<<whispers>> Was there ever any clarification about whether the issue with GF was swearing on here?

'There is such a thing as bad publicity.'

Indeed, snafu. Such as hundreds of MNetters telling all and sundry in RL about her legal action.

Go to a bookshop, see a mother or pregnant woman picking up one of her books, cue gasp of horror. Cue person holding book suddenly giving you their attention.

'Oh, don't do that! If you disagree w/it, and write about it ANYWHERE, she'll sue you, you know.'

'Really?'

'Yep. She's sueing this parenting site . . .'

FWIW, I've been on other sites were posters write things like, 'I HATE her' and the like.

It's not just MN.

The work never ends for the Thought Police.

Result is the classic scenario: I'll tell my friends, and they'll tell their friends, and they'll tell their friends . . .

High court proceedings sounds much more serious then mere court proceedings. Also, the amounts that can be claimed in the high court are greater than in the county court.

The letter from Ann Clough is bizarre in the extreme. If GF does not intend to take court proceedings and the letter is just bluff to put the frighteners on MN, then it's a particularly nasty tactic. If she does intend to issue court proceedings because MN didn't (in her view) make it clear that she wasn't going to take court proceedings, it seems a worrying example of an unstable (and probably ill-advised) individual.

"So, let me get this straight. Because MN didn't make it clear that GF wasn't going to take legal action, Gf is now going to take legal action...? "

I thought it sounded a bit like that too ...

"Further, as a result of Mumsnet's failure to make clear to its members that Gina Ford has no intention to take legal steps to restrain
reasonable debate, and its refusal to agree reasonable terms of settlement to resolve these serious libels of her, she was forced to conclude that she had no alternative but to issue court proceedings, which she intends to do. "

So, let me get this straight. Because MN didn't make it clear that GF wasn't going to take legal action, Gf is now going to take legal action...?

Also there are a huge amount of female journalists on mumsnet, many of whom write regulary about parenting issues, and GF thinks it's a good idea to antagonise this particular sector?

Good point hunker

This is such a load of petty, small minded crap and will be seen as such immediately by the media. She's making a big mistake if she thinks this will do anything but anihilate her reputation. I personally disagreed with her methods long before I ever found mumsnet having formed my opinions from reading her books.
What I don't get is that a newspaper or magazine has an editor to read and decide everything that gets published in it before it gets to the public domain. So if slanderous things are published about an individual there is definite culpability. A web forum doesn't have an editor or time to monitor what is posted, one this size couldn't possibly monitor everything which is posted. The only thing Mumsnet could do is ask their members to refrain from posting offensive remarks about individuals and that is what they have done, along with removing any offensive remarks. I am in no doubt what I can or can not post about Gina Ford on this forum but to imply that the mumsnet team are responsible for what posters have said is ridiculous. I know there has been precedent in this area but was it on a forum of this size?
This whole fiasco reminds me of the schoolyard

That is deeply bizarre

What's the difference between "high court" proceedings and normal court proceedings? I don't understand legal stuff

There is an awful lot of discussion about Gina's methods which is very negative - e.g. the Guardian site - much worse and more personal than here - I can't think at all what kind of posts AC is referring to - or am I missing something?

I really don't like referring to "hundreds of thousands of followers" btw - she sounds like they all dress in orange and bang tambourines

"followers"

snicker

Isn't there a statute of limitations on libel of twelve months?

Yes, I remember the '15 minutes of fame' bit too. Deeply unpleasant and rather scary. Evita was very shaken by it.

I didn't believe ginababe was GF for a long time. I thought it was just a random internet nutter. Obviously there's a gap between the public and private persona - there is with anyone - but her postings were out-of-control and rather bizarre.

Again, quite how this will bolster her public image is beyond my tiny, fraught, sleep-deprived mind

I feel clear about how her methods can be discussed, thanks to mumsnet pointing this out. I too feel sorry for her in a way.

