unable to post from laptop

I do wonder sometimes if people can't just be a little empathetic...

I was once in a rock or hard place decision at work - I was 'new' to the post but I certainly was not inexperienced or incompetent but being 'new' and the banding that I was I didn't have certain 'priviledges' I needed to prevent a huge issue happening.

In the end I made the ONLY decision I could make to keep people safe but that had implications, which I was hauled over the coals for... Despite having saved them a LOT of money and crucially kept people safe.

I think MNHQ need to be a little careful here - if I am wrong and Julie had full administrator rights to this board last night AND an escalation procedure AND a senior to contact and failed to do ALL of that then she is clearly needs further training and support.

However if MNHQ left Julie in charge with half the privileges in place, no senior in place and no escalation plans then quite frankly the people above Julie should be squirming uncomfortably and not deflecting it down to her. It is those people who are at fault and the lack of procedure not Julie and they owe Julie an apology.

If Julie was left in that second scenario (the fact she couldn't even shut down the board effectively says it is) she did RIGHT to shut down the board as some of the threads were, jokey or not controvened the Equality Act and therefore illegal and Julie as admin accountable. I imagine she was being absolutely bombarded with reports and inflammatory posts to be removed.

I felt sorry for Julie last night. I hope MMHQ look at their procedures so to protect and support their staff better

Doesn't look like that at all Ubik. It looks like decisions were made in error and the swiss cheese theory (when all the holes appear in line) happened.

Happy NewYear

Seems like Julie was hung out to dry by her colleagues. Nice.

Ive been here over 6 years under many different guises but I really dont give a fuck tbh. A newish mod made a mistake and probably feels like shit as this is her job and wants to do the right thing as we all do. I expect its very daunting running a large site like this and pleasing everyone

Yes, annie, and thinking of all those times posters have said 'really tricky your job, innit - looks nice but really tough trying to decide who is being goady and who isn't sort of thing'. Sometimes that can be tricky in RL, never mind when all you have is the 'words on a screen'.

So a big fat bunch of these to JulieJingleBells and see you back on your sleigh soon.

Just caught up with this after going to bed thinking I'd been suspended over nothing. Glad it's not the case.

Happy new year everyone.

Give julie our love won't you. I think she will need it.

Yes, there is always the 'off' switch

It was a shame to leave some upset, vulnerable people without the support they had clearly come on here for.

I so agree with you Curlew.

for Julie, everyone makes mistakes. Tis bad enough drawing the short straw and having to work New Years, then this happens!

I just went and did something else when the "bingo" started. One or two were amusing, but it's actually much harder to be funny than people think it is. And an entire screen full of people trying and failing was pretty boring.

I don't like it when junior/new staff are hung out to dry, though. Worst call of the evening in my humble opinion.

Very glad to see thing got sorted out last night.

Storm in a tea cup and I feel sorry for Julie now who made the wrong call but should not have been left to it on her own on NYE, of all evenings.

I am not 'angry', I did find some of the 'jokey' threads in poor taste, but recognised them as 'jokey' - I think generous use of the 'delete' button for individual posts, even OPs, would've been enough.
The more obviously sarky or funny ones -
As stated above MN Bingo has been around for some time and a drunken NYE at home seems the obvious night when it might get started .

So, calm down, dears (joke!) and Happy New Year to all .

I agree about that Butthereagain, I don't like the mods joking and chatting either, it blurs the lines.

I missed most of this as I have AIBU hidden and was using the mobile site to post on regular threads only last night. I saw one sick sounding thread title which had been deleted in Most Active. I don't really blame Julie for pulling the plug if it all spiralled out of control. Hopefully MNHQ will be supporting her today.

Hi j. Do you know just think that the posters shoulnt be expected to be bad on NYE? Is that a thing now?

I am interested in the moderation of Julie's posts that went on - bit naughty HQ. stirs

Seriously though, as someone who had my biggest row with MNHQ this year over moderation (after 12 years on mumsnet ) I think this is something you have to sort out. It's not great to make the wrong call, take ages to fix it & then have another member of HQ say 'whoops someone inexperienced was a bit trigger happy sorry be nice to them' ( which was what happened during my row). They shouldn't have been in the position in the first place. Some threads/evenings are going to be controversial - you need to pay the extra for someone bombproof/experienced to be on call as well.

God I sound self righteous this morning, think I need my cup of tea. Am a bit bemused by last night, no more, but remember being very upset by the Salisbury fiasco which was essentially the same scenario. It would be good to sort these issues out really.

Completely agree ButThereAgain

I missed all of this because I'm always on the mobile site anyway so it made no difference to me.

Bit of a tangent, but I do think this episode shows how inappropriate it is for the moderators to be posting in a chatty informal way. I've always found that informality rather cringeworthy and obsequious (on both sides) and increasingly it seems to get in the way of effective and clear moderation. I can understand the staffs' desire to try to preserve some of the community spirit of a much smaller site by adopting chatty, non-professional styles, but it just looks more and more like amateurishness.

Lovely Kitten...

I think there are going to be a lot of regrets all round.

Kitten

Yes, you're right. The problem arose publicly when the HQer started a thread in chat, rather than AIBU. At first people thought it a joke. HQ often start threads for banter ... Then when the HQer made it clear it wasn't and was posting to say she would ban without warning it got unpleasant - particularly when the threat was made along the lines of "and there's still x amount of the school holidays left".

That comment tongue in cheek, fine, humorously sympathetic. To then be told the op was serious makes that comment sneery, condescending and unpleasant.

So you can argue it was nasty on HQers as well as posters parts.

And that it was all happily done publicly until one party regretted and edited their comments.

So possibly some apologies and handshaking on both parts?

Ive been here over 6 years under many different guises but I really dont give a fuck tbh. A newish mod made a mistake and probably feels like shit as this is her job and wants to do the right thing as we all do. I expect its very daunting running a large site like this and pleasing everyone.