Tell us how your Elderly Parents community works

Well that OP was a bit of a fail, I thought you were asking us to tell you how the communities our elderly parents live in function.

Why is it necessary to have a guide? Is it something people have been asking for? I think anything that makes people feel that there’s any rigidity about how they can or cannot post will be off-putting to many. Also not sure what you mean by ‘community’ in this context. I mean, I’ve posted on this topic many times, as both dh and I had experience of many of the issues raised here with our own parents some years ago, but I don’t feel part of a particular ‘community’. I appreciate that there will be people who only ever engage with one or two topics, but I would say most people pick up on interesting threads by seeing them on ‘active’. I suppose I feel part of the MN ‘community’, but it doesn’t stretch to individual topics! Quite prepared to accept that others see things differently, though.

If this is so, why don't you post a draft of what you think this topic is like and what potential users might want to know and then let us comment on that, rather than facing us with a blank slate?

Surely MNHQ can scrape any topic and run it through AI to analyse whatever patterns you want to. Isn't that a more reliable way to gather this information for any of the site's topics?

We’ve noticed that many topics have their own tone, customs and unwritten ways of doing things. We’d like to understand what already works here and what a new joiner should know, so we can help people find their feet without losing what regular users value about the topic.

If that’s so, then it’s happened organically. Big mistake to think you can distill the essence of a topic and its contributors and present a neat little package to a newcomer. Why would you do that? We need things to be less formulaic, not more. The individuality of posters is what makes threads so interesting. Don’t encourage people to follow a template. Let them find their own path. We all did. What’s behind all this?

@Eleanoratmumsnet, you didn't even say "please".

Perhaps basic manners are an unwritten rule of this Board? But it shouldn't need to be spelled out.

If you want people to engage, I really think you're going to have to rethink your strategy.

This.

People caring for elderly parents are probably too busy to start volunteering for MN.

In any case, I'm sure you can get AI to analyse this for you if you can't be arsed to read the threads themselves.

A lot of us here are women past 40. We have a lot fewer fucks to give and the instructional tone of your post comes off as an extremely rude demand that's going to get our backs up. We have enough demands placed on us already. We're here for support not more shit. Please leave us alone

So you want unpaid mumsnet contributers to do your paid job for you? I suggest you spend time reading the threads and you'll quickly learn what people are like and how they behave on the Elderly Parents topic - after all that's how we've done it.....

It seems to be a Mumsnet thread? I think they need to put a bit of effort in to explain themselves if they want people to reply. It's not making a lot of sense as it stands.

What Community?

Surely you are some kind of journalist or researcher asking this?

However you have missed out the apostrophe in your title. Either before or after the final "s" in your title depending on whether you are referring to one parent or two. Do perhaps you are not a researcher.

What are you asking?