to think that a perfectly harmless and hilarious thread shouldn't be deleted

[SeeMyLanyardAndWeepBitch]

Just because the poster is new and on (what we suspect might be) a bit of a wind up? I mean what actual rules are broken and what harm done?

PLEASE DON'T DELETE THIS THREAD FOR BEING A TAT. I am referencing a previous deleted thread, but my point is less about that thread and more about the prevailing culture on here these days concerning what is considered off limits.

The thread I have in mind wasn't offensive, just daft. A spoof. No person with a protected characteristic (or humble but doughty shop worker) was offended, harmed or triggered in the making of said thread.

Are spoofs and very obvious tongue in cheek wind ups no longer to be tolerated on MN?

This place has changed. It used to be fun. We could all take a joke once. What has happened?

YANBU: This place has changed. Way too serious now.

YABU: I am a sanctimonious Guardian reading arse who sees no humour in anything.

@JanuaryBluehoo

I'm not a troll sparkling.

But my own thread which went very amusing, was littered with annoying posters calling me one, because I was enjoying my own thread??

Can you see how far gone the problem with the utter joy suckers has gone.

If there is trollhunting you should report it.

I didn't see your very amusing thread. What was it about?

@Shiningpath

I agree. I’m also really fed up of threads being deleted due to privacy concerns or causing upset in real life. Funnily enough it’s always the ones where the OP is very unreasonable. As far as I’m concerned, if they post on a public forum and it causes upset, hell mend them.

Couldn't agree more. Someone gets their arse handed to them because they are BVVVU and then they have 'privacy concerns' - all they mean is that people don't agree with them and they're all being so meeeeeeeaaaaaan

Thanks, sparkling.

I've been here over a decade now, so I know the ropes .

It's a drag on amusing threads where talented writers turn minutea into hilarity.

@JanuaryBluehoo

I had my own thread months ago which became very funny. I was posting about one aspect of something in laws did (food related) and the thread morphed into an extremely funny one.. I didn't mind because it cheered me up and I didn't feel attacked because what posters were laughing was OK.. They were making up scenarios they thought may have led to this food action.

I was then accused of being a troll.

This isn't right.

I don't think I saw your thread, but yes this is the sort of thread (among other different ones) I would've enjoyed, especially as you the OP was also enjoying it. What's the harm in it?

And even if I didn't find it funny, I'd simply leave the thread. I wouldn't be asking for it to be taken down or calling you a troll. Not everything is funny to me and the fact that it isn't doesn't make it unfunny in general. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

I completely agree and I find the indiscriminate deletion of perfectly harmless threads intensely frustrating. Humourless people without any sense of satire/sarcasm/irony ruining it for everyone else.

Obviously in some cases it might be necessary to make that decision (as outlined above by MNHQ) but in every other case I strongly believe that the thread should stand. Those who don’t like it or don’t get it are free to exit and stay away.

Can I offer for your entertainment this thread, which still makes me laugh. MNHQ got their knickers in a twist about whether to delete it but eventually saw sense.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3331982-Radio-station-presenter-bullies-woman-off-the-air

I disagree monster.

Sometimes people are genuinely asking for help on sensitive matters and unfortunately some people are incredibly nasty and probe the op for more details than perhaps they should have admitted too.

There was a famous poster on here who went on nearly every single dil /Mil thread posting inane rubbish always siding with a Mil because she "rubbed" along with hers and her style was to ask endless questions which people innocently responded too. She ignored them if she didn't like the answer.

She really upset people.

This place is way. way more serious than it was five or so years ago when I first joined (under another name if anyone wonders why my profile doesn't tie up, BTW).

[quote SilverRingahBells]Can I offer for your entertainment this thread, which still makes me laugh. MNHQ got their knickers in a twist about whether to delete it but eventually saw sense.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3331982-Radio-station-presenter-bullies-woman-off-the-air[/quote]
Thanks for the link. I'll take a look - always up for a laugh but if I don't find it funny, it means it's rubbish and everyone else must think so too.

its got to the point where anything funny is called a troll thread.

I disagree with that. there's been a lot of funny threads that aren't trolls.

Yes but the threads are still covered in idiotic trollhunting comments because some posters don’t understand irony

@JanuaryBluehoo

Thanks, sparkling.

I've been here over a decade now, so I know the ropes .

It's a drag on amusing threads where talented writers turn minutea into hilarity.

That's good then, you know to report.

There's a lot of 'talented writers' on here I can't argue with that.

Are we not intelligent enough to know the difference? Do we really need protecting from people start bizarre conversations to provoke a reaction, so long as it's not bullying or hateful in content?

Apparently not. That's why we have to put (lighthearted) in thread titles.

Pirate sex wouldn’t last more than 2 pages before it was deleted these days

I agree OP, so what if it’s bollocks, if it’s not hurting anyone just let it be

I thought Penis Beaker was a troll, and a load of made up rubbish, I read the OP rolled my eyes and hid it.
Now it's in Classics and gained MN a load of new members. So they don't always get deleted.

