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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder whats with all the ‘can you see a line?’ threads on chat?

74 replies

Gingerangel · 06/12/2022 05:16

MN have specific topics that makes a lot of sense and keeps the site feeling organised. So what’s with all the people posting photos of their pregnancy tests on general pages like chat asking if people can see a line ? 🤨

Why not post on pregnancy, or conception?…

Not everyone browsing the chat board wants to look at a photo of a stick you have pissed on and if you can’t see a line then I can’t see it either and there is no line , give it a few more days or a week and try again 🤦‍♀️

might also be triggering for mumsnetters who are experiencing infertility. Who would normally avoid the pregnancy/conception board and thinking that the general chat page would be a safe place to browse.

I have also seen lots of threads on there about breastfeeding… Would you not get better advice on the pregnancy or parenting topics? Would that not be a more appropriate board to post your thread on?

rant over

p.s I’m PMSing if you can’t tell😤

OP posts:
CourtneeLuv · 07/12/2022 06:35

Yadnbu.

Particularly annoying when there's no indication in the title.

Some of us have hidden certain boards and topics.

PAFMO · 07/12/2022 06:37

Gingerangel · 06/12/2022 07:49

There might not be any traffic on the ‘can I see a line’ boards/ conception boards because people aren’t actually interested in looking at photos of pissed on pregnancy tests. (Perhaps the piss troll might tho!)

On another note, yes lots of posters seeing imaginary lines and giving false hope which is cruel. I might get my husband to piss on a test stick and see if any mumsnetters can see a line… Perhaps DH might be expecting too🫃

Show quote history

People have been moaning about the "line" threads for as long as I've been here (my "line" is now at university)
Presumably lots of thread titles could be "triggering" so here's the thing. How about you don't open them and move on?

AWaferThinMint · 07/12/2022 06:38

I get your point. And yet despite there being sections for them threads on Brexit, FWR, conception, pets etc litter AIBU and Chat.

I expect loads of people want to avoid those for whatever reason. What's the be point in having subject areas if MNHQ just leave stuff in the chat space.

I complained about all the brexit stuff in AIBU by reporting a thread and just using that to ask. MN told me it was an useful discussion so it would stay. That's as may be, but it's a useful discussion. That should be in its section of the board or what's the point in having them at all.

I hate forums sometimes. Lack of consistency at the whims of mods is just irritating.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/12/2022 06:40

I might get my husband to piss on a test stick and see if any mumsnetters can see a line… Perhaps DH might be expecting too

Yeah, do that. The scientist in me firmly believes in needing to pass blind testing to reach a definitive conclusion, so if someone posted pictures of sticks pissed on by their DH, along with 70 YO DM, 4 YO DS and spayed cat, and the line eyes were still out in force, then that would be all the proof we needed.

It's like the Emperor's new clothes on here sometimes and it's certainly not the done thing to say anything on the 'line' threads.

Sceptre86 · 07/12/2022 06:45

I often can see lines though. I would never say I could if I couldn't. Each and every time I've been pregnant I've tested positive on a digital clearblue 5 days before my period was due. I've never had a miscarriage though and for women in that situation I question whether it is healthy to test before a missed period. I can appreciate that many are ofen desperate but I found those kind of posts overwhelming when ttc my youngest so I actively avoid them.

People post in chat or aibu for more responses, again desperation.

BeanieTeen · 07/12/2022 06:45

Threads are pretty whack and always have been but at least they were confined to specific pages. The amount of posters falling over themselves saying ‘I see it!!’ at an obviously negative pregnancy test that’s been spun through some of sort of filter to try and make something show up is just sad.

I agree it is sad, particularly as even if there is a line, when it’s so faint you have to squint and adjust the light or take a photo with a filter then I personally could not get excited - I don’t know why posters start to congratulate the OP and as you say fall over themselves in excitement when an early faint line may easily still come to nothing and a faint line days after a missed period is also not the best sign (by faint I don’t mean in colour, I mean so faint that as above you have to post on the internet and ask strangers if it’s actually there). It seems quite cruel.

Nishky32 · 07/12/2022 06:52

My ‘is it or isn’t it a line’ is now at uni, I wasn’t on mumsnet, but I assume all the self- righteous jerks on this thread would be saying THERE IS NO LINE.

valid point about triggering and the posts should really stay on the correct board, but complaining about ‘pissy sticks’ is a bit tragic, not as tragic as not realising you can hide threads - or just not open them

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:01

If i can't see the line (which is always) and everyone else is claiming to see one I don't comment.
You can't really replicate seeing the test in RL.

70billionthnamechange · 07/12/2022 07:02

Kind of see what you mean, I never posted one but I did obsessively test after a miscarriage and then took so long after the miscarriage to fall again I went slightly mad testing way too soon and too often. So you don't know what people are dealing with and what's prompted them to post on that board, or indeed why people say they see it if they don't. So live and let live I say, just don't open them since it's pretty obvious what it is before you click!

Ivyonafence · 07/12/2022 07:03

They are annoying. If you want to be sure get a blood test. Don't ask strangers on the internet.

