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.

I actually think it’s really unfair that it goes on fb sometimes. I see the posts because I follow Mumsnet so potentially I’m worrying over nothing but as soon as I see a post I’m commenting on is on fb, I notify the OP so they’re aware. It scares me to start a post in case anyone can identify me from that post or any of my other posts/comments on a thread. I think it’s taking advantage of its members and as we know they were quite skanky with the by mums for mums product adverts, I wouldn’t really trust them with this.

Was your name visible??

I agree with you I still think a bit of compassion or disgression goes a long way I don't think mumsnet needs to be sensational to get engagement

Oh no!, DISGRETION😳

Or discretion maybe?! 😁

What’s the difference though? Everyone is as anonymous as they want to be on here, the actual platform used is kinda besides the point.

Agree completely

Far too much infantilising of posters

See also the aeons it took to get an edit function - like posters couldn't be trusted not to misuse it
And the ongoing farrago over the react function

Oh .I shall show myself out 😀

Exactly. This is precisely why I don't start my own threads on MN anymore.

I saw a thread recently where a poster had indeed outed herself in a really painful way - it was only removed after 18 hours of pestering MNHQ who were refusing to take it down

Had her error found it's way on to Facebook's wider audience it could have had some serious real life consequences especially if un-beknowst [sp] it had remained there after finally being deleted from MN

I'm usually pretty cynical about threads being removed for privacy reasons - I live the other end of the UK but it was obvious to me who/what was being alluded to

Anonymity completely gone

Yeah but that’s user error - it’s the MN Marketing Team’s job to generate traffic…if they left out the active threads questions would be asked.

Communcations needs improved though, as in the case of a deleted thread which still stood on FB - nobody is updating the social media person.

As a minimum it could have been held back/hidden until the concerns had been satisfactorily addressed

Well that’s what I mean - clearly comms between the internal mods and the social media team are not right. But the rest I can’t see any issue with. Anyone who thinks MN exists solely for the benefit of the user is very naive - our discussions are the product whether they are lighthearted or traumatic.

I agree, it puts me off posting.

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.

I think you missed the PP's point. She's saying that Mumsnet is no longer what it was, which was a forum set up in a kitchen by two women.

Although Justine seems to have written the other woman out of the Mumsnet story. How ironic.

https://www.mumsnet.com/i/about-us

Oh I don’t like this. I thought posts only showed on here and occasionally a news outlet pinched a thread. I didn’t know this was happening.

Also, for those wondering about AI models accessing Mumsnet, I believe they are blocked.

Because Justine has licensed ChatGPT to crawl Mumsnet herself.

"I’m not anti-AI. It plainly has the potential to advance human progress and improve our lives in myriad ways. We used it at Mumsnet to build MumsGPT, which uncovers and summarises what parents are thinking about – everything from beauty trends to supermarkets to politicians – and we licensed OpenAI’s API (application programming interface) to build it."

No doubt part of the deal was to allow ChatGPT to use Mumsnet's millions of posts and replies for its own training.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/28/mumsnet-ai-google-openai-publishing-copyright

That's depressing.

They've possibly monetised their Facebook. My company makes £13k a day from posts on ours.

Well actually I replied to the gist of her meaning, but included an asides to address the language used in her post. You have only quoted my asides and ignored the thrust of my comment. If you didn’t quite understand the point I was making in my asides I’ll explain.

The description used for the women who post without having first considered privacy minimises the seriousness and at times desperateness of their experiences (specifically in the post types i was highlighting.) It is also somewhat sexist ‘kitchen table’ and patronising. Akin to the Tory imagery (if you remember) of the referendum adverts, an image of a woman drinking a cup of tea at her kitchen table saying ‘I just don’t understand what it all means’ 🤢

Definitely this. Sorry MN I won’t be participating any more.
This is completely unacceptable. As others have said, as bad as being in the DM.

but it will give me back my life. 😂

@JustineMumsnet A bigger and more diverse community means more wisdom, more perspectives and more support for the OPs who start threads

I'm sorry but you can't think we are this naive surely?? If OPs wanted support outside MN they would post elsewhere or on multiple sites.

Can't MN at least be honest and say that they want to increase advertising revenue, the easiest and fastest way to do this is clickbait.

As OP and others say here, it puts the site in danger of becoming farcical, just trolls or AI or keyboard warriors who want to start a dispute. Yes the user numbers might increase briefly (no doubt the marketing dept will be patting themselves on the back) but ultimately the quality will reduce and good reasonable posters will disengage, and eventually no one will post here and advertising revenue will drop accordingly. It seems like a very foolish short term logic.

@Dontlletmedownbrucewhy would posting on FB put Mumsnet in danger now, when they have been doing it for years and years. This exact thread comes up at least every 6 months and has done for a long time. If it was damaging to the business it would have damaged it a long time ago.

Wow! How do they do that? Do they post videos, or something?

It is also somewhat sexist ‘kitchen table’ and patronising.

You'd best have a word with Justine then:

"I had continued to behave as though we were all sitting around my kitchen table, picking up how to do things by osmosis."

https://archive.is/xUyQj