to think that MN should be accessible to everyone?

[lookingforsunshine]

Here are a few facts that I would like the MN community to know:

-Some people who use MN are not English. Many people who use MN did not start learning English as babies. They learnt as older children or adults. It is not easy communicating in another language.

-Some people who use MN have a learning disability. They may have difficulties expressing themselves clearly.

-Some people who use MN have dyslexia which can make writing accurately difficult.

-Some people who use MN have had little or no formal education. They may write poorly due to this. This is not their fault.

Speaking English as a second language is not a crime (actually it is a gift).
Having a learning disability, dyslexia or a lack of education is not a crime. None of the above is the person's fault.

Many people who write poorly are deeply ashamed about this.

Over the last year, I've seen a few posts that are badly written, comments by other posters are rude to say the least. It feels like we do not want people here unless they can write well. We don't want people with poor spelling, grammar or punctuation. How can this be right?!!

If you see a post written by someone who does not write well, try to focus on the actual message, they may well be in need of help! If you genuinely don't understand, either ignore the message (someone else may well understand it) or ask nicely for clarification.

Many people here have children with special needs. In some cases their children will never be able to write 'well', it must be upsetting for parents to see how MN tends to treat people who don't have a great grasp of written English.

If MN is the first place you have encountered people with reading and writing problems, that says a lot more about you than them.

Who decided that it is ok to make derogatory comments about people with poor written English?

Fair enough, I can understand that.
Some people seem to be taking advantage though, I suppose it's like a lot of things, a few people spoil it for the rest.

Some of the names had to be changed in the hacking problem. I think that was my last name change.Also you have to remember which email address you registered with and if you can't remember you have to start from scratch. Other people name change because they are talking about their husband's affair so do not want that associated with their usual posts. Other people just like anonymity and don't want to sign into new websites with a facebook address etc because they want their knitting circle not to know about their Christian group or their lesbian activities associated with their circle of hunting mates. We don't all want all the dots joined.

Marketing people of course and most commercial websites want all the dots joined so they can know if Janice likes knitwear or Jane will buy a new car.

There are probably a handful of good reasons for namechanging. I think it should be limited though. The ease of namechanging makes the site more attractive to trolls and posters who just want to go from thread to thread bitchplopping all over the place then disappearing.

There are probably a handful of good reasons for namechanging. I think it should be limited though. The ease of namechanging makes the site more attractive to trolls and posters who just want to go from thread to thread bitchplopping all over the place then disappearing.

MNHQ can see NCing. How is that attractive to trolls? Anything that can be seen from MN towers is easier to moderate, isn't it? Much better than multiple a/cs.

I'm really confused that Maryz has bracketed PBPs and NCers together upthread. They're not the same at all.

Anything that can be seen from MN towers is easier to moderate, isn't it?

True, but moderation can be very slow to almost non existent at night & week ends. The trolls know they can get their 12 hours of 'fame'.

It all comes out in the wash

If I couldn't NC I wouldn't be here, simple as that.

NC ing doesn't make it easy for PBPs to come back. Lack of control / surveillance does that. Surely by definition, a PBP has to re- register, and therefore has to choose a new name? ( correct me if I'm wrong, I have no experience of being banned!) MNHQ can, and do, control this because they can see the email address / IP address of a poster.

The ability to NC under your current registered credentials is an entirely different thing to a PBP coming back under a different name.

I totally agree that the ability to NC helps trolls and goody fuckers get away with it. But it also helps normal people use the site without fear of being recognised in RL.

MNHQ can only moderate if it's reported. I don't think all serial namechangers are trolls either, some might be.

I don't think namechanging shouldn't be allowed, just shouldn't be as easy.

Given what some people post I am not surprised they feel the need to name change.

I am not sure it should be as easy though. To my understanding you can just create a number of names under one account then swap between them when you post - is that right?

If this is correct surely this allows sock puppeting?

You are right, passme.

I think that name changing should be reserved for sensitive things only - maybe just have one topic in which this is allowed?

I don't think I know of any other forum where you are allowed to change name at random.

Do you know any other forum with such a wide range of topics, though?
It's like other posters have said: you don't necessarily want the dots joined.

I might not mind if a nosy fellow parent works out which school my high-achieving Child 1 is at, but if they go on from that to identify* Child 2's bedwetting problems / DH's risk of redundancy/ my secret work in coded knitting for MI5, I'll have to stop posting.

*Details may have been changed to protect the knitting.

I think a way to prevent sock puppeting would be to have the name you originally posted with on a thread saved for that thread. So even if you namechange for another thread you would still have the original name when you came back. (Does that make sense? ) it would also help to stop people accidentally 'outing' themselves by forgetting to change their name back after changing it to post on a sensitive thread.

Wouldn't work that great for long running threads.
And sock puppeting can be from different accounts by the same person and not just name changing.

How could you make name changing less easy in practical terms? Presumably you'd have to satisfy MN that your reasons were OK, but how on earth could they police that? If I say that I want to name change because the accumulation of my posts could lead a keen researcher to identify me, how could they possibly tell if that is true or not? Even if some unfortunate researcher were assigned to plough through all my previous posts, are they going to argue with me that no-one could tell who I am from the fact that I have posted that I am 29 and gorgeous with 8 children two of whom are at Eton and three at Roedean and have a stellar career in banking (some details may have been changed)?

I NC every 6 months or so, and for Xmas etc and have for all the years I've been here. Nothing wrong with it, nothing devious about it.

I really don't want my XP staking me on here I(he does try) and at times I want to be able to post freely and openly and this can involve sharing lots of identifying information. NC really is a necessity for some of us.

FWIW, I am not a native speaker of English and did not start learning it until secondary school (~ age 11).

Yes, MN has higher standards re spelling, grammar, and punctuation than many other online fora which I believe to be a very good thing.

The one OP I recently saw called up on her writing skills used no punctuation and no paragraphs. I'm sorry but that is not a learning difficulty, dyslexia, or any other excuse you can try to come up with. It is laziness, plain and simple.

Exactly Cote. I also think it is a 'thing' among younger people.

My DD borrowed my phone for a couple of days. When she returned it I discovered she had switched off something which provided automatic capitals after a full stop.

Why?

The young seem to have an aversion to capital letters.

Yes usual. I notice a distinct lack of capitals in your username.

I don't think anyone is asking for perfect punctuation or spelling. But you start a post with no full stops or paragraphs to the point of being illegible, then posters will comment.

The idea is to read posts, not decipher them using guesswork and a codebreaking book!
Not only is it lazy, it makes life impossible for posters using screen readers due to visual impairment.