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Has MN changed?

265 replies

Hichic · 07/08/2021 20:12

Do you think MN had changed since you joined? How did it used to be?

I have been here several years. A few years back it seemed quite nasty In places .but it seems better now. Does not seem to be so many attacks on posters or bun fights . Seems to be better debates without it getting overly nasty.

OP posts:
mrsm43s · 07/08/2021 22:55

I've been here for, I think, about a decade.

Even when I joined, there was talk about " the good old days" and how those had passed.

For me, personally, the big change has been how aware I now am of how not mentally well /socially adept many of the posters are. I feel that when I first joined people were fairly well balanced, and the view given were representative of the people I knew IRL. But now it feels that everyone thinks that no-one should use their gardens/no one should ever knock on the door or visit unannounced/ no one child should ever knock to play/ no one should ever go upstairs in your house/no one should ever ask for a favour/ no one should own a pet etc etc, and, to be frank, normal people with normal outlooks don't feel so precious all the time. Normal, functional, people just get on with life, and shrug off minor irritations, but it seems like the MN community are rather odd, and socially dysfunctional, and think the world is out to get them.

I think that isn't MN specific though. I think that Brexit and Covid have both been big triggers for bringing mental instability to the fore, and destabilising people who formerly coped and I think that as time has moved on, the internet in general has been an escape for those who aren't mentally or socially well enough to function well IRL.

ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba · 07/08/2021 22:55

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams

but there was a family of toads in the drain recently!

PolytheneRam · 07/08/2021 23:00

I've only been here for a couple of years, so I can't really comment on how it has changed.

I might be n the minority but I find the outrageous troll threads entertaining.

I'm extremely uncomfortable with the anti-trans atmosphere but I tend to avoid what might be an inflammatory thread.

There's some beautiful humanity visible at times on here, but I feel generally that I live in another world to the majority of the posters. Particularly those who seem to think that personal hygiene is a competitive sport.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 07/08/2021 23:00

I'll have to have a look for that Zing!

Reverse is the wrong word for the thread I meant, but you get the idea.

I'm occasionally half-tempted to post my first AIBU, and see if I get the same responses ten years on. Grin

BitsAndBaubles · 07/08/2021 23:06

Been here 16ish years, lots of name changes, have dipped in and out

cherryadeisyummy · 07/08/2021 23:07

Definitely more overzealous mods.

I do enjoy binning their pointless emails telling me I've been a naughty girl and they've deleted a post of mine. Apparently it's bad form pointing out obvious trolls on the forum!

Sparklingbrook · 07/08/2021 23:15

@cherryadeisyummy

Definitely more overzealous mods.

I do enjoy binning their pointless emails telling me I've been a naughty girl and they've deleted a post of mine. Apparently it's bad form pointing out obvious trolls on the forum!

It's trollhunting. And one of the rules is that you don't do that. I know some don't agree with that but it's no secret that it'll get deleted if you do.
enoughforme · 07/08/2021 23:18

I agree op there was a time a few years ago when it got real nasty frequently but seems fairly reasonable debate these days

Geamhradh · 07/08/2021 23:19

@Mydogisagentleman

I rejoined recently, I have been trying to remember when I joined, DD is 20 now and I think she was about 5 when I initially started. I used to be kreecherlivesupstairs and was living in Switzerland. We moved to Belgium and then Warrington. I was fortunate enough to be invited by a woman to stay with her while I tried to find a flat for us to rent while DH started a new job in London. I was a wolef and miss several members of the pack. Back now for a while
I can't for the life of me remember why, but I paid £5 sponsor money via PayPal (I think it was sponsoring someone, or some sort of fundraising) for you and you sent me the fiver Grin (I'm in Italy)
TartanBonnet · 07/08/2021 23:20

I've been on years and years. Def more trolls and certainly not as funny!!

I too have several Facebook friends who I met though mumsnet but change my username monthly now, so never "recognise" anyone now.

Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo · 07/08/2021 23:23

@Hichic

Do you think MN had changed since you joined? How did it used to be?

I have been here several years. A few years back it seemed quite nasty In places .but it seems better now. Does not seem to be so many attacks on posters or bun fights . Seems to be better debates without it getting overly nasty.

I think the opposite. Vipers tended to stick to AIBU but now there are some posters which seem to want to stick the boot in and assume the worst of a poster no matter what they post.

There used to be unwritten etiquette ‘rules’ which stopped the need for much of the moderation I think.

