Hello all,
The way that online chats come about is twofold. First we do often ask people to come on and we periodically consult on this and we'll start a new thread on this now.
Realistically we're probably not going to get JK Rowling any time soon (but we'll keep trying). Lots of folk also approach directly us because they want to plug something - a book or a show or just themselves, sometimes it's part of a paid for deal. Tony Parsons' publishers did some advertising on the boards and we threw in the online chat as part of that deal.
Scheherazade Goldsmith wasn't advertising/paying but she approached us and we thought she'd be interesting (maybe that was a bad call - we were a little surprised by the level of hostility I must admit). Had she braved it out though she might well have won us over like TP, with a few notable exceptions, did.
On balance I suppose we'd rather folks didn't have to steel themselves to come on Mumsnet or we're going to get ourselves a reputation and they'll stop coming. Certainly it's a bit cringy our end when several folk come on and say something along the lines of, "who the hell are you?" or worse. There does sometimes seem to be a bit of a feeding frenzy mentality and, given our druthers, we'd rather not appear to be rude/smart-arsey/bitter and twisted to the outside world.
Having said that we absolutely think everyone should be able to question what our guests stand for/ their opinions, along the lines of Scummy's question last night, without fear of censorship. That's perfectly valid I think and we do warn anyone coming to expect forthright questions/responses.
One thing we could do is to moderate a bit more on these threads - go in and say calm down or stick to the topic or don't be rude etc for instance like our old mods used to do - I think that might help?
Another thing we'll do is to consult with you when someone approaches us - to check the interest/hostility level and keep trying to get the guests people want.
Thanks for bringing this up - think it needs some discussion. Let us know your thoughts.