dear mn hq, please could something be done about the anti sn posts on mn

if you find yourself explaining again to someone who didn't change their ways the first time that could mean they disagreed with you and dismissed your demand to change.

FWIW, I think that all posts should stand and the only posts that should ever be deleted are those where the request has come from the poster themselves.

I would much rather be able to see that someone has been/is being a complete tit than infer it from the posts in response; no matter what topic.

I happen to know that Fanjo, Glitterknickaz, Peachy, Herbietea and a lot of other posters are NOT tits, as I've been here a very long time and lurk a lot. However, if I were not such an old hand, reading any of those threads now I would get entirely the wrong impression.

I don;t get peple who use a word once it's been explained it's offensive; you'd need pretty limited language skills not to be able to think of alternatives so why woudl you upset peple? Except some people think it's their rigt to stroll through life upsetting whosoever they want and they are just rude and unreasonable

I really doubt you ever come over that way, honest. It's not something that you can do in one or two posts IMO, it's something that happens over several threads - you realize someone is doing the same thing over and over, despite having generated a lot of in-depth discussion of that issue. It is I think exactly the situation you get with stuff like 'ADHD doesn't exist' or whatever - it is trolling, really, to insist on reiterating that position over and over, generating the same careful explanations from regular SN posters who know their stuff, and then expecting them to do it again another time. I don't post much because it's not my area, but something I notice a lot at the moment is the number of people who need explained again and again that the term 'retard' is highly offensive. In the end you start wondering who's on the wind-up, really.

Yes I get it nnow. I suspect certain posts of mine if you dont know me come over that way but not a lot I can do about it. Somene can always check me by blowin up the MN server and searching for my posts

FWIW rape apologists piss me off. I just can't see how difficult it is to understand that rape is always but always wrong. If there's any doubt about consent back away and don't put yourself at risk. Not exactly challenging.

Sorry, massive cross-post.

I don't want to post too much about the Fem section because I don't want to detract from the main issue here. But peachy, I really do not think you come across like that, ever! Don't worry. I'm sure I've said stupid things about disabilities too, because I'm ignorant. But most of us try to learn, don't we?

I really don't think ignoring offensive posters is appropriate or possible in some subjects, though. Sure, if we're posting on Chat about baking and someone feels the need to slag off scones, I'm sure we'll all survive the experience. But if a poster is being offensive or deliberately spreading misinformation (eg. about certain disabilities 'not existing', or rape myths, or whatever), it's not right to ignore them. Anyone who comes to that thread later - and perhaps is seeking information and quite vulnerable or upset - may think we all agree with the offensive poster.

I think it does put those very knowledgeable posters in a really hard position - either they can keep politely arguing the same points over and, as I've seen posters on this thread do (and presumably getting more and more upset by confronting the same prejudices over and over), or they can ignore ... and the offensive poster wins, because their comments go unchallenged.

This is the problem with 'concern trolls' IMO. These are posters who claim to be motivated by concern for the people they're talking to, or by their own bad experiences, and who use this as an excuse make thinly veiled offensive posts. Like whoever it was on one of the threads referred to earlier, who was saying she herself had disabled children so she understood all about it. Or there are a lot in feminism whose basic posting style is 'Oh, I understand you're all upset because you've been terribly abused by men ... but that is why you have such a skewed view of rape/DV/whatever'. It's really nasty, because it's basically a way of saying 'anyone who cares about this subject is too involved to comment'.

Oh goodness I hope I haven't come across as that in feminism, I worry I might. I'm not I promise: just a wannabe femiinist with too big a guilt complex for every single possible group in society.

I can see how a lot of Sn threads that go belly up could be attributed to that though. So it's poster who says she wants Sn kids in her class but is worried that theya re not getting the support and it is affecting the whole school yes? But who really wants to just stir a fight about Sn kdis in MS schools.

Stwie concern troll is a new one on me; what is it please?

I really miss MN the way it used to be. I do understand that probably means it is time for me to find another forum to post in, one where I understand the rules.

As it is, with mass deletions, we are not all reading the same thread. And because we are not told why so many posts are being deleted, not even when we ask, we keep making the same mistakes.

It is like hide poster, but with the posts being hidden by somebody else.

Ok, I will try to do this. Thanks very much, Helen.