GCAcademic · 07/08/2021 23:23

@Classica

I agree, *@Sparklingbrook*, re. loads of people joining purely with the aim of spreading shite on the Covid board.
I also think this. It’s had a far greater impact than penis beaker or Jeffrey, IMO. And not for the better.
TeardropImplodes · 07/08/2021 23:26

cod ran a cracking potty training thread here amongst other stuff.
I started in 2003 looking for pregnancy advice, have had a lot of gaps over the years. Back looking for menopause information!
I went to one of the meet ups years ago at Somerset House, that would never happen now.
And I genuinely laughed and learnt a lot and felt intellectually challenged whilst deep in a fog of baby tiredness. I feel very warm about the early years.

The cliques have always been annoying!

Hichic · 07/08/2021 23:29

@Sparklingbrook I agree it can lead to it being deleted. But I think that's unfair to the OP especially if their not a troll. Nothing seems to happen to the troll hunters which is against the rules

OP posts:
DanielTigersMummy21 · 07/08/2021 23:31

It used to be soo funny...now I rarely laugh out loud.

Recently there was a post about a shouty baby that was so funny, it reminded me of the good old days when there were posts like that every day. I don't even know why I'm still on here tbh, if I wasn't lonely as hell in my real life I'd give it up in a shot.

Viviennemary · 07/08/2021 23:31

I think its better without the Queen Bee folk. I didn't like the cliques and daft in jokes either.

Sparklingbrook · 07/08/2021 23:33

[quote Hichic]@Sparklingbrook I agree it can lead to it being deleted. But I think that's unfair to the OP especially if their not a troll. Nothing seems to happen to the troll hunters which is against the rules[/quote]
The trollhunter's posts get deleted. I would imagine if there's a lot of deletions for a poster due to trollhunting MNHQ might seek to do something more I'm not sure? A warning maybe?

Twistiesandshout · 07/08/2021 23:34

Joined when I was pregnant in 2009 and leaned on the communal wisdom of fellow mums who had been there and done that. Got my arse handed to me a few years later on an AIBU, name changed a few times since then. Dipped in and out last few years but the feminist topic has been brilliant and eye opening for me. Definitely feels bigger and I hate the daily mail lazy journalists scouring the site for stories.

WaterIsBest · 07/08/2021 23:36

So much bigger

There use to be names i recognised

Theres a stronger need to name change due to ‘security’ My Iphone always tells me to change my password on here, so i end up changing my username too

Alot more troll threads and i think people are more horrible , than they use to be, in AIBU

OverByYer · 07/08/2021 23:38

I joined in about 2004. Lots of nam changes since. Back then felt like I knew a lot of the posters. Now not so much . I didn’t visit the site for a long time but have been drawn back in mainly by the Handmaids Tale thread

yourestandingonmyneck · 07/08/2021 23:47

@DramaAlpaca

I've been here ten years. The trolling has got much worse, so many made up threads that are very obvious and tedious. The aggression on AIBU can be horrendous, and there are far fewer really funny threads these days. It's deteriorated since that stupid penis beaker thread attracted lots of attention a while back.

Some of the queen bee types left after the New Year's Eve debacle years ago, thank goodness. The site is so big now that it's harder for cliques to form, and that's a good thing.

I'd love to know which particular queen bee @Galassia is referring to!

@DramaAlpaca what was the New Years Eve debacle?

Sounds intriguing and dramatic!

DramaAlpaca · 07/08/2021 23:53

@yourestandingonmyneck have a read further down the thread, I explained it there and so did @Geamhradh, whose memory of it is better than mine.

ShowOfHands · 07/08/2021 23:53

I joined back when Cod/Cdo/odc was edgarcat. She was a MN regular, no idea where Norfolk is/was, confused about Alan Partridge, fierce about fashion and terribly blunt. At least I think she was, 78% of her contributions predated autocorrect and seemed to be in binary code. She was a good egg.

AF is also a good egg and v much still a MNer. She's been unfairly maligned on here.

exwhyzed · 07/08/2021 23:55

what was the New Years Eve debacle?

Some mumsnetters got a bit silly, and rather than rolling their eyes and telling them to behave or else, the person left in charge at mumsnet towers for the night panicked and Shut.It.Down

DramaAlpaca · 08/08/2021 00:03

@exwhyzed

what was the New Years Eve debacle?

Some mumsnetters got a bit silly, and rather than rolling their eyes and telling them to behave or else, the person left in charge at mumsnet towers for the night panicked and Shut.It.Down

That's a good summary Grin