To MNHQ - A forced Log In puts abused/vulnerable people at risk

[OnlyLoggedInToGiveFeedback]

I have only logged in to feedback to MNHQ.

I know there is already a thread on the forced Log In running in Site Stuff but wanted to start a thread on this specific issue.

Please, please consider all the people who use your site who are in abusive relationships/vulnerable positions. If you intend to make users Log In to Mumsnet then you are potentially putting these people in a high risk situation. Others could find their posts. This could happen via shared devices, keyloggers, history seraches or a user forgetting to log out (especially likely for a stressed person).

Please think very carefully about the implications for this section of mumsnet users. It could be high risk and very damaging. Please do not isolate these people further. Please have some compassion for them.

Has this been discussed at MNHQ? I hope you will consider this when you are deciding if you are continuing with the forced log in in the future. I have always seen Mumsnet as a supportive place so I would imagine you will think of this?

There's also the issue that the "Remember Me" box defaults to a tick = yes. There were concerns in the past about that in respect of vulnerable people. Closing the browser or shutting the laptop lid would, if Remember Me was unticked, mean that people would eventually get logged out automatically.

MNHQ changed that to unticked, and captured that as a member's preference. Neither of those are happening now. It's ticked by default, and it's still ticked next time I log in, even though I selected unticked when I previously logged in.

Mumsnet may be 'just a chat forum', but it's members are real people and as such, have a vast array of life experiences. Many of them give wonderful and insightful advice, which may be of help to those posters in distress. As for looking for RL help, many people are so swamped by what is going on in their lives, that they haven't the energy or knowledge to seek that help. Indeed many of the abused people that have posted, have been cut off from friends and family by their abuser, so really don't have anyone to turn to.

I haven't posted for an absolute age, used to be a very regular poster. Mumsnet helped me enormously a couple of years back.
The advice and support I got on here was incredible. I could barely step outside my front door, and didn't have much of a support network outside of this site.
Then XH found me on here, and made my life hell again. I had all my posts withdrawn, and felt totally unable to use this site again, I did come back under a different username, but only posted on mundane things, the support had gone.
This is my first post in about two years but I wanted to answer the posters who said there's plenty of other places for vulnerable people to go, Not for everyone there isn't!

lljkk why do you stay then?
I totally disagree....MN has been a great help to many.

Of course there are many web resources for people who are being abused. However they tend to rely on someone actually recognising that their relationship is abusive.

One of the strengths of MN is the support offered to posters who post something they believe is fairly trivial, and it's then pointed out (sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully) that actually, no, that's not trivial and they shouldn't have to accept that way of living. Sometimes the full stories that come out include really terrible emotional, financial and sexual abuse, and yet those original posters would never have classified themselves as abused - and never have dreamed of searching for support on the WA or similar sites.