Dear MNHQ, I didn't see all the problems kick off over poor Revjustabout...

wartybosoms she has turned the other cheek quite a lot actually. She has been very understanding about people questioning her credentials. Does that give them the right to be so abusive? Of course she is going to explain her position.
The first time she was taunted she had just suffered a personal tragedy. i couldn't believe how she responded to the attacks with such grace and good humour. The second time also. The sanctimonious judgements of some which expect her to stay silent on the matter regardless of how she is attacked is a bit off putting.

Warty i agree with you, there will always be imposters and genuine folk have every right to raise their suspisions if they feel someone is indeed a troll

But please, raise them issue with MNHQ, the way they went about thier troll attack was wrong, vicious and vile, they should be ashamed of themselves, and not one of them has offered a proper, sincere apology, or is willing to admit they were wrong.

warty: it wasn't that people were concerned about her being an imposter (with no provocation, btw) but that it was done with so much vitriol and bile.

Personal attacks of that viciousness should not be tolerated. End of.

I was around during the JudgeFlounce de-wigging. This situation really isn't comparable at all.

Forum imposters are nothing new, hell mumsnet has it's own infamous JF, outed as the result of suspicious mumsnetters, they weren't 'deluded' on that occasion! Why other posters here are so horrified at the thought of an imposter posting on mumsnet and that it should be xxxx it frankly disingenuous. People have pretended to be doctors and got a way with it, its not that unbelievable surely.

It's a shame for the rev (being genuine) that she was under suspicion this time but I would have thought with mn having that history (JF) she might have been at least a teeny bit understanding of peoples concerns, especially given the training she's had and the field she is in.

Of course she's an ordinary poster too and is bound to be hurt by the accusations and I'm sure her accusers are regretful for that hurt.

I do think she was wrong though, starting the 'defrocking' thread which exacerbated that hurt and instead of understanding, forgiveness and 'turning the other cheek' it has reignited all the vitriol and bitterness of some weeks ago.

i agree with you RD.

half

Fuckity fuck

Sorry about awful spelling and grammar, still hals asleep

LOL Vinegar, you may not be too far from the truth there....

So someone accuses the Rev of being a troll, she is found not to be a troll, but Mumsnet advise a namechange?

This isn't even a remotely similar story to that Judgewoman who turned out to be a male psychiatrist (but LOL at that).

I call for Mumsnet to put a disclaimer on the top of every page reiterating the fact that people may not be who they say they are and that all posters are equal and that there are no resident experts as far as MNHQ is concerned. And for RevJustAbout to keep her name and keep going with her interesting RW thread.

Who seconds me?

I have a conspiracy theroy on this

Once upon a time on MN (before my time) there were a bunch of troll busting heros who outted the dreaded judgeflouce, they became highly respected Mners because of their ability to sniff out evil trolls

MN of late has become a divided place, big fights between moldies and mners, moldies having lost a lot of respect and royalty status on MN.

In an attempt to gain back their hero status they set out to, once again, sniff out, what they though was an evil troll, so some raised there concerns with MNHQ and others took it into their own hands with their vigilante group to out the troll and thus be, once again, crowned the heroes of MN, and therfore regaining the respect of Mners and bridging the gap between the moldies.

But it backfired. Badly.

Just my take on things and i am probably, mostly likely, way off the mark (i do have a vivid imagination) but hey ho.

just to reply to bundle - what you say about your priest can be applied to rev. My point exactly.

And MNHQ rev was in no way setting herself up as an expert. TBH i think the thing that fanned the flames on the Israel thread [but note this was after she had been called a fantasist for saying she'd lost relatives in the Holocaust] was MrJA coming onto defend her, it was a bit confusing for a minute, but this has nothing to do with rev and her name.

Can we really try and just let these threads die a death as Mr and Justabout have asked?

Posieflump and Justine, I agree.

no firepile, i'm not

'I think this is to some extent a reflection of how much of a divide has grown between the two sides (moldies v mnet). No one who saw the Moldies posts for years honestly would think this badly of the Moldies as a group. Back me up on this other oldie non-moldie Mnetters please? They were a nice enough bunch.'

