what the actual is that facebook like button doing there?

[CarolCervix]

has it always been there? or has it moved? and does that mean if someone 'likes' that thread it will be posted to their fb page?

I do think the button should say 'link to FB' rather than 'like' to stop any cases of misunderstanding

HelenMNHQ I think you've been put in a near impossible situation by MNHQ.

I honestly think it would be better to wait until all the questions can be listed with answers from MNHQ. This is dragging on because the questions such as: Why did MNHQ do this?
Did they not realise that there would be huge concerns from some MNers over this?
Why the rush to introduce it before checking that it worked properly?
Why wasn't it excluded from all sensitive topics?
Why time it at the end of a working day (yesterday) and then leave HelenMNHQ to cope with all the resulting questions?
Is that not an awful position to put someone (who would like to keep her job) in?

are not able to be answered and it causes frustration amongst some MNers. Now....if it had been but up for discussion by MNHQ beforehand, this could have been avoided.

"Well maybe Mardy has a very valid way of demonstrating her distaste at the decision, and her and other thread starters should "have a break" from starting threads for a bit."

Taff I've already gone on strike. There'll be no new forming of Nobdie quiches from me today.

Sorry, that reads as though I'm saying that people shouldn't post anymore. I didn't mean that. I was responding to HelenMNHQ's post when she said that she was repeating herself until she was blue in the face. I was trying to say that until full and frank answers are able to be given to questions, it might be better to take a break from this. I still think MNHQ have gone about this wrongly and I hope they'll take note and learn from it.

If it's going to mean a lot of people deregistering or just lurking more than they post or continually name change it is going to change the site a lot :(

Even if it just changes peoples' perception of the site and so they no longer feel they can come to MN for help and advice then it's going to change the site a lot too. People feel exposed and wont post - it's not a good thing.

Who's got that spoon? I need to be ready to saw my arm off with it if one more poster says "But mumsnet isn't private anyway, the whole internet can see it!" or "But as long as you don't click the Like button you'll be ok" or indeed "You mean this is only about the possibility that the Like button gets clicked by accident"?

Yes, we know.

No, not necessarily.

No, not necessarily.

Hippo, I have already posited several times that this change was driven entirely from the POV of MN's financial gain. I just want to hear it from MNHQ.

Ok, I've just checked and they have removed it from certain topics - including Forces Sweethearts, Adoption, Fostering, Child Mental Health.

It's still there for Infertility, for Teenagers, Legal, Lone Parents.

Who decides which topics are too sensitive? I'd like a full list somewhere, where people can ask and give reasons for having it removed.

TBH I notice a lot of people are increasingly posting on sensitive subjects in Chat and AIBU now and I suspect that is to ensure they get deleted in 90 days.

I don't think AIBU gets deleted in 90 days does it?

90% of the threads I start are in chat and aibu anyway.

And how does that work for those posts of a sensitive nature which are put in _Chat on a daily basis "so that [they] will disappear"?

XP MoreBeta :o

Yes, AIBU isn't deleted, and people post on here because it gets most traffic.

GetOrf I think the like button would make it easier to link such threads to manic pro-lifer sites, and people could just do it to cause trouble.

No. It will make it (marginally) easier to link to the thread on Facebook, specifically on your own wall. Linking to the thread anywhere else is exactly as easy as it has always been.

QuickLookBusy a huge number of people, including me, did not realise that pressing a button which says "Like" means you are actually "Linking" to another site.

I'm not sure how it is MNHQ's fault that you don't know the purpose of a button that is all over the internet. Would you be upset at an online bookshop for having the button, if you clicked "like" and didn't realise that you were telling everyone about your secret Mills and Boon habit? If you don't know what it does then presumably you don't have Facebook, so it doesn't affect you.

Anyone who is talking about liking posts - that's a completely different question. It's not just "this is threads, not posts", it is an entirely different usage of the word "like".

SadlyNo I'd like to hear your reasoning for

"But as long as you don't click the Like button you'll be ok"

No, not necessarily

people aren't going to leave over this. And if they do then others will join to replace them.

