...to think that politicians clearly can't get enough of mumsnet?

[semi]

Cameron, Brown, Milliband, Balls...is this something to do with the forthcoming election?

"what happens on Mumsnet is much more down to us than it is to any policy Mumsnet HQ puts in place"

I think that is much less the case in this particular area of MN than in MN as a whole.

For the most part, MN conversations entirely stand or fall by virtue of the grassroots interest in them. No posts no life. But the livechats are entirely arranged by MNHQ, and the intense publicity for MN was something that MNHQ played a very active part in -- on radio and TV and in threads started for the purposes of generating MN views for the media. All such threads are stickied, which means that they have high profile regardless of the grassroots interest.

I don't think that this kind of management of threads by MNHQ is necessarily a bad thing, not at all. It is their site after all. But there is a danger that the content of the board becomes significantly less the simple bottom-up product of individual member posts that it used to be without that change being acknowledged, so that priorities emerging from MNHQ are represented as 'the voice of MN' when they are not.

Hey SWC, I am neither vanishing, nor (sadly) small!

It irritates the hell out of me when lazy journos, and especially in the DT, have a pop at MN, hence I went on and defended the site. I enjoy MN very much, but it is virtually impossible to have a different opinion about Afghanistan/Europe/politics/4x4s/private schooling without being shot down in flames at times. However, that is also the joy of this site as well.

Hey guys you can't control the Media, Get over it!!!!On the whole is life better or worse when politicians come to us to ask our opinion??? I know which camp im in

Wasn't aware I was trying to control the media and I am 'over it'. I do however dislike lazy journalists who are obviously using MN for their column because they can't be arsed to do their homework.

I instantly made the connection re climate change and nappies...yes he has PR people and as part of any media training should have had the good sense to do some prep. You're participatin gon a webchat - where people are asked to send in qs in advance, and given the #'target' audience should have known that nappies and environment cross over...anyway.i got it!