to think that the average debating ability of Mumsnetters has dropped considerably over the past year?

[colditz]

I was browsing through some old threads earlier, and the general standard of debate has dropped. People here used to be able to follow a thread and give a pertinent response, backed up with careful research. Lately the response is likely to be completely unrelated to the original point, and passive-aggressive to boot.

i do think there is a more lack of interesting threads, maybe people feel put off starting them. shame really

i think that bum sex aside the threads are much the same, it's the responses that are different.

i did try to make my home among the campers during the summer, hooch, but i just didn't have enough kit.

I think they are SEA. You start a thread that isn't, well, you know. And unless you hit the right time, you fall off active convos within minutes. And then your already somewhat raw 'loner' anxieties come to the fore and...

Or perhaps that's just me

so what y'all passively wait on someone else starting witty/incisive posts

eh,if you know what you want and recall what you are missing - start you your own thread?

Are the Wankers the intelligentsia then?
I thought that they were just that, Wankers.

SEA you start a thread and you either get ignored or called a troll or flamed.

Plus can never really think of anything interesting to say.
(The last thread I started was about the unsuitable use of "Whoop Whoop" by staid 30 somethings,see?)

I've started threads from time to time

@.....@.....@.....@......@

yes, lenin, if i see your name i know there's always going to be an interesting and clear-headed viewpoint behind it. you're like a modern day Blu.

maybe we should just give in to the clique thing and do what other forums do, have the names of the people who are on the thread visible in active convos? at least that way you could quickly gravitate to those whose opinions you strongly like/dislike iykwim? even if it does seem rather against the spirit of mn.

I was tempted to start a thread AIBU to call DS ASBOy, but figured I'd get jumped on. We need a tongue-in-cheek emoticon dammit.

surely the whole point of mn is so that you post anonymously

what's all this 'you must start threads if you're going to have an opinion on how mn is these days'? where's the causal nexus there?

cycling Christ imagine the sycophantic arse licking of threads of folk who chose each other,and ignore dissenters opinions

Just read my post back, I have never clicked on the Wankers thread, can I explain, purely because I have met enough Wankers in my life.
Had no idea that they were v bright people.

Will not be posting there then

It has become a business based on volume and numbers, books and (now) telly shows, rather than a parenting support site geared toward helping individuals (as it was previously), imo.

i must confess that a great deal of my Mnet time is spent hiding threads. Sometimes I get carried away and accidentally hide something I'd like to read!

But that would just leave me those with no real in-group sidelined even more Aitch, wouldn't it?

wtf is a casual nexus, did you make that up?

I thought the point of MN is whatever you want it to be. You post, you start threads, or you don't, and those choices are what makes it what it is, whatever that might be.

but that's what happens anyway on the pals threads, sm. and i specifically said 'like/dislike'. i might even take a look at threads you were on to see what shite you were talking...

Earlybird I do a lot of thread hiding. V soon I'll be left with the Mark Warner and White Comapny adverts. Perhaps that will be the time to go?

Well, that's my point really.

I've started a thread right here, fairly unaggressively, just in passing, and have been given a good old fashioned shoeing for my troubles.

Not that I can't handle that, those of you who know me will know at least that about me, but it's a bit.... dull.

I can't start exciting threads, nothing exciting happens to me. But I do rather hypocritically feel that exciting things should happen to other people, and that they should post about them.

mn is a brand,a commercial product and naturally mnhq want to grow the brand,increase exposure,increase marketing oppurtunities.but posters are still the lifeblood of mn so they too are pivotal

Shall I tell my ASBOy story then colditz?

It is sounding like your real bugbears are the groups, Aitch?

The size of MN now, you need some factions.