Here we go again...Matthew Wright.....Mumsnet thread about to be discussed on today's show

[ILookAtLifeFromBothSidesNow]

Remember the recent thread about the elderly man who asked the current owners of his and his wife's previous home if he could bury his wife's ashes in the garden?

It's going to be discussed on Matthew Wright's show this morning

"except in this case the widower didn't have much of a say in the matter did he?" and how many of the people being posted about by OP's on here have a choice? The children? Husbands? Parents? Extended families? Sometimes other parents or people the OP encounters and posts about?

It's no different posting about your children who are at this stage too young to object, and how "dd is having problems pooh'ing/is a teenager and having sex with her boyfriend/is doing drugs/ on mn if the person you're posting about doesn't have a choice when you post identifyable information than it is for the likes of Matthew Wright to talk about a potential widower who didn't seek to be posted about either.

How many of the children of MN'ers will be happy in ten/fifteen years time to realise that their parents posted about them in an identifyable way on a public forum before they were old enough to object?

WannaBe because in all your examples, all the posts about the children sleeping/eating/toilets/behaviour are so identifying are they ?

But he could have had a daughter or granddaughter who reads Mumsnet bulletjournal. Neither the OP or anyone else on her thread was worried about that

It's no different posting about your children who are at this stage too young to object
It might still be the wrong thing to do, but it is a bit different. A parent is legally responsible for their child, if they want to plaster details about them over the internet that is their prerogative. Plus, as pp pointed out, the stuff on MN about DC etc tends to be v generic and non-identifiable. If something private has taken place within your own family, there's a good chance that only your family know about it. When you start posting about other people's families, the chance of someone else seeing it and identifying them is inevitably increased.

Chat, AIBU and relationships are where 99% of things they pull are from. There are plenty of sensitive things being posted elsewhere that they don't seem to touch. They are far to lazy to trawl past the main busy boards. Most things have been in trending.

I had a post deleted last night because I pondered whether a member of the press was responsible for the thread.

The stuff about young children is often generic, but not all. If you're posting about potty training/weening etc then it's unlikely that they will be identifyable, although if you post about your relationship on other threads then you might be, and conversely so might they iyswim.

But there are a lot of situations on MN where other people are being posted about. Such as e.g. Step parenting where the step parent is posting about the DSC in a less than complementary manner. Or is posting about the ex but only posting their side of the story, the list goes on.

To say that posting on here is different to it being in the media is naive and disingenuous. Presumably nobody cared about the widower's privacy when the post was merely on MN, which is still a public forum?

But there are a lot of situations on MN where other people are being posted about. Such as e.g. Step parenting where the step parent is posting about the DSC in a less than complementary manner. Or is posting about the ex but only posting their side of the story, the list goes on.
It depends on how much detail the OP includes/changes, these posts are still usually non-identifiable. The thread we are discussing here is a different story - a pretty unusual, maybe even unique situation concerning someone elses family.

To say that posting on here is different to it being in the media is naive and disingenuous. Presumably nobody cared about the widower's privacy when the post was merely on MN, which is still a public forum?
Why do you assume that? I did wonder, but to be honest I rarely post my concerns because a) the OP may well have changed crucial details to make the post more annonymous and we just don't realise, and b) the whole thread just might be a load of bollocks anyway. In either case my concern is wasted.

If you're posting about potty training/weening etc then it's unlikely that they will be identifyable, although if you post about your relationship on other threads then you might be, and conversely so might they iyswim.
True, but then it's up to the individual poster to ensure that doesn't happen eg always name-changing before they post anything sensitive etc.

Its fucking beyond awful. I'm.sure MNHQ intended this site to be somewhere where people could talk vent celebrate share things that they can't IRL. Without TWS and DM jumping on stories. Well no that's just the point. They're not stories, are they. They're someone's life. That's why I never really put any identifying stories on here. Its not MNHQ and you I don't trust. Its The Muppets at the DM and Matthew Muppet Wright. That I don't bloody trust.
The people who the thread was about are going to know its about them, arent they. I mean its not an everyday occurrence that you get such a request, is it.

Matthew Wright person - erm... what is he actually for? Have never watched this sort of trashy morning stuff and now I know why. He is a repulsive looking individual. Bleurgh

(Hope he is reading this.)

There are plenty of times that MN posters do exactly the same, I have seen plenty of rightmove pages posted on this site with posters wading in about a persons home who has not asked for their house to be shared in this way. The same with Facebook shares.

...do we think that was a legit thread? I kind of hope it wasn't now since the family could easily be identified from those facts by anyone who knows them in RL

do we think that was a legit thread?

Perhaps we should DNA test people who post on Mumsnet .

Good fucking grief. It's not hard to work out. Don't post things on Mumsnet that you feel would be an invasion of anyone's privacy if posted on Mumsnet.

If you do that for yourself or your little children that's fair enough. If you do that about someone else, as the OP in the 'AIBU to think that this old bloke's request to scatter his wife's ashes in my herbaceous border - is weird?' you deserve all you get.

The old bloke and his family were collateral damage in the OP's desire to spill her guts on Mumsnet. I don't understand why anyone feels sympathy for her especially the poster who PMd her.

As Boulshired said about rightmove links, that goes for threads for the delectation of salivating MNetters. It's a right laugh until someone gets hurt. Or more properly, until someone gets called on it.

Just fucking own it.

Laughing at DNA test people who post on Mumsnet!

Loving Limeted's response, 'Just fucking own it'

You don't 'mince your words'! 😉

It would be interesting if we could know which threads were legit. I would say 50/50 legit and cobblers. Or maybe legit but with massive embellishment if the thread takes off.