Heads up: some academic research taking place

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Some researchers from a UK university are going to be collecting posts from some boards on Mumsnet over the next few weeks. They will be looking only at posts published from this point onwards. Selected posts will be anonymised (ie usernames will not be stored anywhere), and all processes will be GDPR-compliant.

EDITED BY MNHQ: to be clear, NO private or back-end data is being shared with the researchers and they will have NO access to any extra information about users. They will only be analysing published posts, ie things that are already in the public domain.

The researchers will analyse the text of the anonymised posts as part of their study. The full text of these anonymised posts will not be reproduced in the study - no pieces of text that make you or your situation identifiable will be published.

Once the study is complete, the database containing the anonymised posts will be destroyed.

Obviously we'd love to tell you what the study is about - but we can't because it will skew the results. However once the research has been completed we'll share it with you and you can read all about it. The academics running the study are people we've worked with before, and the topic is one we think lots of MN users will agree is interesting and useful.

IMPORTANT BIT: if you DO NOT want your posts to be considered for inclusion in the research, please shout here on this thread or email us on [email protected]

And of course let us know if you have any questions and we'll see if we can answer them.

Thanks

MNHQ

Will relationship section be included in this research?
I ask as this was decided to not be able to be shared a while ago.

Yes, I know it's all public, just wondered.

Hi, can I please opt out too. I’m a regular name changer so can all my old names and future names be opted out too.
Thanks

@RowanMumsnet

We've edited the OP now to make this clearer - thanks

Thanks I think that helps to make it clear that only currently published posts are in scope. I am still interested in their use (or not) of surrogate names although I confess that is partly just curiosity about the methods.

Please exclude my posts for the study.

Hi, can I please opt out too. I’m a regular name changer so can all my old names and future names be opted out too.
Thanks

Those of you who are asking MNHQ to not include you under future name changes, you need to read Rowan's reply to me upthread.

Don't include any of my posts under any username, current or past thanks.

Why am I opting out? You have no idea who is using this data! This is not how research projects are run. It is hard to understand why any Uni research committee would authorise this project, I suspect it is commercial.

Please exclude me from this as well. Thank you.

Since @MNHQ will not provide any information about MNers (e.g. IP address) to these researchers, I don't mind them including my MN posts in their analysis.

Then again, I learned English as a foreign language at secondary school and I don't live in the UK, so any value they get out of my posts for language and word frequency analysis will probably be negative

I'm sure the posts from Dave from Dagenham posing as a young mum with cracked nipples will be invaluable to the social sciences.

When does the project finish?

Another name for opting out, thanks.

Opting out, I do not consent.

You need to change the title of the post (which is now sticky, I see) to make it clearer that people's posts are going to be used. The title seems rather misleading tbh.

Please exclude me.

Those of you who want to be excluded should probably stop posting on any social media from now on.

Companies are reading and analysing what we post here (and on all other sites and fora) all over the internet to see what people are saying about their brands, or about specific issues. It's called social scraping, and it's big business within the marketing world.

You are incredibly naive if you think that MN is somehow a nice, unpilfered bubble on the internet.

They're being given no access at all to anything in the back end - nothing beyond what they can see on the public boards

I don't see what the problem is in this case.

Well, except my bad grammar and swearing, but that's their cross to bear.

If they're only being given access to whatever appears on the public boards, like the rest of the general population, why are MNHQ asking permission in the first place?

I don’t wish to be included.

I am very unhappy with the opt out approach.

I'm opting out please HQ.
And must remember to update here if I NC over the next few weeks. Presumably you'll update this thread when the research is finished?

It seems a bit odd for people to be asking for their posts not to be included, since they are already in the public domain.
The Daily Mail copies posts from here, complete with user names, and you can't ask them not to include you!

why are MNHQ asking permission in the first place?

Study ethics requirements?

You are incredibly naive if you think that MN is somehow a nice, unpilfered bubble on the internet.

No, you are incredibly patronising if you think that we are all too stupid to realise that.

There are still good reasons for opting out when we have been given the opportunity to do so

I wonder how many of those wanting to protect their anonymous posts on here, regularly expose their real lives on Facebook, twitter, etc. It's hardly consistent.