I poured my heart out and it was hidden before it was posted!
This is my post which is hidden above without using the name of the other place
I am a 55 year old.
I first joined Mumsnet in 2008 ish. I found the site because I was searching for support with prolapse surgery. And I found it. It was an incredibly supportive community of women. There were a few odd drama llama threads and a few trolls (I remember zeebrugge as the 1st long running troll thread I recall) but overall it was welcoming and supportive.
It has changed and maybe I am just too old. It has become about the drama, the headline thread to get attention and the bitchy responses (which I know I have made- it is the culture)
In lockdown Mumsnet seemed to be about not being able to get an Ocado thread and outrage at the vulnerable who were being selfish in all this. There were no drama threads as we would all have known that they were false.
What the other site gave was a space to have a dialogue (a chat!). To share day to day events during lockdown without the drama.
For me lockdown was (and still is horrendous). I had terminally ill relatives who couldn't get food, close relative in hospital, 2 undergoing cancer treatment. My life ended as I knew it in the 20th March 2020 and still hasn't come back. Talking to my real life friends and family was strained and tended to all be about the challenges and I had lost my work colleagues who didnt know the ins and outs of my life and so were my sanity I suppose
I remember very fondly one day when I was in the garden sitting with a glass of wine and posting/reading about bread and planting seeds and watching them grow. It saved me I think.
Maybe learning from this is that Mumsnet could think about how to get a friendly chat feel back? Maybe a section- money saving expert have an old style thread which is very friendly. People tell me that I could find it on some boards but I don't have time to knit or have a hobby anymore.
The other site showed there was a place for people to be nice and share the day to day stuff.
It had become dominated by the M&H and racism but that was only a tiny part. Initially it was great, I had drifted away in the past few weeks as I found some of the posters overbearing but most were warm and supportive-it was like Mumsnet in 2008. I think a fair few were slightly older but not at gransnet level! .