"on mumsnet this week" in the Mail. Is this a new thing

[jujumaman]

Came across this this morning when I should have been working

Is this a new weekly rip-off by the Mail? Or has it been going on for months and I'm behind the times as usual

I'm not quite as virulently anti the Mail as mnetters, find it silly rather than the end of civilisation as we know it. But still ...

nope mn is run as a business

It is also inn the mian an altristic support netwrrk

the life of fora like thesedoesnt stop with theownership, it becomes what everyone makes it.

A family isa method ofensuring geneticrepro; it also can becomesaidaltruistic group

It is what everyone makes it

Obviously I am hopelessly late joining this thread - I have been out all day enjoying a Castle

FWIW I am appalled at this, I post on MN I have no desire whatsoever to be quoted hither and thither elsewhere, DM in particular

I am [shocked] and tbh - I didnt submit quotes for the latest MN book because although I would have liked to see my name in print I didnt want to risk my privacy - DM are apparently allowed to do that

sm background- sameas thgisreally, mn did something people didnt like, we kicked off, result

soactually mn YOUset thestroppy precedent here- ha!

It's not as simple as that Scottish. The economic success of MN is also in its brand.

IMO this risks seriously damaging their brand, especially if one of these columns ends up going wrong.

yes that is what i am alluding to,MN is a brand,and any brand relies upon good marketing, appropriate placement and associations

it remains to be seen whether posters dissent about the MN association with DM. that is the power of the individual to impact upon a business

SM

Is that to be intereted as fuck off and see if MN care?

There is a good thing about this obv

Someone on facebook atm deserving a right erm- comment

At elast I am avoiding the temptation

It's not the connection with the DM that I think damages their brand Scottishmummy - it's the fact that MNHQ are being seen to be commoditising people's personal lives without their consent.

Their "brand" is supposed to be about peer support in a relatively anonymous setting.

Flogging off identifiable personal posts to the DM gives out a rather different message. I presume from what Justine has posted that they are not getting any cash for this (apart from the exposure) but that doesn't really matter, it is not what readers will necessarily presume.

If I read this column I wouldn't think "I want to go and post on mn". I would think "eek, better not post there, the DM will be printing my personal life next week."

I'm interested in what other MNers are trying out in terms of attempts to maintain anonymity. These days I use a load of different names, and on sensitive issues I change details, eg gender of people, timescales etc. Sometimes I'm given short shrift as if people can tell I'm not being totally open. Mostly I feel guilty that I'm not being authentic. Either way it's not a great way to use MN - for me or for others. Very frustrating, having been a fairly open poster for years.

It's difficult eje

When I want advice about ds's (they have sn) I don't ewant to have tro rehash the whole story- its long, and emotionally draining. The fact I can post in some places and say 'its happened again!' and people will know immediately what I mean is huge. I don't have family close by, and the boys have made it ahrd to form reliable friednships of any real kind.

Nut I am now editing myself. Sad but hey ho

your powers of interpretation a bitty squiffy

interpret it as this

MN is a for profit business relying upon hits,potential customers for advertising revenue and a wide socio-economic base of customers

if people dissent and feel this association tarnishes MN or in some way breaches their concept of MN they could potentially reduce the hits etc by reduced participation

thus spending clear message that the DM association is unpalatable

"By Nancy66 on Thu 13-Aug-09 20:24:50
Peacny - you're right. I really can't get my head around the security issues people seem to be anticipating, and I am super cautious about protecting my identity."

isn't this precisely why you're not bothered, though? you don't use MN the way that others do, and this does rather dictate (as SM has mentioned once or twenty-five times) that they stop revealing personal details.

thanks for counting my post aithc.is is just me or do you randomly count on MN

Yes but f the only way we can do so is to leave then its cutting off our noses to spite the DM

Truth be told I ahven't made a decision yet.

MN's brand is so huigh becuase of what it sells, and that is twofold: advertising and support. If people cease to get the support they want they will go elsewhere- or more likely MN will suffer natural wastage and others won't even bother starting up because of its poor rep

To ensure the maintenance of the brand, MN has to ahev some savvy in its day to day dealing with its users.

Agree Aitch. Nancy, if all of us just had internet personae that revealed nothing about us as real people then MN would be completely empty and meaningless as a support mechanism, a forum for friendship, and as a source of copy for professionals like yourself. YOU may reveal nothing about your thoughts and feelings on here, but if other posters did not obligingly do so, then you'd be a bit stuck for article ideas wouldn't you? No DM articles about real dilemmas if people stop posting them.
It is one thing to post here and be happy to have material published in MN books, quite another to see it appear wrongly attributed in a misogynist tabloid.

sense of humour failure, sm?

not necessarily leave.not at all.individuals can act as a collective mass to incite a change

i suppose email MNHQ
post about your thoughts on this

for the 26th time dont exagerate aitch

Sorry SM but I think you are being wilfully simplistic about this and taking a very narrow accountant's view. There is a lot more to positioning yourself in the market place than just thinking "hmm, how many hits can I get today". If that was really all MNHQ cared about then they'd just post free porn wouldn't they?

Brand association matters above and beyond its pure association with revenue, and in any case, it's not only about what this column does to the brand NOW, it's about what it has the potential to do to the brand in the future.

Suppose someone loses their job, suffers a relationship breakdown, even commits suicide as a result of being outed by this column? (Unlikely but not impossible). How will the "brand" stand then?

At the very least, in MNHQ's position I would want some form of editorial control over this column.

lol sm

eieio - it is tricky, isn't it? I have name changed a couple of times. Because I'm not a terribly prolific poster, it means there isn't much chance of striking up any MN friendships. I feel like I know everybody, but nobody knows me.

But I have posted fairly personal stuff about relationships and work, which would make me identifiable quite easily. On one thread I was on, we talked quite seriously about getting a private area, because if we were to post openly and usefully, there was a good chance we might be Google-able. And the thought of it being picked up by the press makes my hair stand on end!

Not that it was particularly newsworthy, but it was the sort of thing that could have been very cringey professionally.

I do post revealing information about myself i just don't imagine that people that know me will ever follow a link from the DM, search my background and previous posts, identify me and then make my life a misery.

But I take sensible precautions in that I don't post pictures of my family, I have a user name that bears no resemblance to my own and don't name check any of my family.