unable to post from laptop

I was not aware of Julie's thread in Chat until well, well after some of the 'jokey' threads (including my own) had been started.
When I did eventually see it, I did not make the connection to the obviously funny threads; I genuinely didn't. Slow on the uptake or something; I've simply seen too many gloriously funny piss-taking threads on here that were 'allowed' without so much as an from anybody.

I hope Julie is ok and I hope MNHQ make better provisions for the next High Holiday/NYE.
I will continue not to step on anybody's toes here, but I cannot promise to never be silly again. If you can't laugh, I'd just cry.

I read a lot of externalisation,mnhq did this, Julie did that.Very little of i/we
Stop whining on,frankly the moderator must've felt frazzled by all the shite
The discussion to be had is about is how to adequately staff mnhq and internal escalation when boards get too het up. Some sort of on call if you like

And if one leaves do so because youve reached a point on not requiring mn,not some churlish huff about nye

Yep. It was a screw up. Nobody, including hq are denying that.

But it was a screw up if adult women had not behaved like over excited toddlers and treated being told to stop as a challenge.....

I'm not sure the inequality thing was completely intentional. I think that might have been a glitch. I assume the intention was to stop everyone posting/starting threads. For whatever reason it didn't work on the mobile site.

I didn't see anyone doing it after they were made aware of the topic that told them not to. It would have stopped much earlier had the warning topic been posted in AIBU where it was taking place, instead of in chat where it was missed for a while. I didn't take part, I thought it was boring - but instead of warning them, following through with what was warned if it carried on, the decision was made to block us all. And not bother telling anyone until an hour after.

The thing that upset me the most was the inequality of the ban - IF you knew about the mobile site you could post, IF you didn't you were banned

It seemed to unfair

I don't think anyone is saying it wasn't a screw-up.

But
A) after the first few, the "joke" posts were really boring, and it was juvenile of people to keep doing even more of them after being asked not to- who wants a whole screen full of pathetic attempts at humour?

B) the instant finger pointing at an individual was distasteful- what happened to "Cabinet responsibility"?

The warning was to those posting the joke threads. There was no warning that every fucker would be stopped from posting! Most people weren't participating in the jokes so would not have assumed the warning applied to them.

There were no warnings. There was a thread saying the topics would be deleted and users banned. Most people who had been posting were busy commenting in their when suddenly no-one could post on the site.

Well I think the tranquilising happened after quite a few warnings Skully.

It may have been ott but it didn't come out of the blue.

weeks? I predict hours!

While Julie definitely made the wrong call and some really bad decisions last night I do hope she's ok and that the powers that be take responsibility for putting her in that position and give proper support.

Fwiw I don't think the other staffers have been disloyal. I think they've been honest and that's important on MN. We all fuck up from time to time but our audience is usually much, much smaller. However, it's important to acknowledge the truth of the situation to avoid being insincere or minimising legitimate concerns from site users.

In a few weeks jokes about pulling the plug and locking the site if we don't behave will become normal banter.

I'm just catching up on this whole car crash after my first NYE without the kids in almost a decade.

I feel for HQ. I suspect folk'll been having a go no matter how they dealt with last night.

Not so much herding cats but herding tigers.

Things were heated because we were talking to people who needed help, then poof.

I wasn't involved in the jokey threads, but I saw them.
Then I saw the Julie's thread in chat - so wrong forum. Her tone was questionable.
Most of the people gravitated over to there and thus the jokey ones were stopped. If any more were made after this, that's because the warning was posted in the wrong area and was missed.
Few of us stuck up for Julie, said c'mon lets lay off her it's new years eve..
Then poof, no-one can post. People wondering if they'd been banned, people trying to 'fix' their laptops.. Then people realised they could use the mobile site.
An hour later Julie posting saying she'd taken the decision to block posts until the morning.
No warning of that, completely out of the blue.
People who needed help couldn't get it, I had PM's telling me they couldn't post at all and were confused and worried, another had a user texting them in tears because they needed help. We had been talking to a woman talking about killing herself, we were talking to people who had just lost their loved ones. Like I've said a few times, one of the highest suicide stat nights.
Not all people have access to mobile site.
Julie edited her posts to make them seem less abrasive, hours after.

The wrong decision was made, Julie obviously felt overwhelmed and I don't blame her for that at all, but that doesn't mean the wrong decision wasn't made. Remember when the trolls came? Was it shut down then? Nope. And rightly so.

Hopefully everyone can learn from it to prevent anything like this happening again.

I don't like that Julie's peers are openly criticising her either. Training needed all round maybe?

My job used to involve making similar judgements and publicly my boss would back me - even if privately I git my backside kicked.

I don't think it's right to comment publicly on the actions of mods.

Whatever Julie did last night, someone would have found an issue with it and it would have snowballed with others agreeing.

Chin up Julie, I make lots of decisions at work that make me unpopular and sometimes I make the wrong call. But for me only 10 of them rolling their eyes and informing me exactly what I should do.

I also think that while we all pay indirectly through advertising, this is a free to use site, which brings huge benefits to many of us, so I try and appreciate that rather than feel pissed off when things aren't going
as I would like them.

I think there had to be an element of personal responsibility from those posters DELIBERATELY making life difficult for the mods last night. They knew what they were doing and the increase in number of inflammatory posts across the evening demonstrates that. Even if it was for fun, and I'm not saying some of them weren't funny, it got to the point where it was filling up active with bullshit and needed controlling. Especially if people were offended, which they clearly were.

Maybe Julie made a different choice to what others might of made but look at what actually happened here - some people couldn't post to a forum. I would hate to think she is going to hauled in for that.

Was it annoying? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Some kind of NYE disaster? Not at all. Have some prospective!

Bloody hell we all fuck up sometimes. This is a great forum and can be a great support for people, no question about that, but it's not infallible nor are the people who run it.

I made a massive cock up at work once and I was devastated by it. Fortunately my boss backed me up to the hilt, helped me sort it out and stood up for me and I REALLY hope that MNHQ do the same for Julie and learn from THEIR mistake of leaving her on her on her own last night. The personal attacks on her are unnecessary and unkind. Like i said, it was a cock up but hardly the end of the world.

I feel sorry for JulieMN. We have all made decisions in our jobs that have turned out to be wrong in hindsight. But we didn't incur the wrath of thousands in writing on a forum.

I think we need to move on.......

I was pissed off with Julie last night but having slept on it, I was wrong. She warned people and they thought they were bigger and better and carried on, so we all suffered.

[flower] Sorry Julie, hope you're ok today.