Any oldtimer MNetters out there feel like they are outgrowing Mumsnet?

[WelliesAndPyjamas]

I might be feeling maudlin and incoherent (chesty cold, stomach bug, and exhausted after several months of 50 hour working weeks) but having put myself to bed this morning and allowing myself the treat of browsing Mumsnet properly for the first in ages...I feel like I have outgrown Mumsnet 😱😱 I can’t seem to find that many threads of interest to read any more. I think I joined MN about 13 or 14 years ago and I used to love it, finding it a constant source of laughter, advice, and kindness between people in similar siutaions or just seeking advice. These days the threads seem a bit samey, people very quickly and easily turn against each other, and you rarely if ever come across anyone you ‘know’ for a laugh and a catch up.

Any oldtimers out there - am I rosetinting the old days or have I actually outgrown MN?

Fair chance I am just too ill and should just shut up and put away the ipad though 😂

I don't know if it's my age, but I definitely don't spend anywhere near as much time on MN as I used to.

It could be because DS is older too.

Are we getting closer to Gransnet than Mumsnet? 😄 Does Gransnet still exist, even?

Yes. Combination of things. I never talked babies anyway but now I dip in and out of S&B and that's about it. Even that has turned into a cunt fest tbh.
Add the trolls and invented CF threads into the mix (probably 80% of posts) and you're done for the day.

12-13 years ago I was on here all day and it was great.

Aww hope you feel better soon W&Ps

I've been here for yonks and of course it's changed a bit but I still find things to amuse and inform me

You have described it perfectly, haventgotallday.
It’s no good when even S&B has turned in to a cunt fest
It was great back then. Gone are the days when you could waste the best part of a day talking fun and nonsense with strangers and you knew most of them were genuinely who they said they were.

Are you listening, MNHQ?

I've noticed this recently too.

When I joined in 2008 there were loads of funny and thought provoking threads about interesting stuff and random shite. I could easily waste a day on active threads.

Now there are a lot of repetitive threads and it's getting harder to find interesting chat amongst the "CF" (when did this start?), goady posts and obvious trolls.

I find myself mainly checking the feminism boards, followed by brexit, occasional forays into S&B, and then perhaps dip into titles that look halfway interesting.

It’s too big anyway to be able to catch up on all of the threads as we used to originally.

Yes, I catch far fewer funny threads these days.

I am not alone

For me I think it's that I've outgrown the baby/toddler/primary school stage of parenting so a lot of the threads aren't relevant any more. I mainly browse FWR and Brexit stuff at the moment.

And yes, it all moves too fast to be bale to catch a genuinely funny or decent thread

Fair point, profyaffle. Maybe we are less needy for support and help now we are the ‘experienced ‘ parents so once you cut out the endless TWW, TTC, help my baby cries threads, there is just less available and it moves too fast to catch anything anyway.

I have been on MN for years.
I have seen changes, but I continue to learn and get a lot of support.
I avoid the things that are not relevant to me.
It has got a lot bigger and you do get some silly stuff, but the amount of well informed/researched topics on here more than make up for that.

I hide waaaaaayyyy more threads than I look at or post on. They all seem really boring now.

But I imagine it’s rose tinted specs and is the same as it’s always been

Probably right, shirleyphallus, same old but with more new gen mnetters.

Been racking my brains trying to remember the usernames of people I used to talk with a lot on here... I used to hang out in Lissie’s Tea Room,a chat thread with the same crowd most mornings. That was such an early noughties thing to do! But it was nice. And the drunk threads were fantastic.

I'm with you. I've been here about as long and I remember back when I joined the only kind of "fight club"' threads were about breastfeeding - now it seems more than half are (and 99% of AIBU!) threads are just full of people looking for a fight or to derail or to be contrary just to wind people up.

I stick to FWR and a couple of long running threads in S & B which are genuinely lovely and friendly.

I think my interests have changed (I never thought I would hang out in S & B in my baby days!) but also there are so many people here these days, it stands to reason a much bigger proportion of users are total cunts

The necessity of frequent NCing these days doesn't help.

Or maybe it's just as we age, we have rose tinted glasses and feelings of nostalgia that things were better? I feel that way about the 90s for example - the clubs! the fab music! When in reality the music was also Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys but I just remember Nirvana and the Stone Roses etc

Maybe it's the same with MN, we remember Booble Plate and Angela Hernandez but there was still loads of fighting and trolling but we block that out

Although I don't think that can be true on reflection, if you remember the total outrage over Judge Flounce and (?) Lavender. These days every other thread seems to be deleted for such blatant trolling that we are unsurprised by them and automatically suspicious of all parents of twins

Agree too, been here 16 years+, various name changes.

I posted a serious question a couple of weeks back, and had hundreds of replies accusing me of being a troll, so much so MN stepped in and verified me as an old timer. I still had the thread removed and changed my user name.

😂😂 webuiltciscity so true
I think the answer might be to live in the past - dig up the classic threads whenever I need a little escape and a giggle (which, let’s face it, is the only reason I MN any more) and avoid the everyday threads where everyone is itching for a scrap.

Years ago (ahem) Mumsnet was described as a nest of vipers, but it wasn't... but it was fun.

Now I think newer people (some) feel they need to behave like a nest of vipers, so it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not so much fun.

Nursenancy, puts you off, doesn’t it

Now, that’s deep, thuderstorms 👍 so true

Yes wellies. Like thinking or Eddie Vedder and blocking out Ronan Keating

I also do think there are a few but very vocal posters who deliberately say twatty things on threads in a kind of look at me I just tell it like it is and imagine MNers thinking "they're so brave, I wish I could say that". When in reality Mers just think "twat".

They pop up everywhere.

I think the answer might be to live in the past - dig up the classic threads

I was about to suggest you avail yourself of the entire Archers thread archive. It’s on thread number 101 at the moment in Radio Addicts.

I arrived here about eight or nine years ago, (million name-changes) looking for schools info, but it’s the Archers threads that tie me to MN. (Have been on them since they began.) Does help if you actually listen to The Archers though ...

PMSL at blocking out Ronan Keating