I'll definitely back you up on that one Justine

(Thanks Justine)

It doesn't matter HOW long MNHQ asked Rev to delay - all that means is that they were trying to hide the link. The fact is that she was asked to change her name in response to the hounding, regardless of whether it was meant to look like that.

Justine: you have STILL not corrected and confirmed that Rev is actually a reverend. You have STILL not condemned the behaviour that was directed at her. You are STILL off the planet if you think that vitriol was just misguided concern. At the VERY LEAST you should be slapping wrists and making a public announcement that concerns of trolls should be COMPLETELY off board and directed at you and NOT continually hounded across threads.

Instead by your pronouncements you have put the focus (and hence the onus) solidly on Rev, and yet you still cannot see how totally out of order that is.

Disclaimer: I am not anti-moldie, I am not moldie, I am an athiest, I have bothered to read Rev's posts before and she has not even given the slightest hint of setting up herself as an authority in any way, I am not a Duck.

I had more to say after reading everything that happened after I went to bed, but somehow OneBat answered exactly what I would have said every time

i didn't know any of this was going on tbh...i saw rev on the moldie08 threads, i'd never heard of her before that...i guess if someone is being bullied due to their "profession" then a name change would be sensible....i don't see that as giving into bullies...just avoiding them maybe?

I don't know why there was such an "attack" levelled towards Rev, Foxy, I truly don't understand it.

This is the second time that the Rev's identity been questioned extensively intensively by some allegedly fungal posters.

the Rev addressed their claims, quite plainly, weeks ago.

Why did they need to approach her in the Gaza thread and question her identity and then her family's suffering in the Holocaust?

Correct me if I am stupid instead of foxy, but surely she only had to address the issue once to the same posters. to address it a second time, in the tone, place, manner and timing is what constitutes harassment.

I don't agree with negotiating her name change. It does leave the impression that MN is giving in to the bullies. But then, I am just foxy.

It is all about coming back ever so often to scent mark your territory, isn't it. I'm a fox. I know about that.

Yes, Nantucket, it does seem that way, but didn't MNHQ ask that Rev wait a few weeks before dropping the "Rev" title? I'm sure I read that.
I can understand why Rev decided to do it sooner, but that was not MNHQ's suggestion.

Actually I think MNHQ should have waited and put a decent amount of time and space between the attacks on the REv and suggesting she change her name (if they have valid separate concerns), to ensure that both the Rev and others did not interpret this as a response to the bullying which suggests (whether they intended that or not)some wrong doing onthe Revs part.

Otherwise I'm afraid it does very much look like, to many on here, that the victim has been scrutinised and targeted and not the bullies in this case.

Most unfortunate in my oinion.

i think mnhq are in a very difficult situation these days...the moldies thing will be a mega pain for a long time i'm sure...they have to stay diplomatic....and from what i've seen that's exactly what they're being.

Okaay, just caught up.
MNHQ have explained their reasons for Rev changing her name, it's sad it has to be, but I do understand their reasons.

People have always piled in to arguments discussions en masse, I suspect through MSN/facebook/email, now I guess Moldies too. When I was a newbie and green to all of this forum malarkey I used to think it was amazing they were so in tune with each other . With all the furore over Moldies, this was bound to end up as a Moldie issue.

I can't understand why these posters took such a dislike to Rev though, there were loads of MNers very vociferous over Moldiegate, Rev was pleasant and amusing, trying to diffuse the situation and bring some humour from what I could see.

I hope that we can all live together in "peace and love" without all this "not talking to a Moldie" and "there's always an argument on MN" (after trying their damnedest to cause one).

Look, if no one has yet said it, let me...

pph no one has accused you of contacting the rev in her private life.

you are a lawyer, although you haven't given me proof yet, so surely you know the score.

now if anyone were to ask my opinion, i would say that you are being a wee precious requesting post deletions and whatever else. get over yourself.

now off to read the next 800 posts.

some people are tiring.