To think that Mumsnet should be made

[feellikeanun]

Private and only members can see what's going on?

Why?

@feellikeanun

Private and only members can see what's going on?

You know journalists could still sign up for an account, right?

What difference would that make? You just sign up instead.

Why?

No.
If you want to post you have to sign up anyway. Or do you mean behind a pay wall?

No thank you.

@feellikeanun

Private and only members can see what's going on?

To what end? It takes minutes to sign up and, as there’s no cost to membership unless you’re paying for Premium, you don’t even have to give your real name. Anyone can see anything on this forum really easily.

Then many people wouldn't have joined, giving that they did after lurking and enjoying the content first.

Those sort of sites you're talking about have to have a niche content or one where potential members really NEED what's behind the 'gate'.

Why?

Then many people wouldn't have joined, giving that they did after lurking and enjoying the content first.

I agree, I only joined after looking for advice on contraceptive side effects and found a mumsnet thread by someone going through the same as me. I found the advice really helpful so decided to join.

I think it would impact their business. I’m guessing a lot of members join because they’re googling something and come across a thread on that subject - then they might look at the more threads, and then decide to sign up and interact as a member - and that’s another person adding to traffic that might be clicking ads etc and creating revenue. They’d miss out on those members if the site was private/hidden.

What would stop people making accounts?

No. I only got here by accident and it's been really useful for me, why restrict it?

That's sort of besides the point of the site OP, it's here to help people.. before I joined up I was in a very difficult and abusive relationship and came across a thread here by accident on a frantic google search trying desperately to find some advice and giving the thread I found a quick read gave me the bollocks to find emergency help there and then.
I was in urgent need and if I had had to faff about signing up and verifying email addresses and risk EXDH seeing those emails it would have put me off entirely and I may not have got the help I so desperately needed by reading the advice given to another poster.

I made the same suggestion about 5 years ago OP (after a particularly awful Daily Fail steal) and got my arse handed to me

Unfortunately as pp have pointed out, journos can still access by signing up as a member.

Yes I understand they can still join but I do think there should be some sort of rules when you join. Or even the option to delete your thread.

That isn’t how open forums work. If you are worried about a thread being used for an article in the gutter press, don’t start the thread.

But will part of the sign-up be to declare you won't behave like a cunt?

I agree to being allowed to delete the thread but before joining I have found very helpful threads by googling questions in despair and it bringing me here. Back then I would never have thought to look at mumsnet but issues around step parenting and relationships at that time brought me here. I’m very grateful as these historic threads helped me clarify my situation, express concerns and put the blame where it belonged. I hope it stays open to help others in the same way. Yes the journalism thing is irritating but all those people helped is quite a counter.

I can't understand why

If you are worried a thread is too outing etc and you tell mnhq they will usually take it down.

They won't if you've just been a dick and want to make it go away, though.

I think that's good.

If you let people delete Willy nilly you'll end up with even more goady fuckers getting people all wound up and then poof it's gone and you lose the accountability of being able to advance search people which has proved quite valuable over the years..

But no one will bother signing up if there’s nothing to draw them in. I was also brought here when threads came up in google searches, and after that happened so many times I thought it would be worth signing up. If the threads are private that won’t happen.

There are some rules; look at the Talk Guidelines right at the bottom of the page.

Maybe a box to tick to make a thread private/members only when you start the thread would be useful

What sort of rules? Signing up to say that you won't behave like a d$%k isn't actually going to stop anyone doing so. And I don't agree that you should be able to delete threads, otherwise every time someone didn't like what they were being told they would just get rid of the thread so no-one would ever bother posting.