What is that little grey square with an 'M' in it?

[SarahStrattonsBaubles]

Next to the title of the Libraries thread. What does it mean?

no idea. are we meant to "focus on that thread"? I hope not - naff.

it's a mumsnet sticky thread.

It means that it 'sticks' it to the top of the list of threads, rather than it moving down as other threads are posted on/started

MNHQ do this with important threads that they want people to see/read/post on

It means it's a "sticky thread" - usually one started by MNHQ, or that they think is so important it rates 'sticky' status. Unless you've turned off 'stickies' it will stay at the top of active convos all the time.

Oh, thank you. How annoying. Off to turn off stickies then.

how do you turn off 'stickies' please?

And before anyone asks, you can turn them off by going to 'Customise' near the top of the page and under 'other options' change 'Ignore thread stickies' to 'Yes'

And this is in AIBU because ... ?

OK, not quite before anyone asks......

Emo76 - 'naff'?

Almost.

shitemum yes NAFF -telling people what they should focus on or want to read. I'll decide myself!

No-one is saying you have to read them!

Sometimes they are about competitions, where you can win (usually) lovely prizes, so if you turn stickies off you miss out on those opportunities.

But hey ho - each to their own.

Turn off stickies? It's only one thread! Can you really not just ignore it?

There's about quarter of a page of gumpf before you even get to the discussions - do you read through it every time?

Emo - Fair enough but do you not care that the libraries are under threat?
Or do you just think stickies in general are naff?
Should MN remove all the other stuff that draws your attention to discussions and issues on the site? Everything down the right hand side for example?

I care as much about libraries as I do many of the other worthy issues raised on this site. Certainly not suggesting MN removes the right hand side of the site. Thanks for the help turning off stickies!

Just hide the thread.

SarahStrattonsBaubles thanks for asking, I had no idea but as a nobody didn't want to ask first