The old days of Mumsnet when…

[Anon778833]

Back in 2003, there was a section entitled ‘introductions’ and people would post identifying photos of themselves and their dc. And a post about themselves.

How times change!

It's really funny cos I'm a recent thread on FWR board obviously no o E knew me and I got accused several times of being a man . .

I joined in 2010.
Profiles were still a thing. And you could write a line about yourself or whatever, like a status, which showed when people hovered over your username. It didn't change if you name-changed though, so that would sometimes catch people out.
I liked the Xmas gift nominations thing. I got nominated once, no idea what for, but it was sooooo lovely.

Also recall you could easily find Unanswered Threads and respond.

I think people used to be more intelligent too - I used to learn about things here. Or more ‘get schooled’ I suppose. But still. I miss that.

I remember the poster Getorfmyland. She was very kind to me on a thread once and I’ve always remembered it, it was an area of the internet where real human interaction took place.

The change has been gradual, but not just here, everywhere. The culture wars, far-right/alt-right/Trump, especially people trying to kill argument (and each other) with ‘research’ - the number one most misused word online - the realisation that things like Cambridge Analytica (UK), the Internet Research Agency troll farm and interference in Brexit vote/Trump’s election (Russia), the Edward Snowden NSA scandal were going on, all of this has really fucked up the human potential of the online space.

The intelligent people are still there but they’re not so easy to spot, I’d say 😬

It was lucky for me that I found MN in the early days of discovering that my dd had a severe disability.

Oh, I forgot ‘evidence’, tied with ‘research’ for most fucked with and misused word online.

I miss the shopping lists "found" in trolleys. Someone posted one a year or two ago and it went a bit judgy and a tad weird. We still buy naice ham.

15 years for me and I notice the difference. I think back then Chat threads would disappear after awhile so people felt more comfortable posting on them. I don't like that change, that's for sure.

You did not have to worry about your thread being posted on some godawful newspaper (with crappy journalists with no actual writing skills) either.

I also remember another MNer and I helping another MNer out by accommodating her for a few days after a nasty break up. I would NEVER do that now....

And the for sale pages in the local area....

So much nice stuff to miss. But I was never part of the in group, hang out more on the childcare board as was more knowledgeable about that at the time - that was just one big board and not divided up into the different types of childcare the way it is now.

I used to like the random present swaps - not Christmas. I still use a couple of things I got in them, a set of salad servers and a necklace.

Mn could be pretty sharp back then - i once got a one line telling off from expatinscotland that left me shaking.

I accidentally posted in AIBU instead of Religion/philosophy about 10 years ago. Yeah, "sharp" is a good way of describing it! But you could argue, and give your view and people would agree to disagree. Now it would be bloody vicious tbh, with a whole bunch of nasty, name changing "user blah, blah number" being horrid just because they are anonymous.

I've been here since 2005. It's got me through night feeding babies, all the different stages from newborns to teens and family issues (sick and dying relatives , relationship woes). I struggle to find something that interests me these days , but wonder if that's because my children are pretty much grown up now.

I’m glad it was there for you when you needed it, I think it often has had a real life impact for people

This!!!
Mumsnet is now much less cliquey -it was awful then when Queen Bee with her deliberately mistyped posts ruled the roost and was a Mean Girl.
Much kinder place now with much wider population and better moderation.

Xmas gifts and meet-ups - seems like a world away.
Oh, and Zombie doing her rescue mission 😰 whilst it wasn’t a good idea even back then (2016 ish?), no-one would even consider it now.

I used to go to an Internet Cafe to read posts and reply.
Online space was very different then!

if the thread was put into a newspaper there was a section here linking to it,
just too many now i think

is that you UCM
i nearly referred to that recently on a similar thread

I name change regularly now- didn’t used to do that.
I also hate the way that newspapers trawl the boards looking for things to publish. I’m pretty sure in the olden days they were doing proper journalism.

HELLO. I LOVE YOU TOO

Naice ham and shopping lists were mine. I claim the fuckers

I’d have said was more robust then tbh

Even when I joined about ten years ago there used to be meet-ups and the Christmas secret Santa gift exchange!

I’ve been here about 12 years. Used to find the meet-ups thrilling to read about - both the planning and build-up and then the hilarious recounting of events afterwords - who cried, who drank the place dry, who still hadn’t gone home a week later … Partly envious, mostly horrified …

And I can’t believe how much time and thought (and ££) I put into buying and posting Secret Santa gifts. Did it two or three years before I admitted to myself that I felt a bit conned - particularly when the new year wrap-ups revealed my recipients to be very much better-off than I was.

Anyhow … The place did feel slightly more intelligent nuanced then. I found invaluable advice on niche school choices. And the whole standard of debate was more … careful. There’s a thread running at the moment from ‘Chelsea Horrobin’ and endless people have replied without taking the trouble to read posts telling them she’s a fictional character …

Although you exchanged or gave out lots of information did anyone suffer real harm or being seriously pestered?
We hear lots about things that can go wrong, and when they do, they are serious. But how often did this happen? Suppose that was why it was stopped.

I don't know a non schmaltzy way of saying that Mumsnet saved me once upon a time. It was different and mostly better imho. Except for EdgarCat. She was a right wrongun.

I remember the profile photo! I was jealous of whomovedmychocolate's thatched cottage.