to wish it stated how long a person has been posting here beside their nickname

[ssd]

eg. ssd(13)

then I would know to avoid new posters who seem to be ready for a fight at every turn

I am a new poster and haven't started a fight, Haven't even bothered to change my name its kind of unique lol

Surely you have to be responsible for your own use of a forum like this? If some arse starts kicking off you just leave the thread and move on. If you're not sure of something then hang back and see how the thread develops before you join in. How long someone's been here is no guarantee of their rating on the twat-o-meter.

I think its a terrible idea - I think a lot of the ideas that lean towards a two tier MN are very bad ones from length of membership being displayed to number of posts to having restrictions on what or where new posters can post.

I think that a lot of the goadyness / shit stirring comes from longer term posters with two accounts or who name change for specific bunfighty topics - proper trolls.

I deleted my old Mumsnet account because I was on the Jeff hack list! Therefore I would appear much newer than I truly am. However I'm a lurker more than a poster these days!

There are older posters that are also absolute turds, and/or are always bleating about the same old shit.
If you add the date of joining, you can be sure to have discussion derailed by those that would dismiss somebody's points just because they are newer to the site.

I agree with most of you here, I hate cliqueyness and theres lots of more recent posters who breathe fresh air into the place

but theres just more goady's around, for sure

I miss the old days blah blah blah

Maybe we should ask for a topic for saying how much better it was?

I was on the jeff list as well, but I took a stand and kept my daft name, none of my posts are interesting enough to cause any trouble

perfect, a sad git topic, I'd join!

I'm new and the absolute last thing I want is a fight! Makes me feel a bit unwelcome that people would judge the worthiness of my comments by the length of time I've been posting

I've never been in a clique any way!

I'd like a function to permanently highlight certain goady posters so that, whenever they make comments, I can just think "Ah, they are still being a twat."

I don't think we should have a post count but if it has a joining date, it'd help. It would stop the "I've been here for years but I'm name changing for this trolling bullshit " type of post.

I miss when you could verify how long you've ben here with elaroo's river of sweetcorn and the original post still existed :( I don't think either idea works, some people re-registered becqause of Jeff and some of us have been here years but just don't post very often.

I'm a new mum though not a new member (since I started ttc 3 years ago). I rely pretty heavily on perusing mumsnet for answers to a variety of questions and reassurance for minor panics and utter nonsense in my head. I comment occasionally and have only written four or five posts. That would make me a newbie under this rule. I don't think my opinions and contributions are less valid than anyone else (well, I wouldn't obviously) but I would possibly become an undesirable on the strength of my low post rate. That makes me feel a bit crappy to ve honest.

What's the Jeff list. Could I be on it. It sounds like I would probably know. Right?

Jeff gate was I think last year when mumsnet was hacked and there was a major DDOS attack, we all had to change our passwords and the log in procedure was changed, a number of members decided to register new accounts after some people had armed police sent to their address. I was horrible and hence some long term members have much newer accounts.

This would've perfect able to namechange to Protect privacy, or a joining date. For me it's anyway to know all those trolls who claim to have name changes are lying from the off!! A way to see if people had genuinely posted before without linking names surely can't cause any issues?? Have you reported you post op? I think that's the best way tho get MNHQ to see?

It wouldn't help for someone like me who de-regged in the wake of Jeffgate, but was a member for five years before then. I'm now on my second new log in, because I set up a new hotmail account solely for MNing, then couldn't remember my password for either MN or my email account, so gave up and created a third MN profile! So this one would say I had been here for a few months, but in reality I've been here far longer.

If you were on the Jeff list you would have been contacted by MNHQ

I'm not sure number of time a person has posted is relevant. Some people respond to everything. Others only where they have something new to say. Some in deep discussions. Some offering or asking for support. Some in lighthearted chats. You can easily up a posting count but it's not really relevant.

Similarly, we were all new once and time here doesn't mark us out as goady or nice. You don't have to take part in a bun fight. Even if you become embroiled in something you're rather you hadn't then just back out with a graceful comment and read something else.

I see what your saying in regards to replying to threads and offering advice. And I agree everyone is new once, it wouldn't be a hard rule this person must be a troll as the haven't posted before for me. But it would make it easier to identify those people lying from the start claiming a name change ect when they are really just trolls.

I think it would be an idea if it were somewhat vague as in August 2012 or 2012 as a join date, or post counts in the 100 or 200 intervals, but reasonable posters can become goady fuckers, I've been chastised myself for commenting about someone using emotive language to twist a thread into a situation nobody was talking about I went to far and reported my own comment but I think my basic point was valid, but it seemed goady to people.

Also sometimes people have bad days to post or interpret posts or you just realise more think it's changed when it's actually the same. Personally I think a lot of trolling probably is by older accounts/ or people who are users but create new ones for the purpose of trolling

The thing is, it's just not that difficult to develop a posting history long enough to prevent "welcome to MN" posts. If you really wanted to troll and not be obvious about it, it wouldn't take much effort.

We've had long term posters banned for being nasty under name changes before.

But look at the poo troll and the school shoes troll - they've been around for years.