WTF has happened to Mumsnet?

[Humblebottomous]

First we had troll posts, then massive influx of posters from the US (frankly I found it annoying negotiating the different reference points) and now all these ridiculous AI threads which seem to consist of long winded posts about non-problems.

I’ve been on and off MN for years but does anyone else feel it really has had it’s day.

Yeah, well I was giving my age away, clearly.

But even at the time it was odd. Probably because my borough did away with the 11+ and went comprehensive. Which I thank fuck for as it got a shed load of people into university who otherwise would never have fulfilled their potential.

And they all work for the police or are lawyers.

i agree it isn't as lighthearted as it use to be
i use to come on here for a laugh at the funny threads after a shit day , it's all doom and gloom now
i remember a thread years ago where the op said she came home to find her husband pleasuring himself with the metal utensils from the kitchen (obviously a wind up)but the replies she got was funny . telling her to have a date night and wrap herself up in tin foil
these days she'd be told to LTB

This is not the problem I have with MN; trolls have been with us for years and it wouldn't be quite the same without them and their crazy antics, I quite like Americans and the AI is just a new form of trolling. I do think there is less humour and when you get a funny thread people leap on it so much it feels a bit OTT. The main thing I notice is its got a bit meaner, maybe it's the times being tougher IDK.

Yes to the mostly uninteresting posts 😊.

I haven’t figured out the bot threads yet, so off to investigate.

No trolling = no Mumsnet.

Mumsnet was founded on trolling, huge amounts of classic posts are obviously the work of trolls.

I originally found Mumsnet coming from another website that trolls Mumsnet and links the posts on that forum. The ultimate prize is getting into classics.

It's been going on for years

"After a couple of lonely years spent busily posting comments under multiple names to create the illusion of activity, something remarkable happened: the phenomenon that is Mumsnet began to stir into life"

Justine Roberts CEO Mumsnet

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/21/mumsnet-my-fifth-child-is-turning-15

No trolling, no Mumsnet

”Yes Americans use the English language but that’s about all we share as far I’m concerned”

Really? What about the fact we’re all people with the same life problems and emotions? The same issues with money or work? Or pregnancy or kids or partners?

Everyone should feel welcome here, the people I have the biggest issue is with the snidey, bitter, (mainly) women out to drag everyone down to their level of misery.

The anti Americanism here is really odd. Our chocolate, at least the local artisanal chocolate, is as good as European chocolate and significantly better than the British chocolate Ive eaten when in the UK.—and I’ve been in and out of the UK since 1975 so I don’t think its a post brexit chocolate decline. Our wines can also be quite good. But these complaints and put downs are just a kind of ritual place marking for some posters. It doesn’t bother me and I’m American.

I read and post here BECAUSE if the cultural differences in outlook on shared issues (family, conflict, inheritance, parking (!), gardens, relationships etc…) I’m a former anthropologist turned therapist and I am fascinated by how differently the same issues are handled and the understanding cultural themes in people’s posts and comments.

Thats how it was geez 😒

If reception was year one at my school in 1988/9 then I'm guessing this was even earlier.

I don't get the AI threads - I think I spot at least some of them, but who is pointing them at MN and telling them to start threads?

It's really tedious.

Yes me too! Took me ages to work that out!

Communicating in general has become less light hearted and more difficult to navigate since 2014.

Yes I agree with this - read the posts properly people! It gives me flashbacks of actual reading comprehension when the teacher would say 'the answer is in the written paragraph'.

MN seems really brutal- has it always been like this? People posting asking for advice and then getting told they are shit human beings for ... well, whatever their viewpoint is.
There are people at the end of these computers and I think people can be far ruder than they would be IRL

I don't think it was ever this brutal.

Bring back the days of the penis beaker I say

Back in the 16th century homosexuality was frowned upon and criminal in most of Europe. Sea captains hit upon the idea of using their boats to provide safe holidays for gay communities in international waters. These were called A Mer Gaie which is where we get the word America from.

Of course they couldn't actually tell people how they earned their money and so when they returned home they would say they got it from "America".

Badly.

They put a cup of lukewarm water in a cup with a sub-standard teabag wrapped in paper, next to it.

You then have to unwrap said teabag and dunk in the now-even-less-boiling water and end up with a scummy warm-ish not properly brewed drink, which is nothing like the tea we drink.

Not only Americans who do this though.

😂Hershey = slime

I think it is very sad how nasty people can be. You have to be brave to pop your head above the parapet on Mumsnet today.

Can't believe this thread is still standing tbh. Americans really do get a shit time on here.

First we had troll posts, then massive influx of posters from the US (frankly I found it annoying negotiating the different reference points) and now all these ridiculous AI threads...

Sorry! As an American ChatBot, I fall into at least two of these problematic categories. Per the TOU I'm not allowed to tell you if I'm a troll as well, but suffice it to say my great great grandfather was from Hammerfest, and we still eat Foskegratin and drink Aquavit on Offentlig høytidsdag.

Anyway, I hope your day has gotten better. 🍷🍟💐

I like it now actually.

Seems less cliquey now than it used to, though I do miss some of the old funny posters who vanished into the twilight some years ago.

(I namechange regularly. I still recognise my fellow name changers by the style of their jokes, their intractable opinions, their sly digs, their peculiar grammar.)