Did you get the email from mumsnet about this the other night?
Which included the following:
“Mumsnet is all about people sharing their authentic opinions, so we don’t insist on ‘fluffiness’ - we think that straight talking is valuable and useful, and we allow what we call ‘robust debate’. But we don’t allow personal attacks under any circumstances - we know most influencers expect to be critiqued more than the average Joe, but we’re not okay with meanness or spite, or mockery.
In practice, this means that it’s OK to criticise an influencer’s actions, and within reason to critique their manner and approach. But it’s never on to mock them, to criticise their personal appearance, or to call them names; we’re also likely to remove posts which imply that emotional abuse is going on, for example, without real backup.
There are lots of grey areas, as you can imagine, and we spend a lot of time discussing them. Often, it comes down to tone of voice - we generally take a dim view of posters who repeatedly express their opinion in a sneery or contemptuous tone.
One challenging area is what are known as ‘pile ons’, where legitimate criticism is repeated so often that it starts to feel unkind. This can be tricky - how many times exactly can something be said before it becomes mean? What if other posters are disagreeing, so the critical posters feel they’re simply arguing their case? We generally find that a reminder from one of our mods is the best approach, so please do use the report button if you think this is happening.“