Think it's pretty obvious who the arses are - whether their comments are deleted or not, tbh

But, seriously, try as we might (and we do try) we can't monitor every thread on MN every hour of the day. We do rely on you and other MNers to report stuff to us so we can come and look and investigate/delete/warn/ban/whatever.

@Pagwatch

Fair enough

The trouble is that self policing via reporting seems to involve a lot of posts which are upsetting people being left to stand. So self policing as you deem it is leaving people feeling isolated and attacked while trolls and people trying to be vile can continue.

Perhaps there would be slightly less retaliation (for want of a better word) if 'retard' were deleted as swiftly as racist slurs would be.

I am not sure that is the case.

Possibly I am wrong. But lots of people I like seem to feel in a bunker so something is not quite working is it?

Completely understand your feelings, Pagwatch - and it sounds like we need to look at our responsiveness to reports, especially ones that are flagged as being disablist, and see if we can improve that - but we do have to apply our Talk Guidelines equally to all.

Even if Poster A is possibly a troll and Poster B is a lovely regular MNer, if B tells A to 'fuck off', B is breaking our Guidelines. Doesn't mean we won't investigate A (if she's reported to us) and take whatever action is needed, though.

Tethersend, I'm sure the MNHQer who replied to you was talking about "self-policing" the same way I am - ie thanks for reporting this, this is just the sort of self-policing that helps.

But we will go back and have another look at your report, and double-check. It may take us a little while but we will check.

No, self-policing means that we ask you to report to us any posts that break our guidelines.

It doesn't mean attacking other posters on the thread - however much you think they may deserve it - because that would be breaking our Guidelines, too.

As I said, we're still going through that thread. Please bear with us.

Thank you, Peachy.

And, obviously, if there are any other threads where you feel there are disablist posts, please do report them to us.

Fanjo: if you still reading, do please mail us (contactus at mumsnet dot com). We'd like to have some more details, please, on the posters who've been following you round the boards - that's really not on.

Hello.

Thanks for all your comments on this thread.

Just to be really clear: we have specifically amended our Talk Guidelines to say that we will remove posts we consider to be disablist - and our position hasn't changed one jot.

We're sorry that we were a bit slow to go through Glitter's thread (that's being done now) and the baby with the elastic band thread (that's been done). We're also glad to see that WidowWadman has apologised for her "unspecialneedsy" comment both here and on the thread where it was originally posted.

And we're very sorry that all this has meant some of you have decided to leave MN/are thinking about leaving MN.

We'd like to underline how much we value all Mumsnetters who post in our Special Needs section and who have contributed so much to making Mumsnet such a valuable source of advice and support for any parent with a child with special needs. The last thing we'd want is for you to think we don't place as much value on your opinions and concerns as on those of other Mumsnetters - that couldn't be further from the truth.

Hi all,

We are aware of this thread and we will have a look tomorrow when we are all back in the office.

Please do keep posting, we always appreciate feedback both good and bad.

Best
MNHQ