@Sparklingbrook

I thought Penis Beaker was a troll, and a load of made up rubbish, I read the OP rolled my eyes and hid it. Now it's in Classics and gained MN a load of new members. So they don't always get deleted.

Yes and those new PB members are the credulous fools who don’t understand irony!

So we are blaming all this on the new members that Penis Beaker going viral caused?

Trolls who write things such as they have critical ill twins, or their husband has terminal cancer or about an abusive relationship should be deleted. As with the perverts who want to hear about teenagers having sex or posters' knickers.

But someone posting pretending they are Pollyanna, a seagull or Voldermort don't need to be surely? I mean maybe they wont be but now these type of threads are full of posters reporting, spitting renom and complaining. (Always had these posters, but I there just seem to now be in the majority.)

I know all above is fictional but one's harmless all be it potential unfunny.

I’m blaming it on a variety of factors.

Including the people who think no one should ever be slightly upset, feel slightly bad, or be slightly made fun of. Ever. Those people never learn to understand sarcasm and perfectly good humour. Then they want to run around policing all the rest of us when we’re just fine, thanks.

(I didn’t think penis beaker was funny at all, tbf)

@bagheaven

YANbU it's a joke - this site is like a children's website sometimes not grown adults.

It's like the site doesn't want any kind of free speech anymore.

I'm sure there are other sites more to your taste.

Presumably MNHQ delete threads because people report them.

TBH I can't believe the amount of people who fell for it, it was clearly a wind up. Once leafy suburb was mentioned I laughed. Although I did laugh out loud when a poster asked what a lanyard was and a reply was 'A yard that keeps lans in', genius. 😂😂😂

The penis beaker poster was a MNer of very long standing with no previous trolling history. She might have been making something up because she was bored of course.

I realise that it's now The Law to say that you never found it funny, but actually I thought the first couple of hundred posts before the entire internet dropped in and added their own inferior attempts at humour were properly LOL funny - it was one of those threads where I handed my phone over to DH and said "you must read this".

@LavenderAskew

Trolls who write things such as they have critical ill twins, or their husband has terminal cancer or about an abusive relationship should be deleted. As with the perverts who want to hear about teenagers having sex or posters' knickers.

But someone posting pretending they are Pollyanna, a seagull or Voldermort don't need to be surely? I mean maybe they wont be but now these type of threads are full of posters reporting, spitting renom and complaining. (Always had these posters, but I there just seem to now be in the majority.)

I know all above is fictional but one's harmless all be it potential unfunny.

Those people who pretend they are Pollyanna, or who screech at the Sistine Chapel etc, are really tedious, and "look at me" attention-seekers. Yes I expect there will be people who clamour for the thread to be made a "MN Classic" but there is no doubt it's all fake and contrived and there are many who don't think they are even vaguely clever or amusing.

I expect HQ let a few odd ones stand to show willing, but if they allow them all to remain then it could set a trend and their forum loses credibility. If the OP posts then abandons MN completely, HQ will want to clear away their mess, they probably have a policy about abandoned threads where the poster deregisters (guess). Having to sift through the dross in the Active list to get to something meaningful is tedious imo. There are plenty of witty, amusing, observational comments embedded in real threads.

@SilverRingahBells

The penis beaker poster was a MNer of very long standing with no previous trolling history. She might have been making something up because she was bored of course.

I realise that it's now The Law to say that you never found it funny, but actually I thought the first couple of hundred posts before the entire internet dropped in and added their own inferior attempts at humour were properly LOL funny - it was one of those threads where I handed my phone over to DH and said "you must read this".

I don't think it's the law to say you didn't find it funny. Humour is quite a personal thing and the OP didn't appeal to me. I was the only person that didn't understand 'Snapped and Farted' either. I think it was all made up as an attempt to get a laugh though. All a bit try hard, like a lot of threads now in Classics.

To me penis beaker, Sistine chapel and snapped & farted are all in the same vein: maybe mildly chuckle-worthy if you read them in real time, but not hilarious imo and not really classics-worthy either. But that just depends on one’s individual tastes.

On the other hand I loved the multi-thread parking thread and really wouldn’t have minded if it had been made up because it genuinely made me happy and I really enjoyed the story. I’d’ve been really annoyed if it had been deleted.

If a thread is sufficiently outlandish so as to make you think WTF? This can't be real?' but it does NO actual harm, then what does it matter whether it's a troll or a spoof or a genuine poster just being a bit weird?

Things that look like harmless fun to most people aren't always harmless fun to everyone.

Do we need to be infantalised and micromanaged over everything we read,

MN mods investigate if someone complains about the thread. I don't know what the thread was, I don't know who complained or why, if it was reasonable to complain or not. But someone must have done. We manage ourselves.