Only on MN ...

[cathf]

Not a TAAT as such, but inspired by a response on a thread running at the moment.
It got me thinking of the differences between MN and my RL friends and acquaintances, and things that are accepted wisdom on MN that no-one I know in real life cares about at all.
I will start off:

1. Little girls who wear pink clothing, and gendered clothing in general;
2. Scented sanitary towels;
3. Fruit Shoots
4. People cuddling/touching/talking to your child;

The amount of threads and angst over these topics is staggering, yet no-one I know would even think any of the above were worth discussing, never mind getting worked up about. Anymore?

The holiday crashers thread got me thinking “only on MN” 🙄. For those that haven’t read it, the woman and her teenage daughters were looking forward to a family holiday and the husband sent a link to the hotel to his friend who then said “mind if we crash it?”, the husband tried to put him off saying, “it wouldn’t be your cup of tea” and then got a reply back saying “booked it.” So now him and his wife and teenage lads are staying at the same hotel at the same time. Initially people were making out the OP was being ridiculous, she didn’t “own” the hotel etc pretty much ignoring the fact that the family holiday was being gatecrashed by another family.

If that had been me, or any one I know, we would have been ROYALLY pissed off about another family gatecrashing a valued quiet time as a family. C’mon, you’re sitting chilling by the pool with your book, in your bikini getting a tan and then 4 other people from back home show up and take over the loungers next to you and start gabbering away. Who wants that everyday of the holiday? And I think it’s terrible manners/a huge invasion of privacy for the other family to do that. But no, lots of people thought the OP should just suck it up.

This thread is turning into r/MNTrolls. My points are really about MNHQ not the thread, though. The thread where the gal said "How can we avoid environmental toxins that might make a baby autistic". She cited articles that talked about this risk.

It didn't matter what OP actually wrote, everyone freaked out and horrible bullying ensued, other posters only able to read OP's words as saying "You screwed up and made your child autistic". The thread was deleted for being "disablist." I don't know any situation in real life that would have shut down the discussion like that; the twisting of words was exceptional. I wish people were encouraged to calmly engage with someone who we thought had misinformed opinions.

I picked up a copy of New Scientist this week. There's an article in it about environmental toxins as causes of autism. The claim isn't controversial. Hohum.

Not impressed with the ticking off from hq "bangs gavel" really? What world do you people live in? This site is ridiculous, I can't be bothered with the sanctimonious moderation from an allegedly unmoderated forum. You pick and choose what's "acceptable" with neither rhyme nor reason. Pish.

This is definitely turning into a TAAT, whether that was the intention of the OP or not. Direct references to other threads that are ongoing are TAATish.

Sorry I’m a fairly recent poster and didn’t know what TAAT stands for. Feel free to delete my post if it offends MNHQ.

TAAT = Thread about a Thread.
Sometimes people start a new thread to slag off people on other threads. It's MNHQ policy to delete TAATs.

There's a reddit subpage (MNTrolls) which is basically lots of TAATs.

Thought of another.

If you told someone IRL that you and your kids were setting off a helium balloon in memory your DC's dead on the anniversary of his death, you'd get a cuddle.

On MN you get massively bollocked for being such an environment hating bitch. I got a real pasting once for saying I was letting one off with my kids for my dad who'd recently passed. I felt like utter shit already and that just really made me hit rock bottom

@GunpowderGelatine

I didn't even know there was an issue with helium balloons. It does make sense, thinking about it. But would people say the same about someone cooking a Sunday Roast in memory of their mother? (Seeing as meat consumption is an environmental issues as well...)
No, they certainly wouldn't!

I'm sorry for your loss.

One thing I'm probably a bit keyboard warrior-y about is people feeding horses/throwing things on horse pastures... That's how my grandaunt lost most of her horse!

Horses are also an... inflammatory (?) topic on mumsnet, I believe.

GunpowderGelatine
In real life I wouldn't go up to someone doing a Chinese lantern / balloon launch in memory of someone and tell them I think it's a ridiculous and environmentally damaging decision, what goes up must come down and needlessly littering (which it is) isn't sweet or cute. To me letting off a lantern/balloon is the same thing as throwing plastic packaging in a field and saying it's in someone's memory doesn't change how I view it (just like filling woodland with plastic tat and calling it a fairy door doesn't change the fact it's littering).
But being a human being with empathy I wouldn't say it to them if they're clearly upset over something.

C'mon meymary a Sunday Roast in memoriam? wrong

@longwayoff

Is it? I feel like cooking a dish one associates with a dearly departed isn't particularly strange...

I was aware of Chinese lanterns being harmful but I admittedly haven't thought about balloons... (Probably because I haven't actually bought a helium balloon in a pretty long time).

Fair enough

MeyMary
I think there's sometimes a difference between people expressing an opinion on MN vs what they'd say to A friend who is upset.
E.g. I feel quite strongly about dumping tat places, balloon launches, Chinese lantern.

I'd totally tell a friend that their Poundland tat fairy doors were littering and a waste. I would keep my mouth shut if a friend was grieving and trying to process a loss.