MNHQ here: removing the 90 day limit on _Chat threads

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

Just a quick heads up that we're going to be removing the 90-day limit on the lifespan of threads started in the _Chat topic on Monday.

There are two reasons for this - firstly, people often don't clock that _Chat threads go pouf at a certain point; once they realise, they ask us to move their thread, and that can take a fair bit of time at our end.

The other is that, Mumsnet being the amazing resource that it is, MN _Chat threads show up in people's search results for anything and everything. When they click through, though, the thread's gone pouf - that's a pretty frustrating user experience and we'd really like to fix it.

Don't worry, though, if you don't want your thread to hang around - just post it in the 30 day's only topic, which does exactly what it says on the tin: posts go pouf after 30 days, and aren't crawled by Google at any point.

While everyone's getting used to it we're very happy to move threads out of _Chat and into 30 days' if you forget - so do give us a shout via contactus@ if that happens.

Cheers all,

MNHQ

Some very good points being made here. Hope mumsnet is listening.

Also, and this is general feedback for MNHQ, you don’t need to be quite so patronising when communicating with us. Your moderating posts tend towards the schoolteacherish ‘ooh, let’s all be nice now or there might be consequences, hmmm?’ and generally include quite infantilising language, such as ‘go pouf’ rather than talking to us like the adults and the women professionals a lot of us are, and simply say ‘deleted’. We are not idiots and it’s annoying that you treat us as such.
Totally agree with this! The OP made me cringe, the wording is just ridiculous.

I also agree that removing the 90 day limit on chat is a bad idea.

like the adults and the women professionals a lot of us are

I’m not sure this is true a lot of the time

Just a quick heads up that is so typical of the way many professional women speak in business when they should be a lot more assertive.

I always scan my work emails for phrases like that now before I send them, and delete them if I find them.

Wish MN would not reinforce the stereotype.

I love how frothy some posters get There is absolutely nothing wrong with the MNHQ opening post. And what are you all posting in chat that makes you want it to disappear? A few members being precious and argumentative on this thread won't win against MN making the experience better for non members. They know your threats to leave are empty as you have nowhere else to go. The same posters who get all frothy about changes are probably the same ones who use ad blockers so aren't making money off you anyway. Just relax and stop letting small things like this bother you. I bet they have a right laugh watching you all get in a tizzy

typical of the way many professional women speak in business when they should be a lot more assertive.

This is a parenting chat site. It’s meant to friendly, not assertive.

Whether or not this is a good move, it seems very underhand of HQ to only announce this with three days notice and on the obscure site stuff board. Why not announce it on Chat?

So when everyone posts in 30 days only, will those threads appear in search results?

It is annoying when you follow a search result and it disappeared years ago.

SoupDragon Women can be assertive in everyday life too, without being unfriendly.

I didn't make my point very well (there I go again..talking like a woman!) but there have been a number of articles published about this recently which explain it.

www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2018/04/03/women-how-to-use-power-language-to-stand-out-grow-presence-and-get-ahead/#f73b5a712004

As a site mainly used by women, MN does not need to reinforce a stereotype of 'fluffy' woman-talk.

It’s just chatty talk. On a chat site. I don’t expect anyone, regardless of sex, to be assertive and “proper” on a chat site (or when chatting in real life), I expect them to be chatty. If someone spoke in proper English all the time with no slang, “fluff” or colloquialisms I would think they were uptight and dull.

It still says that threads will be removed after 90 days at the top of the _Chat topic. Was the no deletion policy supposed to start today or tomorrow?

Exactly what SoupDragon said.

Extinct - you don't seem to be grasping that this is 'chat' we are talking about, not a CV, not a report, but just 'chat'

MNHQ why not just change the name of the chat to "chat 90 days only"?

Given the points raised here we're going to start an additional 90 days only topic, as it seems there's a need for both a 30 and 90 day topic as well as a Chat topic in which conversations stick around. We'll introduce the new topic concurrently with making any changes to Chat and any threads started in Chat before then will be deleted after 90 days. Thanks as ever for the input.

@JustineMumsnet, that sounds like a great idea.

Thanks for listening

Awesome! I’ll be hanging out at 90day

Thankyou for the update justine

That's great news! Thanks justine

That’s great news!

So for now _Chat threads still self-delete after 90 days? Just checking

Excellent, great news.

_Chat threads still self-delete after 90 days?

No, unless they were started before last Monday (20th August.) But there is now also a 90 days only section.

Unless I've totally misinterpreted it all.

_chat is still saying deleted after 90 days. There's nothing to say it's been changed. My understanding was they'd create new section when this changes. I've not found another 90 day section (that doesn't mean there isn't one!)

That’s what I thought the last update meant too, Becca.