I have been reading this site for a while but every time I come to stick my toe in the water something kicks off and it always seems to be same people in the forefront of it

[follderol]

I know that any site has big personalities. But I am finding it difficult to join this place, which I would have liked to be part of, because every time I have time to post between work and children, there seems to be a big argument brewing abot nothing: stuff like changing names and people posting elsewhere.

I think i'm asking whether it is always like this and whether I should just give up

except FAQ, you should avoid her. She's always up to no good, that one.

oh. Hello F. didn't see you there......

at risk of making this into a how to manual please could someone tell me how to increase the number of posts per page?

thankyou all for deigning to talk to me by the way - this place can be a bit intimidating

LOL Hecate

follderol select classic mumsnet, no pages, It's the bomb.

you are on pages?

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

pages are the work of the devil!

Switch to classic.

Hate pages.

Hate hate hate.

What a wonderful name you have...

I love pages.

What is pages?

Mumsnaet? Intimidating? I never heard of such a...

...actually yes, it is a bit, isn't it?

it's not always a ruck. In fact, no more than any other website forum. Mostly it's helpful, friendly and sometimes laugh out loud funny.

Pingping - Glad you asked, i dont know either

Hello - I'm quite new on here too, and like Follderol have been put off by some of the comments on here. I really thought it was a nice forum for people to share ideas, have a chinwag about tosh, offer advice, be yourself etc etc. I haven't seen so much vitriol and nasty comments since my schooldays, and I've found it a bit shocking! Have been considering leaving, but don't really want to, as I've had some nice words said to me as well as I've been going through such a poo time recently.

And also - I've no idea what you're on about re: pages, classic, and hiding threads and all that stuff means. I'm having a thicky week at the mo, sorry

.... and I do like chocolate hobnobs....

Sausage, I just changed to classic (much better) at the top of the page find the link to "customise talk settings" and you will see the classic option there.
Another thing I have found I do differently to most (I think) is I never use the active convos, I just use the last 15 minutes or last hour links. That way things come up in topic groups and it seems easier to ignore the sections that are irrelevant to me. Am I missing out on something by doing it this way?

Top of the screen - there's an option to click 'customize talk board' - it changes the appearance of the forum.

I am dinosaur on classic MN, because my computer takes seven hours to load one page, and if a thread was split into pages, instead of one one big page, I would not be able to reply to you until 2012.

But what I like about MN is that people feel free to make nasty comments. I don't mean those that set out to bully or make people feel cr*p, but on other forums it's all hugs, kisses, and no one dares disagree strongly with anyone else - even if they are spouting complete tosh.

AIBU is prob the one place to avoid if you are having a bad time though, as it does get heated

Sometimes there's rucks, sometimes it's more peaceful. Some posters can be bitchy, some very nice, some switch between one and the other! Just find yourself a corner and settle in, hide topics you have absolutely no interest in, and if you are upset by a particular thread you can always hide it too.

Then just jump in and talk to people - it's like a big crowd, but you find your feet after a while.

I'm fairly new to posting also. I found it a bit at first. But I have found bribery works quite well on here too!

pingping - pages - you can customise MN and some types have pages, so instead of reading the whole thread, you read however many posts and then have to go to the next page, so a thread like this might be page 1 of 5, click, page 2 of 5, click etc etc.

sausage - it's all of those things. You get a group of people interacting and you are going to get fallings out, that doesn't change what's good about the site.

a bit of vitriol is desirable

sometimes it gets tiresome, circular and repetitive but there's usually plenty of other stuff to do on here - and if there isn't, kick something off

on bmc there is only one thread called " calling betty jan and hilary" Or similar.
It goes ON ANd on AND ON

True - guess I have to be picky about where I write if I don't want to see nasty reactions and the like. I have begun to see which posters to avoid interaction with, though.... !

Think I have changed to the classic thing - also have somehow changed to a nice shade of mauve. Hm.

I like seeing the 'last 15 minutes' thing too - quite useful. Also have a nose about in boring but useful topics such as 'which pram?!' as I need to get one and am stuck. Tend to avoid the ones where people are namecalling - wonder if they'd do that in real life? (sorry, RL!)

oh

is this thread a thinly veiled recruitment exercise for bmc?

oh god dont
there is one thread
with some names on it

(I hope that didn't have soggy poo in it)