In the interest of full disclosure.
^1. Do you regret posting on Mumsnet and what made you do that in the first place. I’m quite sure there are many people who could use and would appreciate your help, but Mumsnet is famously a den of lions and, as you found out, they take great joy in eating people alive.
- Tell me as little or as much as you like about yourself (work, married, single, kids, the basics). Like I said, if you don’t want to use your name I am happy to just say that you wish to remain anonymous.
- Do you accept any of the criticism those women threw at you or were you just naïve in offering help to these people?
- Did you have any experience of Mumsnet before this incident?
- Anything else you want to tell me. My column is generally light-hearted so perhaps there might be an anecdote or something that’s happened since this that would be amusing.
- Are you staying away from Mumsnet from now on and why do you use that particular site in the first place?
That’s about it. I am hugely looking forward to your response. My deadline is about 3pm.
Simmy Richman
Associate editor/columnist
The Independent on Sunday^
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- No I don't regret it, the consequences of what I have written amount to exactly zero. As I stated in the thread itself; it's all just text on a screen and there was no harm done by simply scrolling past the amusing, but off topic, replies.
- I have a roughly middle to higher management job working in some capacity for the government. Single. Because of my job I move around quite frequently so I'd rather not have the additional stresses of a relationship. I have had a serious relationship before now but found the amount of travelling I was doing to keep it alive was unmanageable. No kids. 3 Bed detached with a ford focus in the drive.
- A fairly loaded question here, which I'd like to dispel. I re-read the OP now and see my original intent is not obvious at all, and so obscure the alternatives given by others didn't really cover it. I have a twitter account on which I follow all the major news agencies and every couple of days I'll skim through reading the articles that catch my eye. I can't for the life of me remember the stories but I had recently read a few articles in which parenting forums were discussed along with the general culture of the internet. In one of these articles MN was specifically mentioned along with a number of statements I know to be false (again regrettably I can't remember the origin of these articles).
My intention was more for parents, somewhat specifically mothers, to be able to ask direct questions of someone who is involved in what is considered the more "shifty" culture on the web. More aimed at the websites that do not particularly appeal to their demographic; and I'd specifically like to rule out porn as being encapsulated in that criterion. The only part of the OP that even closely eludes to this is that I stated I am male and mid-twenties. Ironically the only detail that people took notice of!
So far as the responses went, I had no idea the thread would take the direction it did, or become so infamous. I posted my post and minimised the window for about half an hour to return to approximately ten pages of replies. The majority of which in some way stating my qualifications were invalid as they have enough of a knowledge-base amongst the current sites residents. I've no doubt between them they have much higher certification so far as programming languages, networking, site design etc etc are concerned. I have no qualifications in the field whatsoever. Again, that wasn't really what I had intended the thread to be about.
My biggest surprise actually was just how much they read into my statement that I was male. Post after post of "I'm qualified with this, but I'm not a man." I got the point pretty quickly so far as that one went. Nothing to actually contribute but more than happy to set aside the couple of minutes to post "I'm better than you."
There were a couple of fun questions / comments thrown in there I enjoyed responding to, so the experience in it's entirety wasn't negative.
- None whatsoever. I have heard of it before, but never visited.
- Sadly. No.
- I'll keep an eye on the thread but the PM's asking me for my expert male help will go unanswered. I don't think I have a reason to stay to be honest. I mostly blame myself but my thread didn't exactly stay on the rails. Thankfully the internet is a wonderful place unlike the real world. If you're looking at something you don't like you have two things you can do. Keep looking at it, or just click that little red X and forget it ever existed.
If there's anything you'd like me to expand further on, or just clarify, feel free to e-mail me back. And so far as my full identity is concerned I'd rather only half my name known.
Mr White
