Update from MNHQ addressing the recent images posted on the site

Hardly an answer is it?

"We would never seek to stop you talking about it ... but by the way if anybody comes across too gobby in their criticism of it, you might get banned,

posters are part of the MN family and too much criticism of the Mumsnet corporation is trolling.

@JustineMumsnet if the review/assessment/process does not include hiring at least one paid moderator for every overnight you haven’t learnt a thing here. Sorry to be blunt but the current NW system is just about suitable for a hobby Facebook group, not an income generating and increasingly international website. The living wage is what - £13.15/h in London? This is the time to put your hand in your pocket.

Hindsight is a great thing. While I agree the issue of volunteer overnight mods has been raised before by users, I don't recall anyone raising the issue of image filtering before this event.

When posts are auto-hidden, the response tends to be 'why did this happen to my perfectly innocent post?' (I know, I have done it!) rather than 'what excellent inbuilt filters Mumsnet has, blocking my post just to be on the safe side'.

So I don't think we, as users, can throw too many stones here. I'm glad overall security and procedures are now being reviewed.

So you aren't going to answer the question then?

I used to work for Crisp as a moderator - for a few months. It was really stressful. We had to follow strict procedures especially if there were CSAI or immediate threat to life etc and it had to be escalated and dealt with immediately whatever time of day to the manager on call and the post removed immediately.

I suppose I was just shocked that images of this nature were not dealt with immediately by a senior member of staff.

Im sorry to harp on about the unpaid work aspect but I don’t see why the discussion that’s being had should wait, until next time?

if NW is unimportant to MN then get rid and if not pay, Justine herself is a massive supporter of people getting compensation for their work or their output
This is from an article from Justine about why they’re sueing Open AI, it talks multiple times about fair compensation.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/28/mumsnet-ai-google-openai-publishing-copyright

“Allowing the AI companies to simply steal content isn’t just enormously unfair to publishers who see no reward for the work they put in, or the risks they take, it’s also an existential threat to them (and ultimately counterproductive).”

allowing NW to work for free and see no reward in exchange for the work they put in and the risks they take, is wrong. Yes some other sites do use free labour, but lots pay, I’ve worked as a moderator before, paid mods exist, corporations should pay for labour even if it’s in the middle of the night.

and no I’m not a troll or someone who wants the downfall of mumsnet

We know we know. Justice isn't our friend and mnhq have failed. Or rather, a nasty perve posted vile images that were removed.

Not really 'nasty perv' posting 'vile images' but a crime with posting CSA images

They have fixed the problem. Now if it happens again then regroup and recommence the constant 'NW should be paid!' Protests.

They are intending to fix the problem which is good but nothing wrong with paying staff.

Saw this on another site which I thought should be repeated here...

"ongoing, co-ordinated effort to further inflame the conversation on (the) site around the issue and to cause as much disruption as possible".

Tell you what might have also inflamed the conversation and caused disruption

• No clearly signposted moderator comment/source of truth as soon as office hours resumed - nothing was pinged out via the notification function either
• Taking down threads without pointing towards central source of truth (because it didn't exist)
• Initially only making official responses buried in comments on the one thread allowed to remain, in an area of the site that you have to go looking for
• Because it was part of the normal thoroughfare of the thread, people could respond to the comments - people got snarky and/or responded completely reasonably if strongly - these responses were then removed, pissing people off further, making them comment again
• Randomly responding to the odd response to mod comment and snarking at them
• Only posting an actual official response at midday today, a full 36 hours after the event, and shit-stirring with the 'there are trolls amongst us' line.

I'd prefer it was dealt with sufficiently robustly to eradicate the chance of it ever happening again so far as is technically possible.

We know we know. Justice isn't our friend and mnhq have failed. Or rather, a nasty perve posted vile images that were removed.

You do realise both those statements can be (and are) true?

Why on earth would I think she is my friend? I have never so much as exchanged a word with her. We all know MN is a multi-million pound business but it is no Facebook or Twitter.

We know we know. Justice isn't our friend and mnhq have failed. Or rather, a nasty perve posted vile images that were removed.

They have fixed the problem. Now if it happens again then regroup and recommence the constant 'NW should be paid!' Protests.

Exactly, she's not your mate from down the street.

Mumsnet has clearly failed in its corporate responsibilities.

I have been on Mumsnet for over 20 years and I didn’t even know the Night Watch existed until this week.

It's all very pitch forky. A serious incidned occured mnhq addresed it and measures are now in place. I wonder if mnhq should wear hairshirts for a week?

She’s not your friend. People need to learn to understand that MN is a multi-million pound business.

Just curious as to why the mods asked for links to the threads rather than being alerted by the report function. Maybe it was quicker?
Edit to say : I see this has been addressed

Apples and oranges spring to mind.

From posts here (and lets face it, most of MN won't even have noticed this whole event) it is clear that users do not understand the night mod process or that their reports will not be picked up until morning

You said it yourself, @C8H10N4O2; most of MN may not have known about this at all if the "Site Stuff" thread hadn't come up in trending, because those created in the busier boards had all been cleared

So at least one benefit of the BBC picking it up is that more may be aware and able to inform themselves if they choose

This is the first time this sort of thing has happened isn't it?

Ahh, come on your reply is like the mumsnet equivalent of this...

"Ach, Facebook HQ have really messed up big time, but some of you seem to be enjoying humiliating Zuckerberg. Why?"

Well folks shouldn't really be rude and argumentative because it puts good posters off contributing. We're not a bear pit site

I imagine there must have been high numbers of posters reporting - it wasn't that late at night!

I know I reported twice but didn't want to have to see the images again. I had every faith that they would have been deleted smartish.

Me too. I would guess that the number of reports was high for time of day but if thresholds are fixed then the number might still be much smaller than eg 12pm.

Mainly though the user experience and reporting method should be the same and equally effective 20*7. Variations in tools/modding behind the scenes should be invisible to the user