MNHQ so what is allowed.

[ChristmasFuckers]

Whatand how can we discuss the donations??

ChristmasDragon - you've gotta have a sense of humour mate, otherwise you'd either piss yourself or cry.
I didn't read the thread, have no idea who the poster was, but in the 10 years I've been on Mumsnet this ain't uncommon and no, they rarely do ask outright for money, that's too obvious.

I remember one poster being asked to hand back donations as she'd inadvertently let slip on another thread that she was going out to a party (or summat like that) cue lots of threads from posters who either demanded their contributions back or who said you couldn't dictate what the money was spent on.

It's a shame an all that, which is why it's best to steer subsequent threads towards humour whilst MNHQ battle behind the scenes to sort it out and get in touch with said poster.

I've actually been thinking of selling my bogey collection on ebay, do you think it'll take off? It's for all the poor children who can't afford bogeys of their own - I've plenty to spare you see.

someone mention my name...

snot a good idea to sell bogeys, try picking something that you nose everyone wants

I don't see what's wrong with deleting public cash offers.

If people want to PM offers in private it's their business, but doing it in public gives the wrong impression, can easily cause more trouble than it's worth for the OP and drowns out practical advice.

And I have done a "oh shit, we're skint for 6wks" post before. The meal planning advice, for eg, was invaluable. I was offered cash in a PM from a very very kind person but refused it out of pride, and because that conversation was private there wasn't a massive row about it getting in the way of me sorting us out...

Yeh, that's a good idea Meri

• In fact I'm surprised HQ haven't got that far already especially if this sort of thing has happened before.

You had better delete Dragon's messages as well MNHQ. Mine was in response to hers and perfectly reasonable.

Really? What exactly is delete worthy about my posts?

Yes, a sense of humour is all very well and good, CLiff'sHellEggs, but not at the expense of someone who appears to be a young, vulnerable poster. It's rather personal when it is off the back of a thread started by a specific "regular" poster (as opposed to an opportunistic one-time posting troll)

This is seriously a non-issue.

If you don't want to donate to someone apparently in need then don't.
If you feel they are not genuine, report the post.
If you do want to donate do so on the understanding that the person may not be genuine.

Common sense really.

Or, you can do as I am going to do with this and click hide.

But tbf a regular poster who has been about for more then one christmas would know that threads like this pop up most years in some form or other. Hence why it needs a policy and tbh kept light hearted as people get very emotionally involved this time of the year be it stress or festive spirit caused

I agree with the blatant policy in some respects but question how this would work in terms of the blanket thread where people offer to donate money so that wool/materials can be bought so that they can contribute to the blankets when they lack the skills to do so in that form.

This is a tricky area and there is always going to be a lot of problems in ensuring that the freedom of posting and the moderating of unreasonable posts and prevention of scammers is kept balanced.

I do agree with dragon about the best way to deal with these things from a MNHQ point of view. I also think no public posting of bank accounts/PayPal etc on the boards when it's for personal gain is a good rule.

I don't think Custy and others (including me) were being horrible to the original poster who posted PayPal details. I felt we were gently poking fun at all those who have been rather holier than thou about the whole thing but I appreciate thread interpretation is rather subjective.

I've already posted my rant thoughts about the way that poster (and others in the past) has been singled out further up the thread and I stick by them.

tbh i was pisstaking everyone

i judge all

you are all fuckers

you are all fuckers

I have piles but I cannot afford the pile cream. Feel free to send me some.
Failing that, a bottle of plonk does just as well.

So YOU were my secret santa huh? Well thanks for my lovely piles, such lovely wrapping too! How thoughtful! You know me well. I shall have to return the favour some day.......