I felt sorry for her on the first thread she wrote attacking evita - I was there at the beginning, too. She seemed very, very angry. The language seemed out of control to me.

I also really feared for evita reading it - she was threatened with 15 minutes worth of fame (ie infamy). It doesn't sound like much, but at the time, I was shocked - and I have read a lot of shocking stuff on mumsnet that washes over me. Had I been evita reading this for the first time, I truly would have felt frightened and very threatened. I replied to ginababe in this vein.

It seemed to me that she was so emotional that the best thing to do was to leave it. As I didn't know the full story, and what exactly evita had said to her, I logged off. Wasn't sure if the ginababe poster was a troll or someone who knew evita in real life. Both theories very wrong as it turned out. But I have rarely seen such an upset sounding message on mumsnet. I dread to think how Gina feels about all the other parenting sites - I assume mumsnet is not the only site to have lots of GF threads.

Really sorry mumsnet is having this hassle and really sorry Gina Ford is so deeply affected by what is written on the internet.

And now it seems I've insulted her Scones.

I am completely at a loss to understand how she thinks all this is going to 'restore her reputation' - which has far as I can see has suffered no damage. Yet.

There is such a thing as bad publicity. The number of people who have read those MN threads is miniscule compared to the number (hundreds of thousands, apparently) of people who've bought her books. She's made her point re: the ginababe thread - iirc she got a huge and heartfelt apology at the time from evita, if not from others, and the thread was pulled. This course of action will only bring all of that into the public eye and I utterly fail to see how she's going to come up smelling of roses if it does.

Sorry you are having to deal with this, Justine et al. You're always so good-humoured about it when it must be incredibly stressful.

Also, by taking forward this legal action and saying that "Gina has made it abundantly clear through her lawyers that
she has never, at any time, tried to restrain reasonable discussion or debate regarding her childcare advice" I can imagine this will encourage a media frenzy of looking at her methods to see what these are that inspires comments deemed by the author to be sufficiently libellous to go to court. Seeing that no one is in agreement as to the correct way to raise babies, there will inevitably be a number of journalists who disagree with her methods and take this opportunity to state so in a reasonable manner, resulting in a further round of bad publicity for Ms Ford. I hate seeing someone put themselves through things like this and feel genuinely sorry Ms Ford and hope she re-thinks her action whilst she has the chance.

I think MN has made it completely clear that the threat of legal action was not regarding her methods but to do with the personal attacks on GF. There are a number of posts by MN Towers that clearly state that.

IF GF was Ginababe I do now feel very sorry for her as to my mind the only outcome of court action will be that she will be held as a figure of ridicule by the press when the full details come out. Also agree that with the current situation that banning all mention of her is now necessary as it appears that MN's previous posts have been miscontrued GF & legal team (though I though they were very clear and can't see how that can happen)

Yes agree with Pruni how highly disingenuous to pretend that you hadn't made it clear her methods could be discussed. You'd made it perfectly clear to me!

Crikey!

I can only see this costing her an absolute fortune and not doing a lot for her reputation, but how stressful for everyone involved.

But since you did post to say waht kind of comment was acceptable - I forget what thread it was on - and have pulled numerous presumably libellous posts - what is the point of this?

Makes me thing that -seriously - pulling every thread with any mention of Ms Ford or CLBB is the only thing to do, ad infinitum...

Blimey.

Good lord, what a very unwise course of action. I'm almost beginning to feel sorry for Ms Ford, taking legal action against a mother's website is almost guaranteed to destroy her reputation, not restore it. FGS, if Ginababe really was her, those threads will be read out in open court and published in the media. How can she possibly think this will restore her reputation? And it's interesting to note that she feels mumsnet has made her need to "restore" her reputation. I hadn't noticed that all the threads were being printed on a daily basis in the Daily Mail. Oh well.

I hope this isn't causing you too much stress at Mumsnet Towers.

really sorry you are going through this justine, sounds tedious