But tbh every times there's a ruck over something people talk about leaving/namechanging/de-registering and it never happens.

And actually, mn hq don't owe anyone anything. It is their business. they are free to run it as they see fit. And just because 50 or so posters disagree with the presence of something doesn't mean that the rest do. And even if those 50 or so posters leave mn will survive, because it always does. Mn gets over a million hits a day. How many posts are there every day here and how many individual posters post here? if a couple leave (and when something like this happens there are usually one or two) they will be replaced by a couple more. Sites like mn are fluid like that.

And people posting that they are boycotting and then continuing to post on threads like this prove the point entirely.

@IHateTheLikeButton

HelenMNHQ I think you've been put in a near impossible situation by MNHQ.

I honestly think it would be better to wait until all the questions can be listed with answers from MNHQ. This is dragging on because the questions such as: Why did MNHQ do this?
Did they not realise that there would be huge concerns from some MNers over this?
Why the rush to introduce it before checking that it worked properly?
Why wasn't it excluded from all sensitive topics?
Why time it at the end of a working day (yesterday) and then leave HelenMNHQ to cope with all the resulting questions?
Is that not an awful position to put someone (who would like to keep her job) in?

are not able to be answered and it causes frustration amongst some MNers. Now....if it had been but up for discussion by MNHQ beforehand, this could have been avoided.

Bless you but tis my job although I'm whingeing.

Ok, attempt to answer your Qs (forgive me if you've already clocked these answers further up/down the thread):

Why did MNHQ do this? Because we thought it would be a good idea to allow people, if they wanted to, to have a slightly more intuitive and more familiar way to link to an MN thread they like on Facebook. More intuitive because it's next to the thread title rather than in the Viewport bar as it is now (and still is) and more familiar because those who use Facebook are used to seeing it on many, many other sites. And, yes, because it might bring some extra traffic our way (which helps pay to keep MN free to use, keep MNHQ in biscuits etc)

Did they not realise that there would be huge concerns from some MNers over this? Truthfully, no. Although we did wonder if some people might mistake it for a 'Like this post' button - which has been discussed at length on many Site Stuff threads and generally panned.

Why the rush to introduce it before checking that it worked properly? Embarrassingly, we did think it worked properly.

Why wasn't it excluded from all sensitive topics?
It was excluded from Relationships, Bereavement, Miscarriage, OTBT, all special needs topics (including Special Educational Needs), Antenatal Tests/choices, Antenatal/Postnatal depression, Mental health, Life-limiting illness. We'd also requested it be excluded from Child/Adolescent Mental Health - but that somehow got lost in the workings. It is now excluded from there, as well as from Forces Sweethears, Fostering and Adoption.

Why time it at the end of a working day (yesterday) and then leave HelenMNHQ to cope with all the resulting questions?
Agree that it wasn't the best timing. But tis my job to cope with your questions, so I can't moan really although I probably have a bit

Is that not an awful position to put someone (who would like to keep her job) in? Not really. I can take it.

In hindsight, it would have been better to give the Techs a list of the topics that you did want it on, given that there are so many topics that people requested even though they only bloody post on AIBU

But hindsight is 20/20, etc.

@Osmiornica

Could you answer my question about other sensitive boards please. Thanks.

Of course.

OK, there is no button on the Miscarriage topic.

And we have already acknowledged that there is a very valid argument that the button should not have been applied retrospectively to old threads that are now in the archive. We've said we'll look at this - and see what we can do. Sorry to be a bit vague about what we'd actually do but, until I can talk properly to the Tech team, I don't want to be making any promises.

I do agree with you wannabe that nobody will leave over this, or if they do nobody will notice.

BUT - I do reserve the right to have a good old moan about things, and to put my two pennorth across. One of MN's great charms is the fact that they take their users considerations on board, to their great credit.

I do think though that it would be better to admit that this is a revenue/traffic generating idea, all this intuitive bollocks makes them sound like parents of indigo children

Offers a friendly pat on the head and & to helenmnhq