to not know if it's wrong

[ADishBestEatenCold]

... to look up somebody's old threads?

On several occasions in the past I have used the 'Search' tool to look up someone's old threads or past posts.

So often a thread might start with something like "For those of you who know me I've posted about this problem in the past ..." so, if I don't know what they're talking about (and it's an interesting subject) I might search using their Nickname.

Recently, however, I read a post which strongly suggested that searching someone's Nickname was contrary to mumsnet etiquette.

Is there a rule?

I think people say its against mn etiquette to look up past threads to use them against a poster

I think it depends on the circumstances.

It's ok to search if trying to read a back story, but I know it's frowned upon to quote the posts if they are not related to the current thread.

If they are posting in Relationships about a problem with a long backstory, then that is fine to search and look that up.

If they are in chat and make a comment on a thread, but you quote them, by searching a post in another topic then that's not ok.

At least, that's what I've learnt.

I think it's fine to look, but you have to bear in mind people change details for innocent reasons - it's not on to dash onto a thread in your super-sleuth cape saying 'ooh, two years ago you claimed to live in Leeds and now you're saying it's York, you must be lying about everything under the sun'.

Of course it is, they wouldn't have the feature otherwise. Plus is interesting to note that a person is forever moaning about the same thing and not doing anything to sort it out, saves bother of replying

I think some people do it maliciously. If they're pissed off with a poster and "can't get the better of them" (usually in AIBU) they'll trawl through their old posts to see if they can then drag something up that contradicts the current argument. It's petty and childish.

I looked up someone's posts the other day as they sounded really distressed and I didn't know if they were a brand new member or if they had a history of depression and alcohol. But that's it, I wouldn't do it for any other reason.

I sometimes do a search if I think the op may be trolling...just to see if its their first / only post and whether I'd be wasting my time typing out a nice sensible reply.

People can also get extremely angry if you don't know backstory, though, so it is tricky.

These sound pretty much the sort of circumstances I might search under. I don't think I would use it maliciously. Though I have got to confess I did use it once because I thought a poster was bullshitting, so I guess in that instance I did sort of hope to catch them out, maybe not such a good reason.

If you have to go to the lengths of searching through old posts in order to catch another poster out, the best thing to do really is just ignore them or hide the thread.

I think your probably right there, Smilesandpiles, and I usually don't unless previous threads or events are referred to.

It's not wrong but I remember I said I was new ish to mumsnet and someone said they had searched my name and told me how many times I'd posted. It really freaked me out.