MN oldies, what do you wish HQ would do differently?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

I'm not putting this in site stuff because I'm not addressing it to HQ, I'm addressing it to people who've used the site for a few years. By oldies I mean people who've been around for a bit - maybe a couple of years?

For me - it's still that they will NOT housekeep AIBU so that the site doesn't look like nothing but AIBU for everything.

Some people post really serious stuff in AIBU (paraphrasing but AIBU to be upset at this devastating cancer diagnosis/violent relationship/being made homeless/dire poverty/dog poo on the streets/state of the NHS/genocide in x country/shall I abort or not) etc. There is nothing unreasonable about what they are posting.

I've moaned about it for years and years and, yes, I'm still here - there aren't many alternatives and I enjoy the food, travel, S&B, TV, property and chat boards and have received and given loads of useful info over the years. But I probably missed a lot because threads on those topics were posted in AIBU.

And also, I think outside of Mumsnet it makes us a bit of a laughing stock.

So that's my biggest petty gripe. What is yours?

Bonus 100 points for every "if you don't like it you can fuck off" post.

Sometimes I wish they'd allow PMs and maybe a few more improvements on the app, but there's a part of me that knows deep down that any improvements would result in permanent destruction of features I like, this being a very cobbled together sort of site.

Almost 19 years for me

A lot of topics are not of interest anymore so it’s annoying when I’m looking in say, higher education, and there are a load of ads or sponsored threads to do with nappies etc that I have to scroll down through. Those could be targeted more effectively.

I can't put my finger on it but something really shifted post Brexit. I don't know if it was the influx of inorganic site users that found MN via a shit newspaper?

It's not as funny as it used to be either. No idea what MN can do to remedy that though 😂

I've been on MN nearly a decade, long before I had my own DC but I use the site far, far less frequently now.

omg, I've been on MN longer than Cod.😮

i suppose I'm the only one who is going to suggest LESS moderation. The pretence that you can police the boards with a nuanced hand is pretty daft and leads to lots of pointless moderating and statements. Does MNHQ really think their moderation regime works well?

My favourite online place (funny, very supportive) is a Facebook group with ONE rule. The mods are Gods and impose OneRule on their capricious own judgement. One rule = be nice to and about real people. Dead people and imaginary people are fair game to say what you want, but sharp comments about/to living people will earn you a ban. If someone disagrees with you then about the strongest thing they can is "Well I strongly disagree and it upset me to read that" and then you can't really say much more ... maybe "I agree".

It's nuts!

"I'm 36 and I've got a sore foot and an itchy nose, could I be in peri?"

"YES, absolutely, get yourself onto HRT stat. Don't take no for an answer, GPs don't know anything."

In fairness (though, yes, I do know what is meant by the dictatorship on the Menopause board) I despair at the sheer number daily of people posting elsewhere with their itchy foot= peri self-diagnosis/I'm in peri should I get adjustments at work stuff.
But then I'm on record here somewhere with my opinion on celebrities cashing in (yet again) by over medicalising and encouraging medicalisation of the menopause.
And that's without the face cream in pink boxes.

We've only just (about) managed to be taken seriously in the workplace because of having vaginas that babies sometimes come out of. Davina had fucked that up for us good and proper once we hit 45.

I never left. Nor banned

Also agree with @Decorhate about education. Especially those , which are the like which school should I choose Eton or Harrow

yes. Let a total stranger advise you.

Even if there is some stat saying this, I can't see how it would be reliable. Mumsnet have no way of establishing these things. I reckon if 45% of registered users were men, the topics being discussed would be rather different.

In the last six or so years I would say the site has become much more hostile to men, leastways the boards with the must traffic.

I can't put my finger on it but something really shifted post Brexit.
To be fair, I think that the whole of the internet shifted at about that time, into the sheer insanity of disinformation, fury, tribalism, etc that we see all around us. It's affected MN too.
I don't know if it was the influx of inorganic site users that found MN via a shit newspaper?
MN users have been claiming (probably correctly) about influxes via shit newspapers from time immemorial. I first posted here shortly after the Gina Ford controversy (was that her name? Morningpaper made some joke about her and she was furious). It seemed at the time that MN had about 11 posters before that story hit the papers and they were now furious that there were now as many as 22.

Wish they still had the Book Club, where you had a chance to get a free Book of the Month! Sent to you by the publisher. I had some great ones.

I've been on and off MN for about 10 years. Whenever I come back I wonder if the school uniform troll is still around. And the piss troll.

Back then it was very cliquey and full of Guardian readers who are just as nasty as they claim DM readers to be. I know liberals who wouldn't use MN at the time because it was too left wing!
It has actually balanced out.

I'm sick of the tiresome TERF posts, especially when they try to shoehorn their agenda into other topics.

I'd like a like button and I do think it's only a matter of time before we get one (or a reaction button).

I wish HQ would stop deleting threads just because the OP doesn't like the answers, it's really tiresome.

On the Saturday when Gina Ford first posted there was a meet up in beetroot’s field in Somerset.
seemed like I was the only person to read it. It all went nuts then

(the bottom butter thing was a joke btw. Someone once confessed to me that they did it. Can’t remember who. Also I found out who the big white arse was. Also can’t remember )

A real actual meet-up in a real actual beetroot field? Or am I being dense about a 'back when MN was all fields' thing?

I'd like a like button and I do think it's only a matter of time before we get one (or a reaction button).
No. Never!

I think we will to be honest.

MN is attracting a younger crowd now (or perhaps I've just got older 😉) and a reaction button is a pretty basic function on most internet sites.

I think because some people are a bit OTT in their loud objections to it, it's easy not to spot those who aren't fussed either way. They could be the majority for all we know.

It's just a button, no big deal.

Beetroot the woman!

Like buttons are everywhere

👎

Oh,lolololol I'd forgotten that there was a poster called beetroot. I pictured you all standing around in a veg crop.

If we have a like button, can we have an <indifferent> button too? Or perhaps that would just be the biscuit. Is that still around?

Actual lolz