Justine says MN is too mean and will tighten-up moderation

[noblegiraffe]

Justine posted this on a low-traffic thread in AIBU and I think it deserves a wider audience than it is currently getting, especially as it is asking posters to report low-level sniping and pile-ons. Perhaps a bigger announcement is planned, I don't know.

"Thanks for raising this - it's something we've been discussing internally as we've noticed the same shift you’re describing and we agree it’s something we need to get a much firmer grip on. Debate is part of Mumsnet’s DNA, but unnecessary meanness isn’t, and it helps absolutely no one.
We’ve already put a plan in place to tighten things up. It’s not just about deleting the really obvious personal attacks, but tackling the low-level sniping and pile ons that drain the life out of threads and discourage people from posting in the first place. That means more proactive involvement from us earlier in a thread, not just sweeping up afterwards.
One thing that really helps is reporting. There are around 25,000 posts a day on here, so we really don’t see that much in real time. If something feels off, please do report it. We promise to read things in context and we’d much rather step in early than let a thread spiral.
Most people on here genuinely want to give support or perspective. When that gets drowned out by needless nastiness, everyone loses. So thank you to everyone who’s raised this. We hear you, we agree with you, and we’re working on it."

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5442610-the-current-state-of-mn-and-how-do-i-stop-reading?reply=148524522&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

The Telegraph comments are hilarious - you can be as racist, sexist and all round vile as you like, but you musn't say a 'naughty word'.

Hard to ignore when Mumsnet’s moderation has resulted in the normal posters being banned or deterred, leaving so many trolls and troublemakers! Most threads are ruined now.

I know you can ignore goady threads,troll threads,arsehole posters etc but at what point do you stop engaging altogether because a glance down Active shows you the majority of threads are made up bollocks?

There's very little to keep anyone interested now. I'm another one who uses Reddit far more than MN now. At least there's some humour on there.

I think it would be a thing of beauty. I wouldn’t have to see the blocked poster’s posts and would accept any disjointedness happily. Everyone else would still see them spouting bile, but I would just be happily not seeing the shit that they were directing at me.

Yea if the posts were quoted I’d be unable to see the quotes but I could live with that.

If redditing on a laptop I strongly recommend downloading the Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) which lets you customise the experience in detail. Dunno why I can't link.

Also have a look at 'old reddit' which many of us find far easier to read than the tile-based nonsense which is the default.

I am not suggesting women are all sweetness and light all the time, but I really do think this has a not insignificant part to play...

I use ChatGPT for advice nowadays. It’s really helpful and polite.

Ooh, that's a good idea.

They will prise Old Reddit out of my cold dead hands.

Actually thinking more about blocking I don’t know how it would work on.here with all the name changing. Perhaps you’d just need to keep adding to the “blocked” list.

I have had a couple do posts deleted for being anti semitic but were just challenging the Israeli state.

A pet peeve, is the use (read abuse) of GIFs to close down debate.

Juvenile and frustrating.

I’ve been looking at MN in the middle of the (UK) night lately for various reasons, and noticed a few posts with zero replies suddenly be promoted to the trending board. They weren’t even newly posted!

It make me think that traffic must be very, very slow these days, possibly a combination of the Big Moving Advert Shitshow and the troll apocalypse.

I’m becoming much more careful about contributing content to MN these days.

The site changed during the start of 'professionally offended' posters era. The point where people became afraid to joke or had to put 'Lighthearted' in the thread title. MN should have taken a much harder line on the Dementors - they sucked the joy out of the site and made people afraid to be spontaneous. Those same people evolved to become the 'virtue signalling woke activists' who tried to police all discussion. Every pendulum swings too far, reverses and then overcorrects.

That's where we're at now. People got so tired of being silenced or policed or shut down just for telling the truth that they snapped and just started thinking: Fuck you, I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

We're in the awkward overcorrection stage at the minute but it will eventually return to centre. If I could force people to understand one thing it's that the freedom to speak includes the freedom to be challenged. It's healthy. Democracy relies on it. The left were the worst offenders for a period and now the receipts are being cashed. It will be bumpy for a while.

Agree with this.
It will just become lifeless. Like so many other things.

I often imagine MN as a destresser from some people.
Get the kids to bed, have supper, crack open the wine and settle down to skimming the MN post , adding a nasty comment whenever a vulnerable poster is spotted.
So many of the posts clearly have little or no thought to them and are knee-jerk reactions.

I wonder if some that repeatedly get their posts deleted are banned? There are some who post prolifically on here but who then suddenly disappear into the ether. 'Bluntness' comes to mind. Was a 'say it as it is' type of poster who has gone AWOL.

If anyone thinks this didn’t used to happen in the good old days, I watched ‘Lady of Letters’ the other day. Can you imagine her on here?!

I do confess I get fed up with a handful of TRA Ploppers on FWR. Not because I disagree with them but because they lie, prevaricate and derail. They wildly overestimate their intelligence and do some amazingly word salady mansplaining. I'm in awe of the patient, intelligent women who respond to them as though they're engaging in good faith. They're not. They're like the South Park kid bleating 'Respect my authority' over and over again. It's a really insidious derailing tactic and I wish MN told them: engage in good faith. Don't mansplain or patronise, especially when you're not clever enough to get away with it. If you just disrupt every thread and add no value we will monitor the emerging pattern.

Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner as if you wanted to edit your post, look at the bottom of that list, the report button is there.
It's a sensible choice of location because when one's dander is up, it's good to have a moment, however brief, to consider "is this really worth reporting or am I just feeling umpty?".

Edited to add; "monetizing hatred" really doesn't seem evidence-based.

It's a shame she didn't realise this during the pandemic. Some of the horrendous stuff posted on here was beyond belief. People who couldn't wear masks being told they deserved to catch Covid and die and a hardcore of posters derailing threads with personal attacks. My mental health was in the toilet at the time and some of the stuff here made it so much worse, until I had the good sense to step away.

"is this really worth reporting or am I just feeling umpty"

That is a very good way of putting it @HildegardP . Check umpty levels before reporting!

If that was the case, I'm done.

All of this.

As a pp said, not just nastiness but lazy knee-jerk responses build up to spoil the experience ime.