To think that jumping to a person's defense

[MrsLouisTheroux]

Is very noble and all that but is very irritating at the same time.

I can fight my own battles, have my own disagreements, make my own judgements and don't particularly welcome others butting in in a misguided attempt to 'stick up for me'.

I see it quite a bit on here between posters. One will appear on a thread out of nowhere and contribute nothing to the conversation orher than some random comment in defense of their friend.

Why? Leave people to have their own discussions/ disagreements. smells of sucking up to me

Agree with the op and also agree with Beer's post at 14:53.

I genuinely think it's not a concerted sticking together thing but just an interest in same threads and similar opinions.

tether

I have a small number of Mumsnetters who I consider sort of friends (in that I have got to know them over the many years I've spent posting on here) but often feel I have to keep quiet on a thread if I agree with them and they are in a fight, because then the cliquey accusations start flying.

Its all very tricky!

Good post daisychain

not sucking up just agreed and cba to be any more eloquent.

I don't have any friends

I just wander round finding threads that interest me and post if I've got an opinion, I see people sometimes on the same threads a fair bit because they clearly are interested in similar things.

I do sometimes go - here, hang on, that's not fair...but only if I think it's not fair and then I'm not looking at who it is, because I don't really know them anyway.

I'm just giving an opinion on what's actually there.

You get it the other way round though too - people send out a call to attack, it can be very unpleasant. Like sort of 'come and look at this, it's weirdy pants again, with another ridiculous thread'.

Sometimes it's amost fair in that the person is a troll or genuinely unpleasant - but at other times it can be horribly unkind, and the person is just some poor soul who hasn't got much of a clue.

Also sometimes it's something like mistaken identity when people say to one another 'I think this is such and such, again' and actually, it's not, and that leaves the person it happens to mightily confused and in a position of having to protest their innocence.

I don't think I've ever asked someone to join me on a thread. I did wish they would once when I was getting laid into by a proper clan of nasties but anyway, that was years ago, hopefully said nasties have left by now!

therealamanda I get precious few people sucking up to me, either in RL or on Mumsnet, so any offers gratefully received

I did it on a thread a while ago where the OP had many many people accusing her of being a journalist, a troll or both. I wasn't "friends" with the OP but just happened to have seen them around the pregnancy and BFing boards a lot when I was pregnant myself and the name had stuck in my mind.

I posted telling her she WBU as far as her AIBU went, but also saying "Lay off, the OP's not a troll, she's been around here a while".

Was that unacceptable?

This -> ^I find this all weird tbh.

I open mn. I click on threads in active conversations.
I have no idea who will be posting. I recognise names or not. I post according to the content.

I have never sent a message to someone saying 'come to this thread'
I have never had a message saying 'come to this thread'^

How would anyone know if someone had called someone else over to a thread ? .
I post whatever my opinion is on whatever is being discussed, without taking any note of who a poster is. Mind, if I were discussing things in a RL group, I'd still express my opinion and not "side" with the side of an argument that someone else had chosen because they were my friend, I'd still offer my own opinion, otherwise, what's the point in being in the discussion ?

ive seen someone moaning on twitter about people not liking their thread on mumsnet and to come on to it

daisychain

seensomuch I was going to say but then I remembered a couple os threads recently where I'd seen such a deluge of fanatic and like minded posters at a particular point I had wondered whether they'd received a sort of "call to arms"

I don't like to see "ganging up". So I guess I might "stick up" for someone if I saw that happening.

I see it quite a bit on here between posters. One will appear on a thread out of nowhere and contribute nothing to the conversation orher than some random comment in defense of their friend

Some posters definitely have cronies they call, you really see it when a bunch come flocking on at the same time. I ado suspect some have alternate accounts/switch names to back themselves up (taps nose)

I stepped in a few days ago because there was orchestrated bullying going on (and I know this because someone referred to receiving PMs about the thread). I didn't know the Op, nor did I receive a call to arms but I'd bloody well do it again.

I think the bullying point is quite interesting.
Like "one (wo)man's defender is another's bully"
So much depends on tone and number of ppl and context. And it can change quickly.

Sometimes ppl are on a lighthearted thread or just having a wave to someone they know or who they like.
But when I see what I consider to be "pack" behaviour against a poster I'm reminded of Ben Elton's "blind faith" and his descriptions of online social interaction.