to suggest that AIBU should be renamed 'Anyone up for a fracas?'

[TheFirstOfHerName]

Or mêlée, or brouhaha, or contretemps, depending on taste.

Getting back To the discussion .... I vote Frack-Arrr

I heard someone on radio 4 news this morning say frack arse

thats my word for today...frackarse. Going to see how many times I can use it

I think it suits the situation perfectly

Anyone one know where I can get a punch? I want to see how far I can throw it. Is it a bit like a putting the shot? I was quite good at that for a girl

'jeremy kyle show' comes to mind, or 'jerry springer show', i've heard they are famous for their scuffles !

No, my confused face is because I genuinely don't understand what's going on.

Aibu is the armpit of Mumsnet, we all know that surely?

I agree with your "petty gripes" idea, Mintyy. That way, people with, say, relationship problems wouldn't open threads in AIBU, and would get help from the Relationships people, and so on.

I also think there should be a "Judging Other People's Weddings" topic, and I could hide it, instead of having to hide each individual thread, as they come up.

Ok I've only been here for a year and I don't know how it used to be but I lurked for ages and saw in action exactly what pretty is talking about.

I am a member of several other forums and it is not that way - everyone is respectful of others' views and takes pains to validate these before putting their own views forth. To say I was shocked was an understatement, but, here's the thing, I was also intrigued at the blatant 'other people bashing' on AIBU it just seemed so - cathartic or something maybe just weird??

Can't explain or justify my intrigue but it led me to post a fairly innocuous AIBU and see what would happen - I got flamed, some posters completely ignored what I said and they kind of rewrote a character and story for me and then they all posted about that wicked character and story instead of me and my original post! Some posters responded to my post normally and actually kept to the point and were helpful, but others deliberately derailed it to be goady and chatted amongst themselves about how rotten I must be.

Since my OP was insignificant and I was fully aware this may happen I found it a real laugh and wasn't over bothered, more amused at my character assassination, and the nice guys prevailed in the end, but I have to say if I had not been lurking for a year and had thought it was all going to be normal I would have been really offended! Others will be!

Some people will come on here not knowing this is what happens and will not be expecting it!

Anyway it is a hoohar or a keffuffle IMHO!

Mintyy, Kleptronic has it - two threads mashed up here.

1. OP fun-poking at the language about Clarkson (but without saying this explicitly).

2. PrettyFeet genuinely complaining about behaviour in AIBU.

Confusion as light-hearted replies to one thread appear to be replies to the other.

Frack-uh, I believe. Usually an "s" on the end of a word in French is silent. ("ce" on the end of a word, on the other hand, is not; it makes me grind my poor old abused teefs to hear people pronounce "coup de grace" as "coo de grar". I would be quite grateful if a native or well-educated French speaker would correct me on that as it will save a lot of unnecessary irritation. But I fear I may be right after all.)

As for Clarkson: bash away at him with a will, I say. After all, he started it.

Am I Bunfighting Undeniably.

coup de grace is coo-de-grass (as in northern grass not southern grass)

so fracas is french is it? not latin or other?

thank you :)

Where's my goat?

I like the word 'squabble', myself.

A lot of girlies on this site getting their knickers in a twist.

Kleptronic and Pausing have both explained that there are two threads intertwined here.

I am enjoying the "word" thread. I love MN for that sort of thing. Witty people dipping in and out - make me laugh. Some of the threads are hilarious.

I do see Pretty's point too though. I have been accused of being racist, sexist, disablist, stupid, homophobic, money grabbing and several other things. Oddly enough NOT for stating my opinion but simply for clarifying an earlier post or challenging the logic of an assumption or asking a question.

The worrying thing here is it is not a feature of MN but a feature of the style-over-substance, bandwagon politics, controlling society that we have. (MN is very much part of the world we live in - not separate from it)

I agree with Pretty that some of the posting in AIBU is downright nasty. There's teasing, and then there is being an unpleasant cow. I sometimes look at an OP, think 'that might be a good thread - or it might be a bunfight' and then look at the last page and often it has degenerated into a pointless bunfight. People barge in with their own irrelevant anecdotes and flame the OP for something the OP never said.

As for the lighthearted side of the thread, 'fracas' is one of my favourite words and I'd like it even more if I knew how to pronounce it

I have always pronounced fracas in a vaguely French way, but I am being won over by the idea of frack-arse.

I have to hide all the wedding threads. They're horrid..people judging their mates' weddings and revelling in pages full of increasing bitchy and scornful comments about it, Also dislike the way people will come out with "so basically you have said that"....then completely change whatever it was you said in the 1st place?!

Jeremy Clarkson has caused a tumultous rumpus hasn't he...

Prettyfeet I absolutely agree.. some people on here are so nasty and foul mouthed! this is meant to support women not bully them. Some of the things said can be so hurtful and have a really bad effect on people. some women just judge and don't even know the facts or back stories and really try to belittle the op calling them a horrible person but in my opinion the bully and name caller are the horrible people!!

Prettyfeet Former lurker here. Some people here are unbelievable and say such nasty judgemental things. They have a right to their opinion but mostly it's about self-glorification and boasting. They remind me of darling Katie Hopkins who 'says it like it is'. There are two particular very wise owls who post a lot on the relationships section. They dispense their wisdom on problems in others' lives but seem to have absolutely zero flaws themselves. In amongst all the 'not quite true' posts there must be people who have no one to turn to. Mumsnet should be a place of refuge not shooting gallery.

I heard it on BBC 4 as frackow...and realised I have never heard it said and have no idea how to pronounce it.

I'd have gone with frackass

derxa when you come across those kinds of posts do you report them?

The talk guidelines do not allow anything which is a personal attack, deliberately inflammatory behaviour or "just seriously unpleasant", amongst other things.

This week I have reported a thread, which got deleted and I have been on a thread where one poster made some nasty and unhelpful comments which were reported and deleted. Use the report button!

I love mumsnet. I have found it to be a place where I have had fantastic support in some very difficult times. But I also love the laughs and the rough and tumble discussion. As long as that is within the guidelines then it's just free speech imo and that's fine with me even if it's a bit uncomfortable at times.

Well that killed it dead then, didn't it