Cmon HQ, please may you give us a break now?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

"This is a wind up" was acceptable in the olden days.

But not now.

There's been a few threads recently where the OP was not about begging, emotional vampires, beyond the pale stuff and that ilk.

Just stuff, that if you were having a conversation with your mates, you'd express incredulity.

Why can't these comments be left to stand, rather than a reflex actoin of just zapping them?

Surely there's a difference between a "you've gotta be kiddin" and trill hunting?

Please, please take each comment/thread as a separate case, I really think there's a danger of spoiling the boards with this eagerness to eradicate any implucation of doubt.

And you know what your new policy is doing?

All the fun and wit and intelligence is going and being drowned out by

Jealous much?
Spiteful much?
Bullying much?
Very slightly yet essentially nonconformist much?

Agggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I really don't think that its that the posts are being deleted, they are being reported more. Back in the owd days, we self-moderated. Reading old threads things got trashed out onboard, and, as we know, mnhq don't know about something unless we report it. Lately there seem to be a lot of tattletaling POs who rather than discuss things like semi feral alley cats adults, run to TPTB everytime a discussion doesn't go their way.

@laptopwieldingharpy

simple answer Helen is yes. The guidelines did not appear out of thin air. Mumsnet is now too big as an opinion leader, or trend setter or whatever you want to call it.

OK, the answer is (mostly) no: we do not delete out of fear of being sued. Though, as the libel laws currently stand (do join us in signing the Libel Reform Campaign's national petition for libel reform ), we may well feel we have no choice but to delete posts that are reported to us as being potential defamatory.

Our Talk Guidelines did not, indeed, appear out of thin air but have remained pretty much the same since Justine and Carrie first put them together shortly after Mumsnet started - with only the odd tweak or two over the past decade.

There are also an awful lot of funny, tongue in cheek posts that offend the humourless, who then report them and they do get deleted.
I do think HQ should get the difference between a slightly irreverent post and people with a total SOH failure.
And I don't mean cruel or unkind posts, just some of the clever witty ones.
It's one of the reasons I love MN.

Getorf, yes. I was one of them. How I laffed. Because, I have nothing to hide.

I can see that, Blameit, but then MN should email them back and tell them not to be such tattletale wankers.

And I agree with hully.

@Hullygully

I can see that, Blameit, but then MN should email them back and tell them not to be such tattletale wankers.

And indeed we do. Although not in those words of course

We would not delete a thread simply because it had not gone the OP's way.

(There wouldn't be much MN left, if we did...)

@BlameItOnTheCuervo

Getorf, yes. I was one of them. How I laffed. Because, I have nothing to hide.

Are you saying you're a sockpuppet, BlameItOnTheCuervo?

No I mean the PO that report posts that have a modicum of wit and humour that frightens them because they don't understand it and feel intellectually challenged. The majority, these days.

No arguments from me there.

"Oh no, a nasty lady told me to get a grip and asked me if I was sure that was accurate, how dare they"

I told my son peter and the wolf to stop him telling tales.

No, but some thought I was. Which was nice because I like the poster I was accused of being.

I know guidelines have not changed much Helen, i've been around that long but you are much much more cautious. Its tedious, boring.
Why?
I've posted about this issue before and cant remember if it was under this name or the previous.
We just want the straight talking back.

I'd be a rubbish sockpuppet. I always out myself.

I'd be a rubbish sockpuppet. I always out myself.

Your phone does, yes!

@Hullygully

No I mean the PO that report posts that have a modicum of wit and humour that frightens them because they don't understand it and feel intellectually challenged. The majority, these days.

Well, we certainly wouldn't want to delete wit and humour - but I guess it would depend how that wit and humour was expressed. If it was accompanied by a personal attack (ie "[witty comment, witty comment], you cow"), that would be different.

In the end, most deletions are a judgement call. And, try as hard as we do, sometimes our judgement (and/or our sense of humour) may be off. But we do aim to get it right most of the time - and we're always happy to hold our hands up when we don't.

I'm afraid I have to go now, as it's actually my day off and I have an appointment I can't miss. But RebeccaMumsnet is about, so do keep posting if you have any other moans Qs.

What I find disappointing is that while all this ineffable sparkling wit is apparently being deleted, and these our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air: (ahem) -

• at the very same time, there are whole threads, yards and miles of nastiness long, streeling letter-of-the-law-following screeds of bile where a thousand pinched-mouthed scrubbers are saying things like "What do you expect, a free lunch?" and "I get up at 5 am, why can't you?" and "IT SAYS NO PUSHCHAIRS. WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL? WHY CAN'T YOU CARRY 7 DISABLED TEENAGERS IN YOUR ARMS LIKE ME?" -

• and I just die inside. There is so much nastier stuff on here than the stuff that is officially not allowed.

The other thing pisses me off is that trolls are protected now as well.

There was a thread the other day which among other things discussed Mamazon, quite a few posters were not aware of what had actually happened. It was deleted for 'not being cricket'

Why shouldn't we discuss posters that have been banned and that which MNHQ have themselves deemed trolls or sock puppeteers, arse aches etc.

EXACTLY

Agree vezzie,FGS can we have the "like" button?

Oh god Vezzie I agree with your every word.

I was on a thread yesterday (about taxi queues) and yes, the OP was a daft so and so, but MY GOD the relentless nastiness.

I just wanted to post YOU MISERABLE MOTHERFUCKERS round the thread but assumed it wouldn't have helped

I have started a thread for those of us with honour and not reporting fingers.

If you are nasty to someone but stay within the talk guidelines that's ok. Plenty of people have this down to a fine art.

If you ask for a point to be clarified, or seem surprised that this ridiculous event happened then you either get 10 POs accusing you of bullying or troll hunting or it gets deleted. But the actual bullying posts tend to not get called on or deleted.