Heads up: some academic research taking place

Princess anything you write on here is available to anyone who wants to read it. What risk do you see to yourself as a result of this research?

Opt out please

Princess you do understand that this sort of work goes on all the time? Your words will have been used over and over. This is just the one project that was polite enough to ask. No others have or will again. RTFT.

Do not use any of mine. Don't care if it's anonymous or not, what the fuck?

I think people who are opting out don't understand what the situation is.
The information you write on this site is freely available to anyone and everyone.
The researchers are not interested in identifying individuals, nor would they be able to.
You are not going to be manipulated or asked to reveal anything. The research is passive observation of words used to discuss particular topics.
They don't have to ask you. They're doing it out of politeness.

Also, did / do researchers differentiate (and if so, how) between say, AIBU and Relationships, Chat and a Special Needs board?

We argue that forums like Mumsnet provide an important anonymous space where women can talk openly about emotions

If I were peer reviewing that paper I'd want to know how they factor in the male troll problem.

opting out

Thanks for that reference. It shows how useful MN is to researchers, as well as being material for the Mail on Line.
After the experience with this thread it's unlikely that anyone will ask 'permission' to use its public material ever again.

I looked up some MN-based research papers and found this section in one report that looked into how maternal feelings were discussed on the site:

"There is vigorous debate in the social scientific literature about the ethical issues relating to using content from online forums (and other social media) that are fully open to public view for research purposes. No consensus has yet been established on whether the informed consent of users who contribute content to such fora should be sought if their texts are to be used in research. Our position conforms to that adopted by many other researchers using this type of material (Madge, 2007, Roberts, 2015). We decided that we did not need to seek the informed consent of Mumsnet users to use their content in our research for the following reasons: we did not elicit or comment in any way on the material as forum users but rather accessed it after it had been spontaneously generated; users’ identities are not revealed on the site and therefore their anonymity is assured; the terms and conditions of Mumsnet make it clear that it is a public rather than private space in which all users know that any internet user can view their comments; and threads are rendered available and readily searchable even to non-members. We chose not to refer to user names/pseudonyms when we referred to or quoted from members’ comments, particularly as some of their comments are very personal and sensitive."

Abstract here:
"In this article, we present an analysis of how communities of maternal feeling are configured by users on the discussion boards of Mumsnet, a popular British online parenting forum. A search was conducted to find threads with the phrase ‘I feel’ in the title. The first 100 threads in the search results using this term that referred to emotions – almost all of which articulated negative feelings – were then analysed. We argue that forums like Mumsnet provide an important anonymous space where women can talk openly about emotions. In doing so, feeling rules related to ‘good motherhood’ are established and reproduced. Members of Mumsnet tolerate some expression of feelings such as ambivalence, resentment, anxiety and anger and often provide empathy and friendly support in response. However, the expression of negative maternal feeling is tolerated only to a certain degree. Those posters who go beyond this boundary are positioned as exceeding the norm and requiring professional help. Forums such as Mumsnet often serve to support rather than challenge the political status quo in their emphasis on self-responsibility, personal choice and therapeutic solutions to what are positioned as private problems."

Pedersen, S. and Lupton, D. (2018) 'What are you feeling right now?’ communities of maternal feeling on Mumsnet', Emotion, Space and Society, vol.26, pp.57-63

Justwanttoweeinpeace

You do know that if you RTFT you will get the answer to your questions?

I've been watching/lurking on this thread because I've been seeing it 'stickied' in Chat for weeks!!!

Well I missed it there too!

grumiosmum, but it's also been 'stickied' in Chat for the same length of time, as far as I'm aware.

Fair enough SLoisachtal but your experience was different to mine.

I rarely look at site stuff - only visiting it now because the paragraph thingy went wrong - but look at Active convos nearly every day, sometimes several times a day, and this was the first time I'd noticed this.

This is normal way to conduct research. It's publicly available open source data.

What do people think is going to happen? They are not interested in what any one particular poster says. They're analysing patterns of language use in a particular topic. Nobody is even going to be reading your whole sentences. The database will have no information on it that isn't already on MN!

Previously psychological research has been carried out on sites like MN to investigate attitudes to breastfeeding. There is no invasion of privacy. MN do not have to seek permission for this. They're just being polite.

grumiosmum, I agree with BIWI. This thread was 'stickied' by MNHQ when they started it on 30th Aug - very obvious. The title was enough for me to click on the thread back then, even though I haven't commented previously.

I'd also suggest the headline isn't explicit enough. Most people will think it's an invitation to do a survey & not bother to click on the thread & find out what it's about.

Yes really BIWI. And believe me I spend far too much time on here as it is ...

Everyone's moaning but they are posting on a public board in the first place

Really? It's been in active convos many, many times! You're clearly not putting in enough MN hours

@RowanMumsnet if the intention is to make us all aware of this you're not doing a great job. I am a very frequent & regular user of MN & have only just spotted this post - almost a month after it was posted. If the data may be mined from any Board on MN, you need to pin this post onto every Board too. Or at least the most popular ones.

Or how many times the same posts are both repeated and ignored