To ask about the weird things you only learned from MN?

[Blanchedupetitpois]

It seems like in MN world there are all kinds of rules that I swear I’ve never seen expressed or followed in real life. What have you been most surprised by? I’ll start:

1. Adults don’t celebrate birthdays, and if you expect any recognition of yours, you’re being childish.

1. Halloween is exclusively an American import with no history in this country, and celebrating it is therefore tacky and meaningless.

1. Trick or treating is glorified begging.

1. Absolutely nobody other than you or your DP is remotely interested in your pregnancy, and even telling another person that you’re pregnant is akin to riding a donkey down the high street while calling for palm fronds to be laid at your feet in recognition of the impending miracle of your unborn child.

Can you explain the bit about some being lovely, kind, MNers, and the other professional keyboard warriors

Do you mean trolls?

Ooh also 'evaps' on pregnancy tests
I recently had some work training on pregnancy testing and totally made a fool of myself by asking about 'evaps' - clearly a MN myth!

Well Sir Ian Mckellen is currently on Graham Norton show and has just told a delightful anecdote about going out for a fag at Buckingham Palace

But did he also smoke a cigarette?

@VisitorsEntrance

@ VisitorsEntrance

Perhaps he went out for both!

Just watching the Festival of Remembrance and they were singing Pack Up Your Troubles including the line "while there's a Lucifer to light your fag...". If It's good enough for the Queen, It's good enough for her subjects and their cousins.

See the Queen, Knights of the Realm, I think that gives it the green light.

@eddiemairswife what on a balcony at Buckingham Palace ooh err

Did Salem ever come back?

Not to this thread but I have seen them on a different one.

I'm Australian, but live in a country with lots of dikes (the username gives it away I suppose). Currently smoking a fag that had little to say about feeling offended at the possible slur against its sexuality and feeling cross about someone from my country taking it upon themselves to represent the entire English-speaking world. Also fondly remembering Australian Coon cheese, Golden Gaytime ice creams, and the cigarette-style sweets called Fags that were changed to Fads in the 90s to stop kids "smoking" not because it was considered a slur. I also know the words twee and horrid because I grasp the concept of having more than one word for everything. And saying meatballs or footballs or just balls is ok even though balls is a slang word for testicles and considered a mild swear in some parts of the world.

As an aside, a plumber in Holland needs local customers so they will use a .nl domain to take advantage of the way Google shows search results. But .com and .eu domain-names are best for digital businesses like MN when it doesn't matter where users are located. Those domains are considered location-independent by Google which makes life more difficult for a plumber in Wisconsin who has a .com, but that's just how the internet has worked out.

And I learned from MN that derailing a thread is still acceptable in some corners of the internet, unlike facebook groups where a sub-conversation will be deleted no matter how funny or interesting (or not) it is.

The fact is, it has been for DECADES used as a slur ALL OVER THE WORLD against gay people

Not it hasn't. In fact I used it just yesterday evening when I was out running with a group of friends and a driver nearly ran some of us down on a zebra crossing because he was more interested in lighting his fag than watching where he was going.

It may be an insult in Australia, it isn't in the UK.

One of the German words for carrots is Mohren which isn't that different to the Welsh word.

Until Mumsnet I didn't realise I was supposed to secretly judge/despise my friends and seek validation for my seething venom by posting in AIBU about said friends decisions on parenting/lifestyle choices.