Journalists writing articles about MN threads

Hi VivDeering,

It’s one of the downsides of Mumsnet being an open site, alas - and as always, it really is important to remember that this is a public forum, searchable by Google, legally linkable to - and quotable by - all and sundry.

There are massive upsides to being open of course - the consequent volume of users means Mumsnet is available for free to anyone who needs advice 24-7, and the wisdom that comes from a very sizeable crowd is one of the brilliant things about MN. But it's definitely worth being a bit circumspect with identifiable stuff.

We always like to remind people that Mumsnet is a public forum, accessible to anybody, and all information is public.

Unfortunately, there’s not a huge amount we can do about newspapers using threads, they would likely claim Fair Use and that would be difficult to challenge. We in no way feed them stories or receive/give payment. It's just something that we don't have a lot of control over right now.

We appreciate this is most frustrating, and we wholeheartedly agree and wish that we could do more in these situations - especially when it's leaving our users upset and, rightfully, angry.

We hope that this goes some way to explaining things our end.

Talk

Journalists writing articles about MN threads