I also dislike the 'ooo guess the gender of my baby' threads. Again, get a blood test or an ultrasound if you actually want to know.

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:05

I thought the guess the gender ones were more for fun, I never open those at all.

ShowOfHands · 07/12/2022 07:07

People post all sorts in chat and aibu and probably 70% is posted in the wrong place. Health concerns, sex issues, conception woes. The ship has sailed.

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:11

ShowOfHands · 07/12/2022 07:07

People post all sorts in chat and aibu and probably 70% is posted in the wrong place. Health concerns, sex issues, conception woes. The ship has sailed.

Definitely. The Royal Family is all over the place and doesn't get shovelled back into that topic.
It's all about the traffic.

Happylittlethoughts · 07/12/2022 07:15

I can never see them either. I also wonder why they don't use the test with the words
Pregnant/ Not Pregnant???
No more peering for lines.

Tirrrrred · 07/12/2022 07:17

It's not something I've ever done but if they are desperately wanting a baby I can understand it. I know doing more tests won't make any difference but there is the hope of one being positive I guess.

I hate the gender / sexing ones. No one knows just wait until the second scan.

eurochick · 07/12/2022 07:19

Happylittlethoughts · 07/12/2022 07:15

I can never see them either. I also wonder why they don't use the test with the words
Pregnant/ Not Pregnant???
No more peering for lines.

They are generally less sensitive than the line kind. They are also more expensive.

Squashpocket · 07/12/2022 07:19

Interesting that the majority can't see lines, because I can almost always see a line. Maybe it's the quality of the your phone screens

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:19

The other ones are the 'could I be pregnant' ones where there hasn't even been a test yet. With a description of events so far.

And for some reason there is absolutely no way a test can be purchased until a week on Friday or something.

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:20

Squashpocket · 07/12/2022 07:19

Interesting that the majority can't see lines, because I can almost always see a line. Maybe it's the quality of the your phone screens

I'm on my laptop on MN most of the time. Big picture of the no line.

Squashpocket · 07/12/2022 07:38

@Sparklingbrook but I can actually see a line most of the time. Maybe it's because I've peed on so many first response tests and know what I'm looking for?

Are people who are saying there's no line expecting a big pink line that looks like the control line, because that's not what it looks like in the early days. It can be a very faint grey or pink shadow of a line. But my experience is that any second line on a frer (it's often a frer) at all is positive. If it the line doesn't then progress it's because the pregnancy didn't stick (obviously very common).

Hardbackwriter · 07/12/2022 07:44

PurpleButterflyWings · 07/12/2022 00:54

YEAH THIS! Absolutely does my head in it does. I see one of these bloody threads several times a month, and there is NEVER a second line. EVER. I said on one of these threads a couple of days ago that there is NO SECOND LINE, and I got yelled at by almost every poster on that thread, got told I 'needed to go to Specsavers' and that I am an idiot.

I bailed on the thread after a couple of posts as it was so pathetic. Dozens of 'aww hun congratulations' and 'I SEE A LINE WOO HOO!' type of posts. Utterly farcical. THERE WAS NO SECOND LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Confused

And it has fuck-all to do with the quality of my phone LMFAO!!! I never come onto mumsnet on my phone. Always on my laptop with a 20" screen! And there is STILL NO LINE!!!!!!!!! And my eyesight is perfect thank you. It's the ones 'seeing a line' that isn't there! that have shitty phones and who need to go to Specsavers!

And as you say @Gingerangel it's quite insensitive and thoughtless as there may be people trying to conceive or someone who has just suffered a miscarriage. They may want to avoid the pregnancy/TTC type threads, so they avoid those boards, but then see the bloody 'I see a line' threads all over Chat and AIBU! Just wrong.

Show quote history

The thread that you're talking about is still going and the OP is pregnant, so maybe not the best example of how you're right and the people who can see the line (which I can there, too) are delusional....?

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:45

Is this a thread about a particular thread?

Sparklingbrook · 07/12/2022 07:46

Squashpocket · 07/12/2022 07:38

@Sparklingbrook but I can actually see a line most of the time. Maybe it's because I've peed on so many first response tests and know what I'm looking for?

Are people who are saying there's no line expecting a big pink line that looks like the control line, because that's not what it looks like in the early days. It can be a very faint grey or pink shadow of a line. But my experience is that any second line on a frer (it's often a frer) at all is positive. If it the line doesn't then progress it's because the pregnancy didn't stick (obviously very common).

I know exactly what I’m looking for, just in 99% of cases can’t see anything. 🤷‍♀️

Nishky32 · 07/12/2022 07:49

Hardbackwriter · 07/12/2022 07:44

The thread that you're talking about is still going and the OP is pregnant, so maybe not the best example of how you're right and the people who can see the line (which I can there, too) are delusional....?

Show quote history

😂

IWillBeWaxingAnOwl · 07/12/2022 07:54

Mumsnet could do with a better board navigation menu and also with pinned chat threads like Reddit has - even on the conception board it's annoying when there are 600 new threads a day about test lines, and on the pregnancy board 600 threads a day to guess fetal sex. Would be good if there was a pinned megathread and a culture to post in the correct area!