Hi all,
We know that very many of you have been distressed by some of the discussions that have taken place on Mumsnet over the last couple of weeks with regard to Madeleine McCann's parents.
We at Mumsnet HQ agree wholeheartedly that criticism of the McCann's, particularly with their daughter still missing, is emphatically not in keeping with the Mumsnet philosophy - namely to offer support to parents in order to make their lives easier. So it?s been mighty difficult for us to sit back and watch some of these conversations unfold, just as it's been difficult for many of you.
On balance, though, we do believe in people's right to their opinions, and though we've found some of the threads to be ungenerous and unpalatable to say the least, we don't tend to delete on those grounds. Partly that's because we've never felt comfortable being the taste police and partly because in our experience you can't really shut down debate - it will just spring up elsewhere. What's more, as a rule we believe that Mumsnet is rather good at self-policing - the power of a reasonable and voluminous response and all that. We do in this instance, however, recognize and fully understand that many of you have had enough of being policemen.
We do promise to continue to investigate thoroughly any posts that you report for troll-like behaviour - be it multiple name-changing or deliberate flaming. And we will, of course, continue to delete any personal attacks.
And apologies for starting yet another discussion on this topic but we thought it might be useful to explain where we were coming from and to admit to you that we are finding many of the calls to be tough ones.
Like all of you, though, we are fully aware that any local difficulty we are having here completely pales in to insignificance compared to the anguish of the McCanns.
Best MN Towers