to wonder what Mumsnet is actually for?

[Mintyy]

I find it impossible to use these days.

There is a fight on every thread. And I don't just mean in a yanbu/yabu sort of way. I mean that people are happy to round on others because they have different reasons for being here.

I have even seen a row between two different support threads this week.

If you want to make friends you are told off for being royalty or cliquey.

If you want to indulge in a little mild gossiping you are shouted down for being judgemental or shallow.

If you want to have a lighthearted chat you have to make that clear in the thread title nowadays.

I find the general mood of the place to be aggressive, angry, confrontational, defensive, impossible, predictable.

I keep hoping that things will improve, but how ?

Jaysus, two threads?

yuppity yup.

I am fine Perp thanks. I won't go changing on account of one bizarre outburst on a thread about Scottish football.

Crikey. What did you do, read the DM in a disabled toilet?

What on earth had you said dear Mimi??

See! It's nuts around here.

the racist thread I was talking about was in AIBU, usual "there's too many immigrants coming and getting £1bn houses at our expense" kind of shite, with the first two pages (it was all I could stomach) being MNers going "stop being such an arse".

There are a few racist comments about at the moment, I just read a delightful post about groups of 10 year old Polish gangster children

Because that is really common, 10 year old polish gangsters. IN CRAZY WORLD.

It's like the time my mother got moved on by an election official at the voting booth for harassing a BNP guy.

Basically, there's a big South Asian community near where my parents live, and my DM as a teacher has a lot of interaction with the kids from this community. She lvoes them, they're really well behaved, respectful, hard-working etc. The BNP in the run up to the local elections had been printing a buttload of pamphlets saying that these kids were trouble makers, were bringing down the community - essentially lying. Come election time, DM was all het up about this and saw the BNP guy at the voting station and went up to him, holding one of the leaflets "where's the evidence? This is all lies. You're making this up - it's completely fabricated and you can't prove it" at which point the election official came to save the BNP rep from her. [proud]

It's the dusting and buffing gangsters I worry about more

Well, knock me down with a creepy wee bracket. sm is back. Normality is restored.

Are there ironing gangsters? Or take the laundry out of the machine gangsters? I would like those kinds to come around to mine and just go to town. I HATE taking laundry out of the machine, and I might as well get it ironed if I'm inviting gangsters into my home.

lol Hully. What about those French polish gangsters? They are doubly forrin. Coming over here and stealing the coffee mug rings off our tables.

comes in and goads with a stick

I got so excited about seeing scottish mummy that I got the creepy wee brackets about. She ignored me in her very special ignoring way. I felt speshul

about?

out

cheese eating surrender monkey polish gangsters

hard core

I'd like a take the laundry out gangster.

I have DH but he doesn't have the level of gangster that is required for the job.

I would like him to do it whilst snorting a line of coke with a gun tucked in his waist but he refuses. I don't know why.

I will see if I can find a gangster outside ds2 school, apparently this is where they hang out, spitting.

I want a sort out Hackney Council housing gangsta.

You'd think with the amount of wannabes around here it would be easy, bit oh nooooo.

Well, the second racist thread has been resurrected after two days of no posts (because the discussion had changed to something else) by one of the nonracist posters, who has posted three posts back to back about how she's not racist and making her eyes slantier (her words) with mascara isn't racist, but some of us would say it was?? And then going on to say (for about the 30th time) that there is no racism in the thread.

If that's not massively goady, and trying to start the fight going again, I don't know what is!

It's all according to personal taste. Personally, I don't get along with some of the 'light-hearted' threads where it gets all cliquey, "in-jokes", huddles of people. Trying to add to the thread if you aren't in the in-crowd clique is invariably ignored (sort of RL, really!).

What MN is brilliant for, is real support and solid good advice at a time of crisis, to help vulnerable people in difficulty. I have just spent time reading the thread about the brave lady who is currently under threat of eviction by her STBxP. The amount of love, care and attention given to her over the past 6-8 weeks is inspirational - ironically, as someone posted there, she is receiving better support by strangers than people in RL. I didn't feel it was appropriate to contribute any advice, because there were far more adept people able to give her support.

On balance, if only 1 thread gives such an important life-line to someone in need, it compensates for the light-hearted ones that are somewhat "throw-away".

On the theme of "light-hearted" threads - does anyone know why the " to think that my wife is not always right ?" thread was deleted? It was so goady - a husband saying how thick and lacking in common sense his DW is, laughing about things she says and then pulling the "oh but I was oooonly joking" stunt. It probably just wound people up too much....

It was advertising his blog, that's why it was deleted. He was a total knob though.

Thank you for clarifying that Elizabeth, I didn't realise the url to his blog was the problem - yes, he came across as being really arrogant and patronising. Shameful to go onto a public forum and mock his partner like that (yuk).