Please bring back the laughing emoji

[LunaTheCat]

Dear Mumsnet .. please bring this back.. I miss it heaps !

If you want to laugh at a suicidal person, put it on a public post so everyone can see.

...then why enable it? MN's aim is supposed to be a supportive place for parents etc, its grown since then but it is still a core value.

Some have used the Laughing Emoji to ridicule people who have posted very serious and sensitive posts.... i doubt very this was done in error... on FB i've seen people "laugh" at the death of a child in a bicycle accident.

MN has survived 25 years without these emoji's

Well yes but on MN their talk guidelines are in place to protect people from ridicule, bullying, and down right nasty comments.
So if posters were bullying and ridiculing verbally it was there for all to see and read and other posters could also call them out on such behaviour.

The laugh emoji was used in a very personal, secretive way to ridicule and bully. It was used by some to try and circumvent the talk guidelines lines.

So yes some posters are obviously still going to continue to be unpleasant. There will still be " pile ons" etc but at least by removing the laugh emoji MN have closed off one avenue of bullying and ridicule.

I don't have strong feelings either way tbh, just making the point that the internet can be a cruel place.

I have no strong feelings regarding any emoji, but in an ideal world I like to see a care emoji - the heart is kind of used as care but it can also appear like loving that someone is struggling.
Posters do sometimes screenshot who is reacting, and post it, for different reasons.

I’m quite glad bullies had a tool removed.

Shocking adults were behaving like this.

I don’t think it’s self-indulgent tbh. Shared laughter is one of the things that make these threads fun.

I miss it too. I had it used 'sarcastically' against me a couple of time, but since no one else could see it, I wasn't concerned.

Could MNHQ not encourage people to report others who are abusing the emoji, and deal with it that way, rather than taking it away from the majority who use it to show appreciation of something funny?

I'm truly struggling to understand how a laughing emoji, which no-one but you can see, is so upsetting. I couldn't care less about it - and tbh nasty words are far worse and yet they continue ......

What’s funny is if you read the comments here, people are openly expressing how they see the issues with the sneaky bulky emoji.

If you do the poll, you find the sneaks are still circulating like silent fart emitters.

Leopards and spots and all that …

I think it’s the lack of courage to own it.

I think I someone has addressed a comment to me (e.g. by tagging me), and there's bullying or negative tones directed at me, even in a passive aggressive way, then it's not inappropriate for me to laugh back.
I wouldn't use it to laugh at someone in pain or struggling though, that's just someone with no compassion.

It's even more shocking that anyone would consider a laughing emoji, which no-one else can see, as bullying.

How on earth do some of you cope with life?

Yes, this is a key point. It enabled bullies to directly target someone without accountability. If someone is a shit head on a thread, others will turn on them to support the person they have attacked. And the attacked person will see that. And the post can be reported and removed.

But someone putting an emoji only the individual person will see, there is something particularly personal and nasty about that. It’s a personally directed message of utter contempt. I’m glad it’s been removed.

Isn't this a bit passive aggressive too? 🤔

Well the truth is that I think it was even happening on threads where possibly people WEREN’T necessarily coping well with life.

Let’s not turn that into a slur.

What do you think is the intent of people sending these emojis?

It may be lost on you, but those receiving it understand it well.

This place properly debunks the tired myth that women can't be funny. It was nice being able to recognise that.

Mumsnet tried it, it didn’t work our well, so I can’t see them bringing it back. Any benefit really didn’t outweigh the bad, and there is another simple way to tell someone that you found their comment funny if you really want to with just a few more clicks.

To be honest, that's just going down to their level and isn't really a great thing to do.

Although they started it, you're still perpetuating the bullying rather than challenging it.

I don't know whether there could be a replacement that takes the wind out of the bullies' sails. Possibly a 'take my hat off to you' or a bow or something else that can only be used to confer respect and doesn't work abusively.

Then again, bullies would probably find a way to abuse that as well.

Sorry, but if an adult can't handle an anonymous person using a laughing emoji in a sarcastic manner to something they wrote, then I genuinely with all my heart believe the internet is just not for them.

It's soooo much more annoying to scroll through endless posts quoting a a poster and replying with a "haha".

That's what MN did. You were supposed to report inappropriate use of the emoji .

But the reporting process didnt work because it was not fit for purpose as regards this emoji.

I'm missing it to show that I have appreciated poster's humour. I could have used it liberally through the grateful cat thread.
In my early days on MN there was a lot more humour and threads could easily divert on to witty tangents, and I really miss that and the laughter emoji was a tool in encouraging humour.

It's a shame that passive agressive bullies have used it inappropriately to subtly target vulnerable posters and resulted in it being removed.

A caring emoji is needed. There's often I read something that I don't have anything constructive to add in words, but is worth acknowledging the poster's situation.

Bullying in quiet, when nobody else can see it, is a very common arrow in a bully's quiver.

Please don't victim-blame people for being vulnerable, having MH issues or 'just' being in a very difficult place in their lives.

It doesn't make you superior, just because you've been dealt a luckier hand of cards than they have.