Is anyone else getting suspicious

[KimberleyClark]

Of the number of threads being started in AIBU lately which seem designed to pit parents and the childfree against each other? It’s very striking how many there have been recently.

I have noticed and think it's caused by rabble rousers who want a bun fight.

I hid the whole of AIBU for a reason.

@KimberleyClark

Yes and there also seem to be way more provactive tell-me-stuff journalist style posts which ask for info with nothing volunteered like 'tell me your worse experience at work' or 'recommend your favorite nappy brand'. type

Yes, they seem to follow a pattern of a fairly neutrally pitched but goady OP; then the OP disappears once the buns start flying.

I've noticed a lot of goady threads on all subjects recently. Not sure if Mumsnet HQ seeking engagement, or someone getting a kick out of causing arguements.

Or it could be AI learning tools / data scrapers moving among us.

I hide quite a few 'adult friendship problems' threads every day.

I can’t remember what CF vs parents thread I hid this morning but I know it looked as if it was going to turn into a bloodbath.

Yes, I've noticed this. Intentionally goady threads. 🤔

As this board became more well known, I assumed this would happen. I think threads are being started by posters who’d prefer the board removed and want to demonstrate to MN that we’re a nuisance and can’t co-exist with the nice mums.

I haven’t even commented on the last one as I can’t be bothered having another argument with someone who thinks I either need to #BeKind or that I’m a lesser human in the workplace who needs to work so that mums don’t have to.

MNHQ have deleted the latest one 👏

... but another has popped up www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5201832-to-think-all-of-these-people-can-afford-children-they-just-dont-want-them

How long before someone suggests that it’s “unclear” whether or not a childfree poster started the thread?

I think I’ll just start hiding them. My favourite place on MN at the moment is the Litter Tray.

I've noticed that in general I'm hiding a lot more threads at weekends than during the week.

There do seem to be a lot of contrarian posters these days.

Not like AIBU of old (where you could say what you meant in straightforward/blunt tones) but you did so because that's what you really thought - and people were actually interested in other people's views. Yes there were bunfights, because world pictures collided.

But there wasn't this constant pick, pick, pick; or nasty put downs or the fostering of division. I think it's been less pleasant in the last 3 years or so - feels dumbed down

The place these kind of threads always seem to end up at is 'if you don't have children, you should be lonely and abandoned in your old age'. I think that line of thinking is a reflection of the sort of selfish society we have become. Nobody can see the importance of community outside their 'little family'. And it often is a little family - small enough that it could be very vulnerable to shocks in the future. What happens if they suddenly need help from outside their family - will they decline it on the basis that they didn't 'breed' it therefore don't deserve it.

There's also a lot of nuance which they are failing to acknowledge. If you think that only people who have given birth to children who grow up to be fully functioning and productive members of society deserve care, that presumably excludes all parents of children with complex needs and whom may never live independently.

They also fail to acknowledge that there's a great deal of chance and luck involved with having children. You have to have been lucky enough to have met a suitable partner during your child bearing years. You have to have been lucky enough not to have experienced fertility issues. What if their own children are not as lucky as they have been and fail to have their own offspring? Do they therefore think that they should then new viewed as 'failures' who deserve a miserable, lonely old age. A lot of parents have only children too now - that could leave them with very little family in the future. It's a scary place to be (I know, as I am there) so why not demonstrate to them the importance of community outside of family?

There's been like 3 or 4 today. I'm annoyed that I've bitten.

If they post once and vanish it's never a good sign. The deleted one didn't even make their position clear and was strangely worded, probably an AI.

There’s another one

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5203475-to-think-people-who-dont-want-kids-shouldnt-have-pets-either

FFS. At least only 2% of people think it's not unreasonable.

Also the usual stereotypes that because we don’t have kids we must be rich and constantly on holiday.

I would like @mnhq to have a look if all these weird CF threads are started by one or two people in last week or so please

I don’t think that tag works. The ways to get their attention are to post in Site Stuff or to report the threads you want them to look at.