Mumsnet things that make me not to want to help. Or even engage…

[CurlewKate]

“His hobby” “Person A and person B” Or even worse “Person A-let’s call them Sid”

Then don't...

Outing hobbies are hilarious. They're always something entirely mundane that thousands of people do. If it was archery while dressed as a member of Red Dwarf, I could understand it, but it never is.

OK....but what language would you prefer they use so they do not need to give names?

When the OP makes a random statement and follows it up by adding "Discuss".

Yes, at least have the cojones to posit your own opinion first.

People who want the ego boost of posting about a breaking news item without checking that there aren't already several threads on the matter.

Or even worse than discuss - Go!

Rambling OP with no paragraphs.

Clickbait titles…

Do / can you help? I can’t say mumsnet threads and helpful particularly go together 😏

Yes, this. If they use real names and it turns out that they're discussing some very sensitive information involving their neighbour Domingo in the village of Little Oakley where they both live, it could be a tiny bit awkward........

The person A person B thing drives me nuts! Because inevitably somewhere in the story they will mix them up and confuse things. Just say me and my friend/partner/whatever, we don’t know you!

Any post in the AIBU topic that starts with “not AIBU but posting here for traffic”.

“Fuck off Daily Fail” or something which indicates they think it’s interesting enough for the press

When the OP doesn't bother replying even once.

OPs that are an essay.

When someone plops an opening post but doesn't say what they want, just telling us a story.

When an OP ignores all replies but only comes back to keep telling us how shit their boyfriend is.

I just click away.

Tripping over themselves to be the 1st to report a celebrity death.

And of course the inevitable ‘who’ died post 5 mins later.

A wall of text.

Anything to do with Israel because I already know what it’s going to say. I have my suspicions about what’s going on on MN in this regard.

Anything to do with special needs: in the early days I used to read these threads and learned so much about what it must be like to raise a child outside of the mainstream and the complete lack of support and despair that causes. I’m an overseas voter so actually MN was my only source of information about education and healthcare on the ground, both from a parent’s perspective and teachers’. Now I click away when the first sentence discloses this information: I can’t contribute, and nothing is changing and I’m also beginning to suspect some gaming of the system by certain parents (which I don’t judge). It’s become far too specialist a category for me.

Any thread that starts with some purported proof of MN credentials eg typing the words “penis beaker” or “snapped and farted”. I can guess what’s going to follow and it would only make me cross.

Poor spag when it’s clear the poster is just being lazy.

People who make ridiculous sweeping statements. For example I know fewer greetings card, birthday, sympathy, Christmas etc are sent now. But suggesting no one sends them is blatantly false. Similarly saying no one ever irons any more (& if you do you’re an idiot) is also false. We’re all different.

Yes. 80% cycling, 10% martial arts classes, only 10% anything else, and still never anything unusual.

But what do you do when it involves say, a group of friends all of the same sex on an equal footing (situationally speaking)?

Presuming you don't want to actually use their real names, and just saying 'she' all the time will give no clue as to whom you're talking about...if some people hate you for calling them A, B, C & D and others hate you for saying "Let's call them Anna, Beryl, Carol and Denise"... what are you actually meant to do to make it in any way easy to follow?

I get stuck on the can’t name the hobby as it will be outing

so many people live such interesting secretive lives on MN

But they could just call person A Sid (even though his real name is Bob) instead of writing "Person A, let's call him Sid".

Alternatively they could just write my friend wants to go to an expensive restaurant and I want to go to a cheap one, who should get to decide? Instead of trying to "keep it neutral" with all the person A and person B stuff, which is usually supposed to keep us guessing about which party the poster is.

The hobby is almost always cycling.

Yes, this one is often quite nasty and dripping with unacknowledged privilege. It's attitudes like this that leave multitudes of elderly people socially and financially isolated, when gross assumptions are made e.g. "Oh, everybody just does that online nowadays" - and then decisions are made by people - often those with a lot of power and influence - who assume that what THEY have chosen/managed to move on from is the same case for absolutely everybody.

So...this "thing" happened. I can't possibly say what it was as it's outing. I am in pieces, any advice please? BTW, I won't actually bother to answer any questions or respond in any way.

I suppose that's part of the Mumsnet charm here. I reckon I've been here 20 years or so and if I don't see a post with outing hobby, maybe the world has ended

me (f/23) and my friend (m/30) ... <lengthy AI shite with bullet points>

Hubby