dear mn hq, please could something be done about the anti sn posts on mn

[2shoes]

as I know you are aware(I have the emails) people from the sn community have left this week, due to the vile things that have been said to the/or about SN.
isn't it time that mn hq took some steps to eradicate this, as you do with trolls? surely disablist/anti sn/ personal attacks should be deleted and something done about the posters.
or do we just keep loosing well informed, SN educated people from mn.
(no I can't link to a thread as there has been too many)

LL please don't. Let ehr go. It's for her own good.

Rufus good point, Before ds1 was diagnosed I was a manager at a charity, DH a transport manager. At teh time money felt tigt but looking back we were roling in it . It was dh's redundancy once I was a carer that shoved us off the deep end but we are emerging with one (maybe 2) businesses, Dh alsmot ahs his degree, me my MA and a sense that if we go down it wasn't for the want of fighting.

It's amazing how easily life can throw you a curve ball: the test is what you do with that.

Good on you both, Peachy and I wish you every success (and best wishes to your DCs)

Didn;t see that herbiw how awful.

But tis week I sat as someone not knowing me mouthed off that NT kids need TAs more than Sn kids as they had equal needs (er what part of SN / An are you not getting?) and was told that disabled people were disabled as God valued them less and created a hierarchy (really? not my understanding but what would I know, I only have an honours degree in world religion ).

However what be nice would be if that was not an actual mass increase (I am sure it has risen somewhat due to press crap having spotted easy targets to blame economy on, and indeed ex soldier (older) friend who can barely walk and uses a chair hasn't had DLA for 6 months after a malicious report, ATOS check last week refused to accept army reports and just gave him grief for ages before making him climb painfully in and out of bed, checking his stick for dust and interrogating hhim about an old viagra prescription- the man has a bullet wound through his hips and severe PTSD ffs, sorry rant over )..........but a increased awareness of it being a crime, with hopefully more action being taken.

'I find it incredibly offensive that a generalised comment about a specific group of people is deemed "inoffensive" simply because no individual was named. That isn't how insults work and its disingenuous to state otherwise.'

This.

People who get their kicks by mocking and winding up people with special needs or their parents and carers should be warned, then banned. Not just deleted every time they trot out the same offensive rubbish.

@herbietea

Did people see the news on Daybreak this morning which said that disability hate crime rose by 21% in 2010? I have first hand experience of this (I have been harrasssed by local families, called a S**z, and had a firework thrown at my open bedroom window). That is why I am upset and angry about the fact that MNHQ allow these posts to stand ,and it is not just the last few days Helen.

herbietea, that's awful and

But, just to be clear, those posts have not been allowed to stand (though we were slow to act in the first place, as we've already acknowledged).

And if there were others before the last few days, we'd like to know about them please.

@LRDTheFeministDragon

'I find it incredibly offensive that a generalised comment about a specific group of people is deemed "inoffensive" simply because no individual was named. That isn't how insults work and its disingenuous to state otherwise.'

This.

People who get their kicks by mocking and winding up people with special needs or their parents and carers should be warned, then banned. Not just deleted every time they trot out the same offensive rubbish.

They are warned, LRD - and, if they persist, they are banned.

I thnk the problem Helen and it might always be is that certain posters are very skilled at flying just below your radar fro deletion / banning. I am sure you are aware of these by name as am I- although of course I only see the snapshots on threads I can see (actually quite a restricted number, though that most active threads box on the side undoes all my good work and drags me in).

TBH OI think 37 repeated snides at claimants equates to at least one fuck off you dirty state stealing bastard, but have no idea how you police that.

Thanks for replying Helen.

I agree with Peachy though - I think some of the nastiest ones are people who say a few revoltingly nasty things mixed with a lot of 'concern troll' posts. Is there anything that can be done about that?

Is there a way to let us know better what is happening with the process from reports and deletions through to banning? I realize you'll want to keep quite about a lot of things until you're sure, but it can feel very demoralizing when someone is persistently posting offensively. Is it possible for us to ask in some situations that you look at a poster's history, not just the individual thread?

Ok, yes you're right, LBD, that we don't want to reveal too much of our behind-the-scenes goings on.

But - and we hope this answers your latest post, Peachy, too - we can say that the more you help us by reporting posters who are behaving like this, the faster we can act (if it turns out we need to).

Please feel free to tell us what you think a poster might be up to when you report them (eg: "I know this particular post by this poster doesn't break your guidelines but I've noticed this poster repeatedly does/says x,y or z")

In short, the more aware we are of possible troublemakers and the more info we have, the faster we can build up a picture of their posting history - and then take whatever action is necessary.

Sometimes, trolls/troublemakers are immediately obvious to us; sometimes, it takes a lot more digging/checking/monitoring.

Ok, I will try to do this. Thanks very much, Helen.

Our pleasure

Hi Lenin,
The problem with hide poster is that we just think it will cause terrible confusion. Folks reading threads won't necessarily be reading the same thread as some posts might be hidden and it could lead to all sorts of problems from a moderation pov imho [acronym overload]. I know reporting and ignoring isn't a perfect solution and it can be frustrating at times but we really think it's the best solution.
Thanks for the input as ever.

As it is, with mass deletions, we are not all reading the same thread. And because we are not told why so many posts are being deleted, not even when we ask, we keep making the same mistakes.

It is like hide poster, but with the posts being hidden by somebody else.

I really miss MN the way it used to be. I do understand that probably means it is time for me to find another forum to post in, one where I understand the rules.

Stwie concern troll is a new one on me; what is it please?

Oh goodness I hope I haven't come across as that in feminism, I worry I might. I'm not I promise: just a wannabe femiinist with too big a guilt complex for every single possible group in society.

I can see how a lot of Sn threads that go belly up could be attributed to that though. So it's poster who says she wants Sn kids in her class but is worried that theya re not getting the support and it is affecting the whole school yes? But who really wants to just stir a fight about Sn kdis in MS schools.

I really don't think ignoring offensive posters is appropriate or possible in some subjects, though. Sure, if we're posting on Chat about baking and someone feels the need to slag off scones, I'm sure we'll all survive the experience. But if a poster is being offensive or deliberately spreading misinformation (eg. about certain disabilities 'not existing', or rape myths, or whatever), it's not right to ignore them. Anyone who comes to that thread later - and perhaps is seeking information and quite vulnerable or upset - may think we all agree with the offensive poster.

I think it does put those very knowledgeable posters in a really hard position - either they can keep politely arguing the same points over and, as I've seen posters on this thread do (and presumably getting more and more upset by confronting the same prejudices over and over), or they can ignore ... and the offensive poster wins, because their comments go unchallenged.

This is the problem with 'concern trolls' IMO. These are posters who claim to be motivated by concern for the people they're talking to, or by their own bad experiences, and who use this as an excuse make thinly veiled offensive posts. Like whoever it was on one of the threads referred to earlier, who was saying she herself had disabled children so she understood all about it. Or there are a lot in feminism whose basic posting style is 'Oh, I understand you're all upset because you've been terribly abused by men ... but that is why you have such a skewed view of rape/DV/whatever'. It's really nasty, because it's basically a way of saying 'anyone who cares about this subject is too involved to comment'.