capacity, to take a deep interest in all of them.

It makes sense to me that those who want to discuss this particular one know where to go, and those who would rather focus on others things can stay away.

I don’t think it would be fair for other people to be confronted with such unsettling topics on a daily basis, when they are looking for a lighter way to pass their time at that moment.

They are.

People who really want to chat about the conflict in the Middle East can find threads all together. There are hundreds and hundreds of them, many very similar. Many dominated by a few individuals with very polarised views. People should be able ao avoid if they want to or find easily if they want to. Makes sense.

(You also get some pretty vile comments, denying rape of Jewish women, (when their stories are shared) lots of anti semitism.) People can avoid this if they wish.

This.

All threads together rather than scattered wherever someone pops them eg aibu, chat, etc. It makes sense.

Also there is this board which seems to have threads about international politics
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/politics

What do you want to get out of this thread @MsAmerica ? Get rid of it ? Or create similar ones people keen on as well?
if so you can use the site stuff board to request it to mnhq

@GoodOldEmmaNess if all the threads are in one place it makes it easier to avoid because you can hide the whole board

But yes threads still appear in Active if not hidden

If people post on threads then they come up in active. If there is enough interest, then threads stay in active.

I'm glad that I found this board. DD lives in a ME country and recently told me that tensions have been high there since October with locals very concerned that if war breaks out SA will try to "take" over the country. It's not just the Israel/Palestine conflict but the fallout affecting other ME countries.

Having its own topic doesn't take a discussion out of Active Convos, BTW (except in a couple of cases where mnhq has does that in special cases to protect people from hostile intrusion).
It doesn't make these topics into backwaters, It just makes it marginally easier for people to scroll past topics in Active Convos that they don't want to engage in.
So I don't get the 'languishing in a backwater' concern.

I'm glad they created a specific board for this discussion, because whenever I looked at threads on this topic they were very far removed from 'normal' discussions of international politics. They seemed to be tribal, polemic, very much influenced by the horrible dynamics of online talk, rather than by the usual principles of analysis.
I guess that's why a lot of posters wanted them placed in a silo, apart from other talk. There were sooo many threads on the topic, often so inflammatory. Perhaps discussion has normalised a bit, and the topic could be taken out of its silo? But I don't feel terribly optimistic about that.