to explain the rules of MN Bingo to those who were wondering WTAF last night?

[DameDeepRedBetty]

Last night was very entertaining - until a few idiots started joining in without knowing the rules. So here's a handy cut out and keep guide for the next time.
To start a Bingo thread, ensure it covers at least two well known classic MN themes. Ensure it is outrageously judgey.
Do NOT however involve domestic violence, mental health, or disability, or anything else which any sane person would have strong views on.
Fair game includes Bridezillas, fruitshoots, Greggs Sausage Rolls, Parent and Child parking...
If you see someone being sucked in and posting an obvious 'hasn't got the joke' reply, don't JUST laugh at them. Tell them nicely it's a joke thread, either on the thread or by PM.
If you're getting a lot of serious replies, you've probably judged it wrong. Acknowledge it was a joke thread, apologise, and report it.
Meanwhile, some of the good ones from last night have been allowed back, so I'm going to enjoy reading them now!

WankBadger, get stroppy with the idiots who broke the place last night.

No, I wasn't playing Bingo last night. But I've taken part in spoof threads before and really enjoyed them - when they're done properly. Last night too many people had had too much I fear.

I've reported my own first post btw so HQ will definitely see this thread. I know they're thinking about ways to avoid having to ever use lock-down again.

Oh so that's what it was. I stopped reading because I thought there had been another invasion of dickheads deliberately trying to get the site closed down. Seems I was right.

i though mn's official game was mornington crescent, now i see it's 'Bingo' how this place has gone to the dogs.

I think that if you have to explain a joke then the joke wasn't funny to start with.

I'd say that if people need a joke explained then they probably lack a sense of humour.

if there was a game being played, rules should have been set down for all to see.

Erm you realise that it's not an actual game like Monopoly? It's something that just grew. The 'rules' are just suggestions to avoid upset and ought to be common sense.

Mornington Crescent was poached from Radio 4 though. We should have our own.

cluttered the place up

What the hell does that mean? Making posts for entertainment on a site designed for making posts for entertainment?

Thankyou DameDeep it is refreshing to have rules explained so that newbies like me dont feel they arent in on the joke and so they know whats going on and can join in the fun

and not cock things up too badly

There is a brilliant one at the mo from a Bridezilla whose bridesmaid is now expecting (outrage) and will have a bump so wont 'match' the other bridesmaid (trembles with anger and bosom-hoiking)

Happy New Year all!

Ah ha! I thought I was going mad last night, then started to wonder if there was some mysterious game going on. Thanks OP! Maybe next time I'll play...

And I think those people getting stroppy need to calm down a bit. Yes, it was a bit confusimg if you weren't in on it, but it was obvious something was going on. And it's never funny if you have to explain it...

I saw that last night, daisy, and I agree the OP. got that absolutely right.

In fact, a similar thing did, apparently, happen to a MNer a year or so ago, where a family member asked them to stop TTC for a couple of months, so their wedding wouldn't be disrupted.

And frankly, anyone who would actually think that their wedding day is more important than other people's lives, deserves to be offended. Whereas, parents of autistic children and gay people, (amongst others who may have had cause for offence last night) do not.

I was reading them last night.

I think those who think they were "just jokes" probably didn't open the homophobic or cancer related ones.

If vile bigotry and speech that prima facie breaks the Equalities Act is OK because "it was meant to be satire" then we may as well rename ourselves ARRSE.

Or we could realise that it went too far.

It was all so tedious, boring and unoriginal though. Has all been done before on a smaller scale. The witty and intelligent original thinkers who usually make me roar weren't much in evidence last night - it was just a boring bandwagon. If that make me have a sense of humour failure in some people's eyes then good. I would prefer to have my sense of humour than the unoriginal and I imaginative one on display last night.

"Mumsnet is not primarily for "entertainment", it's somewhere to come for support, advice, information."

Where on earth did you get that idea?

Mumsnet is whatever we make it. It grows and changes as different people use it. There are no rules on what topics should or shouldn't be discussed (outside of properly offensive stuff).

Many use it for support advice and information. Many also use it for entertainment. Personally I use it for both. None of them are the "correct" use.

Justine is on record saying when originally thought about setting up mumsnet she saw it as a kind of "Which?" for parents. It's not that, because we've made it into something else, and Justine had the good sense to go with what posters wanted, rather than imposing what it "should be" on us.

Sorry I don't understand the game.

So you start a thread, it takes off, then what?

People post on it? Presumably rehashing typical MN responses on themes?

Cos that just sounds like: let's take the piss a bit. Which is fair enough I suppose...

Does sound like the posts last night were way off the mark though!

Basically the "joke" threads were trolling, but by known posters, so apparently that's ok.

I thought it was funny!

But then I only opened the fruitshooty ones.

Why would I open something which is likely to be upsetting and unfunny?

I read all of the "joke" threads last night.

Besides the fact that this is a truly reflection of my nye...

I actually read on one about parking..one poster said " an upside of being in a wheelchair is your shoes don't hurt".

To my knowledge this thread has stayed, apparently i'm the only person offended by this? Im not disabled or particulary sensitive but i just thought it was the most unfunny statement i've read to date.

I could have written the script last night about what would happen today.
It would be all the "idiots" who ruined it...code for newbies.

It was frankly embarassing to read and the inability for the "in" crowd to take responsibility for their role is not unexpected but sad all the same.

I thought it was boring, tedious and embarrassing. I stopped reading and went to bed. Frankly it just looked as though a few bored well known posters thought it was a jolly funny jape to take over the busiest forums with pisstaking threads and drown out anyone else. Oh how we laughed.

Maybe MN bingo like Boycott Bingo will be mentioned by the Prime Minister as an attempt to seem with it and not isolated from the masses.

A number of people said there wasn't a cancer thread, and I didn't see one.
All the ones I clicked on were just about the usual fruitshoots, p and c parking and goats.
The outraged are just exaggerating to make their non existent points.

uptheanty I saw the post you mentioned about wheelchair users being able to wear heels and not feel uncomfortable and failed to see the funny side. And reported it.

I then saw on another thread someone asking Rebecca MN to unban the poster responsible for the wheelchair post, so I'm not sure if she was banned for it (though why would the post not have been deleted) or for other "hilarious" postings.

I made the post on the thread in which the OP was jokingly saying that she parks in P&C spaces to save her sore feet.

It was extremely ill-advised and for that I am sorry. It was not meant to be funny but more as a reaction from a disabled person against all the, "wheelchairs users have all the advantages" seen on the recent pushchair spaces on the bus thread.

More of a about such attitudes if you will. It is a vile one and all too common, sadly.

Sorry again, for the offence caused and thank you for reporting.

I whole heartedly apologise for starting a thread stating I was drinking champagne paid for from my benefits: I was drinking champagne, I do get CTC - it all goes into the same account the champagne came out of

I do not, however own a goat or a 90" plasma

I have no idea what hapend after that as I wasn't here - but I have been banned - so consider myself punished