What is going on with personal attacks/disablist language being left to stand?!

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I've just seen that the term 'fucking retarded' was left to stand, and the poster who reported it was told it shouldn't be deleted.

That really shocks me and I think it's a real shame coming from MNHQ.

I saw this because the person reporting started a thread asking whether the term were acceptable or not, and it's been deleted with no explanation except that it was 'against talk guidelines'.

I know it was a TAAT (as is this), but generally, threads asking reasonable questions are left to stand for a little, with an explanation from HQ on them. I'm hoping for a better result here in Site Stuff, as it seems to me it's a pretty important question.

Are you defending a policy of not deleting insults like 'fucking retarded'? Is it now unacceptable to question that sort of thing? And does it have to do with this ongoing issue with threads about feminism - which is where the term was used, and in the context of some very nasty (undeleted) attacks on feminist posters.

That is horrible, silver.

Jeanne, it was 1920 when you started it - I suspect Justine et al had gone home.

No, I've seen them edit that word or similar words from posts. They usually say the rest of the post made a good point so they will let the it stand.

Yes, but I've had perfectly sensible decisions out of MNHQ until a lot later!

random 'the' in that post (it's late)

i reported some thing disablist earlier.
its ok mn hq linked to the shitty this is my child campaign,,,,,
yep.that works.. not, disablist ""jokey" stuff left

You got banned Fairy? That's ridiculous.

You are hardly a hostile poster!

I agree the whole post should have been deleted, I am on that thread and completely missed it.

It's either wrong to say that or it's not. Editing shouldn't be an option.

this has been going on for years, disablist stuff i soften allowed to stand, and now days a message from mn hq will just be a link to their "campaign"
they have promised over the years to delete disblist posts and to not expect the sn community to educate.

they do not stand by this

Thanks Jeanne, he was so happy that day. He has learned to control his facial grimaces but he still circles when he is very excited. I was heartbroken. He heard but pretended he hadn't.

Well, I think the world would be a better place if more of us would make faces and circle when we're excited. Might take some people's minds off being rude!

You made me cry. I'm very sensitive today. Thank you for being so kind

Just saw your post Silver (doing ninety million things at once here) and my heart broke.

DS1 had a similar situation recently but was called a "Psycho".

All I can say is we (and everyone who has been there) deserve a medal for restraint. Because fuckfaces like that deserve a kick in the teeth at the very least.

X post.

Big massive hugs for you Silver.

MistressMerryWeather(great name :)..sorry to hear this has happened to your darling boy too...breaks your heart and soul just a bit, doesn't it? I worry so much about how the adult world will receive my child ( now 18) if this is how it treats him as a youth..

Good morning all,

Thank you for your posts and reports.
First of all apologies, there does seem to have been somewhat of a catalogue of errors on our part.

The post should have been totally removed in the first place and certainly not retrospectively edited, we have removed it now.

We try and be as consistent as possible and we will be having a chat today to make sure everyone understands the whys and wherefores of this circumstance.

WRT other issues, please do report anything you see that breaks our guidelines and we will take a look.

Apologies again.

ffs i did report and it was left

@Samcro

ffs i did report and it was left

Apologies Samcro, we did make a mistake on this one.
We do read all reports but occasionally we do make mistakes and we hold our hand up to them as quickly as possible.

The post has gone now and we apologise for upsetting anyone.
Please do continue to report, we really appreciate it.

Thanks, rebecca, very much.

Good. Maybe there was a NewbieMumsnet on duty when the report came in who wasn't up to speed on what to do. 'MNHQ' is a group of real people, who are bound to make some mistakes like the rest of us.

Thanks to Jeanne for making this thread. Always a struggle to stand up to racism/disablism/ageism/...much appreciation from me!

Thanks for your posts on it, silver.

Good on MNHQ for standing up and saying they made an error.

It's a shame we are in a postion where they need to step in as that means there are still people out there who think this sort of language is acceptable

Maybe there was a NewbieMumsnet on duty when the report came in who wasn't up to speed on what to do.

Both of them.

Oh, and any news as to why my thread was deleted for breaking talk guidelines when it didn't?

MN seem to be very inconsistent about how they deal with reports/deletions/suspension. Some things clearly break talk guidelines and are left to stand while others are deleted/posters are suspended despite not breaking talk guidelines.