Is Mumsnet killing itself by posting on Facebook?

[noblegiraffe]

Lots of posts recently have commented on how engagement with threads seems to have dropped, people aren't posting as much.

I was just on Facebook and a post from Mumsnet randomly came up as something Facebook thought I might be interested in. I was pretty surprised to see it had hundreds of replies. The first post said 'engage with the conversation here' with a link to the thread, but people were engaging with it on Facebook instead. And they were discussing the issue, giving advice to the OP, who was never going to read it.

MNHQ - what is the solution to this? Do you care so long as you are getting engagement somewhere even if the OP is missing out on the advice/discussion? I don't know how Facebook is monetised.

I think if I posted a thread and people were talking about me and my post elsewhere without me benefiting from the advice or having the ability to engage and respond (I would not be responding using my real name on Facebook to a post I've made as noblegiraffe!) I would be pretty annoyed.

I know we don't own anything we post on here and MNHQ can use it as they wish, but they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot killing discussion on here by encouraging it elsewhere.

It’s a public forum tbf

I agree. It is all very off-putting and worrying! If I had wanted to post on Facebook, I would have posted there!

Wtf I had no idea our threads were posted on other sites?! I use Mumsnet for a lot of infertility stuff (different username) and I’m abhorred they’re using our lives as advertising without seeking permission. Will seriously rethink commenting on anything new. They already make us “pay” by forcing a thousand adverts that constantly make pages reload becuase they’re too overloaded. This is too much. So irresponsible.

thanks OP for bringing it to our attention

The content is there to drive people to the website. That’s what all social media content is for basically.

Repeatedly seeing/engaging with MN posts on FB will eventually lead to a certain percentage of conversions/sign-ups or they wouldn’t waste time doing it.

Its just marketing.

Agree completely and it’s one of the reasons I no longer post for advice on personal situations, as I’ve been outed through someone I know seeing one of my posts on Facebook.

I know it’s the internet and public information, etc etc but as much as we complain about the Daily Mail taking stories for clicks, MN is just as bad with their Facebook posts.

I’m really shocked about this. I had no idea that this was happening. I don’t use Facebook but my wider family do. I thought I could give advice on here using my own experiences knowing that my family wouldn’t see it. Now I definitely can’t. I’ll be restricting my posts to very innocuous topics.

I read a post yesterday about the all ‘fake’ feeling posts that keep appearing and someone mentioned it could be AI companies training their products on genuine human responses and interactions, could the FB thing support that idea too? It really does feel like there’s been a shift in calibre of posts and replies.

Maybe it’s another sign of the ‘algorithm’ dumbing people down making them less likely to engage with posts or even care enough to waste their finger muscles. The attention span of society seems to be 2 seconds right now, no critical thought or inclination to care before swiping onto the next thing.

I didn’t know about this and agree with you. Can you post again in Site Stuff or report your post so MNHQ respond?

Why do they need to respond? They’re a business which makes money from membership numbers.

They’re actually not here for the fluffy advice; they’re here to make money from advertisers, and using social platform drives sign-ups.

Sorry if lots of you don’t like it but that’s the case.

… because they won’t have anything to sell if they piss off their users?

Just realised that training AI post was yours @noblegiraffe … definitely feels linked the more I think about it.

Oh they’ve got millions…by using social media to drive traffic, in large part

If they want to encourage people to come to Mumsnet, they could post the OP, a link in the comments saying comment here, and then turn off FB comments. And then make sure the FB post is deleted if the Mumsnet one is.

They do have permission in that you agree when signing up that your content can be used anywhere. But like others I got a shock to see posts on Facebook because lots of my friends and family use it . I take very good care these days to anonymise everything I post. i think that 30 Days Only should be closed down because it gives a misleading impression.

You keep saying it drives traffic to the site, and i'm sure a few might create accounts, but I suspect many will just reply to the posts on facebook. Why bother signing up, or even visiting the site, when they have already given advice on facebook. The posts on the MN facebook page don't even link to the actual threads.

This is a good idea @noblegiraffe ?

@Andromed1 like many Ts&Cs on websites that are screeds and screeds long, I think it was calculated somewhere that if a person actually read through all the Ts&Cs they needed to tick in order to function in modern society, it would take days. I think my relationship with Mumsnet is over.

Yeah I agree not linking to the threads is a miss and I’d give the social media person a kick up the ass if it was me, but it must benefit them and they’ll know that from the analytics.

A brief look into it (I don’t know if it’s correct) shows that people have a right to object to their posts being used as advertising. And also, in cases where personal data is included (if it’s outing or if it contains medical data) it would be a very serious GDPR problem and possible breach.

Interesting that mumsnet HQ banned the laugh emoji reaction because it was really hurting and upsetting people when used in the wrong context.

There have been a few posts where they defended their decision and refused to bring it back when people asked for it but then post on Facebook without consent where I noticed a few “laugh” reactions to posts that people have assumed will just be viewed on mumsnet and were seeking support thinking they will know their audience.

I also hate the 😮 reaction as it just feels like the posts are being used for entertainment value when mumsnet has always seemed like a supportive community and where you can post without judgement or thinking that it’s going to get shared all over the internet.
I chose to post on mumsnet knowing it’s mostly women in the uk who will have shared a lot of experiences with me and will have likely also posted for advice at some point. It puts us in the same boat.

I don’t think it’s the same knowing it could pop up on a 18 year old boys feed or a 40 year old American mans when I post about personal experiences like perimenopause, infertility or marriage problems.

I also worry about what happens if gender critical content is shared as mumsnet has become a safe space for it and it’s putting people at risk from TRA’s if they read something they don’t like.

I’m glad I’m aware of this now, thank you. I’d like to see what mumsnet HQ have to say about people’s privacy concerns and what happens if you delete a thread.

From what I can see, the first post in the comments section always contains a link to the thread with ‘join the conversation’ but then you have sometimes hundreds of people commenting on Facebook instead.

It does occur to me that Facebook contains far more bots than MN because it is monetised so someone could compare responses between the two.

I understand people’s privacy concerns at threads being used in this way. My original concern is that one of the reasons MN is so shit now is due to the number of ads. I was assuming as traffic goes down the number of ads required to sustain the site goes up. So if mass engagement is happening elsewhere instead of traffic on MN, that impacts the site.

Perhaps because Facebook is monetised the engagement there is more profitable??

I reported my OP yesterday. We’ll see!

Why do people still think that MN is some cosy little kitchen table chat site? There are MILLIONS of users. If you’re naive enough to think that you have any expectation of privacy, I hope to god you’re a bit more savvy about what your children are consuming online.

This exact thing happened years ago to a very popular Irish mothering website and as soon as it was made clear everything was going on fb everyone started leaving the site, someone opened another mothering site and that was it for the original one, it was closed down or removed.

It’s not that it’s not private, it’s that they’re using people’s posts as advertising. And in the example given above, a post that was deleted explicitly because it was outing remained on Facebook for all to see. Mumsnet can no longer control what’s out on Facebook as it’s not their site. Neither can they moderate responsibly. If a post is deleted becuase the user accidentally shared too much information that post should not appear elsewhere. And btw “Cosy little kitchen table chat site” feels inappropriate in the context of people going through extreme situations and looking to connect with others whatever the cost. If feels exploitative that there is no protection, including deletion, for that user. Mumsnet isn’t all baking and family tiffs.