AIBU to be utterly fed up with the AIBU board being a dumping ground for any old thread?

[SummaLuvin]

I have been a user of Mumsnet for a number of years, and although this has always been a problem I have noticed it get worse and worse recently.

Though there are a large number of smaller, topic-specific boards a growing amount of Mumsnet users are choosing to ignore this in favour of posting in AIBU or Chat for ‘traffic’. This is a cyclical problem, users guarantee that these smaller boards will be irrelevant, unused, and garner no traffic they don’t post in them them, and it also clogs up other boards with nonsense that does not belong there and cements those ones as the few that are used. Over the last 24hours in AIBU I have seen product reviews, requests for weight-loss advice, and wedding dress ideas, and many more I won’t bother to list. Valid threads, but they have nothing to do with AIBU.

Mumsnet do not seem to police the flagrant misuse of boards, and frankly I am getting fed up. (Yes I acknowledge that, ultimately, this post adds to the problem.)

YANBU it irritates me too. I mean, why have separate boards when people often post straight in AIBU?! Chat is often the place they should go in but MNHQ don't seem to care so do fuck all about it. They may as well be done with all the other sections and just have one massive one for everything in that case

Whenever I see an "AIBU to ask what colour to paint my bedroom" type posts in AIBU I want to reply "YANBU to ask. Hope that helps"

I really don’t get this or why you’re so emotionally involved in where people post, personally I couldn’t give a toss and barely notice

Why are you so bothered about people using the right section. It’s such a weird inconsequential thing to get het up about.

I also don’t get the oh post in this section, thr posters are better. Are they fuck.it’s the same people looking at trending or any other section.

@ilovesooty there are some posters in Relationships who get quite invested, for years on some threads. I'm awed by their stamina!

@Bluntness100 - there are some posters who only post in Relationships, never AIBU.

Lots of posters hide the high traffic goady areas and only visit certain parts of MN eg some only go to Relationships; some only go to Style and Beauty; some only go to weight loss; some only go to FWR, etc.

@Havaiana you say you have had little response in the correct forums, that's entirely my point, by allowing AIBU and Chat to be used the way they have been the correct subforums have died off. Perhaps it's a little 'genie out of the bottle' now but I think do if this was properly monitored and dealt with those forums could thrive and the user experience would be better

Not necessarily. I've posted "for traffic" in chat before after receiving little response in some subtopics; but on the flip side, I've given advice or opinions on things I've seen in chat that I wouldn't have seen in, say "SEN Teenagers" because rarely go there, despite having a SEN teen of my own.

I think most people come on to MN to pass the time/ be entertained, rather than to see if there's anyone they can offer help to. Thus they won't go looking for people to assist in e.g. "legal matters"; they'll just go to Chat or Aibu and may end up helping those who post legal problems there.

Being firmer about where to post may result in more use of the sub boards, but will not increase the amount of help that posters seeking help there will receive.

I frankly don't care who posts what where.

@TheYeaSayer that's a good point about people knowledgeable enough to respond not going to the other forums. I'm always amazed by the sheer amount of knowledge of MNers. You can literally get help with anything on AIBU, even rocket science.

hmmm. I get your concern but it's tumbleweed if you post in other sections and so whether it's cyclical isn't really up to other posters to fix, if they need an answer to their problem/query. Probably MNHQ need to cut down the number of subsections so things are easier to find.

Got to agree that people do post the oddest things in AIBU.

Never really understand the whole "posting for traffic" reason. Dont all post except one appear in active post.

I can't help wondering if it's because there's such an insane about of boards and sub boards. Half of the are the same as at least one or two (maybe six) others. Yet peop yet keep requesting more - they end up quich niche - might end up with a board for "single parents over 40 with two children (called Peter and Jane) living in a garden level flat"

I do wonder if people just can't be bother to filter through the sub boards and figure out where to post, so go for AlBU.

Never really understand the whole "posting for traffic" reason. Dont all post except one appear in active post.

I have AIBU saved as a link on my mobile browser so I can look at the first page of threads. I imagine many do the same.

Agreed. The most irritating posters are the ones that start with

“AIBU to ask...”

Yes YABfuckingU to post something that isn’t even slightly AIBU related by simply adding the phrase AIBU to your OP!!!

Wish MNHQ were better at moving threads to the appropriate forum tbh.