Tell MNHQ why you use Mumsnet

[EllieMumsnet]

Here at MNHQ we would really like to get to know our users better and would therefore love to know why you use Mumsnet and if Mumsnet has managed to help you in any way.

Is the main reason you use Mumsnet for the advice from other users? And if so, what advice do you look for in particular or is it on everything and anything? Do you use Mumsnet as a place to browse the funny threads and have a bit of ‘you’ time? Is it more the product/service reviews and recommendations that you use Mumsnet for? Has the support of fellow Mumsnet users helped you get through a tough time? Or maybe you have created long-term friendships with other users and come on to chat to them.

Whatever the reasons you use Mumsnet and any stories you have on how Mumsnet has helped you, we would love to hear them so please share them on the thread below.

Thanks
MNHQ

CaptainKirks how do you opt in?

If you're on a desktop you go to the little (V) thing by the 'TALK' at the top left of the screen, press it and click customise, then "Manage hidden threads"

On mobile i don't know.

It is like saying people prefer apples to plums, when there are 10 boxes of apples available and only one box of plums.

So unless they are being treated the same way as AIBU etc, you can't make comparisons or judgements on popularity.

Which makes it all the more impressive that FWR comes fourth.

Justine, are you looking at user numbers as well as session numbers?

Politics (brexit)
Feminism
Everything else

I'm sure you do click counts and know all this already though.

Thanks CaptainKirks 😆

You're welcome

Justine @MNHQ, here is a stat that may interest you about the FWR board. Less than three days ago a thread welcoming new lurkers was posted, in the wake of this thread.

I did a rough head count at around midday today and over 200 lurkers have posted to say they are reading FWR and will contribute more.

I will leave you all to draw you own conclusions on that.

You've just had a fucking huge gift to your business, free high value research. Its worth reading and rereading this thread before making any business moves at all

Well yes. This. My company pay UX (user experience) agencies for this kind of information.

Joined for the thread on hyperemesis gravidarum. Stayed because of the strong, opinionated supportive women. Tend to focus now on one particular area of the boards though.

Sometimes Mumsnet is amazingly clever, supportive and funny. And informative!

I do feel an affinity for some posters.

I do think that there are some really unpleasant to the point of dangerous individuals around (eg someone who repeatedly advised putting toothpaste on a burn, other people who love shoving the boot in to vulnerable posters) who need to be removed and AIBU is actively horrid at times.

I’m off to Sainsbury’s later - that’s not for all the things I buy the most of, it’s for the thing they sell that I can’t get anywhere else.

This. So much this.

In terms of how MN helps us, it ‘s easy enough to find out what kind of help we were looking for, but it’s much more nuanced to find out the impact of that help, or input.

By which I mean:

AIBU- I love AIBU. It makes me laugh, gasp and cringe. AIBU links are the kind of thing I’ll send to a friend or share on FB. Once I have read, laughed/cringed at, and shared the thread, I pretty much forget about it until the next one comes along. That is the impact AIBU has on my day, or how it benefits me.

FWR: This is a board that benefits me in a very different way. It horrifies and shocks me. It challenges me and makes me think for a long while after I’ve logged off. It causes me to follow links to articles and blogs, sending me off down Twitter wormholes. It initiates challenging conversations with family and friends. The threads I read there have educated me. They affect how I parent my son and daughter. It honestly feels like an enlightenment, if that doesn’t sound too wanky. Witnessing so many clever (and very often hilarious) women in open, uncensored communication with each other is rare and wonderful, and it’s conspicuousness only serves to highlight how rare it is for women to be heard engaging freely in this sort of dialogue.

I joined because I was unable to find a decent forum about adoption. Luckily as a BP who has lost her children to adoption I found most of the people in adoption very supportive.

I also became addicted to AIBU. I find it fasinating and funny sometimes.

And slowly going down the rabbit hole that it the feminist boards.

I use it to ask opinion and for other people's experience.
Sometimes the ideas are things I wouldn't have thought of.
Increasingly, I'm finding answers to my posts aggressive at times. For instance today I asked for people's experience in Christmas dinner and whilst I perhaps did not explain myself as well as I could have, the answers have actually upset me a little, It also seems that once one person has posted an aggressive answer others think it's fine to do the same.
It's a shame that this is yet another platform people are using to take out their poor mood on others.
I imagine someone will even comment to that affect on this.😞

I think that's a really interesting point that waterlego made, I may click on chat or aibu but to me they are like McDonalds, fine if you need something quick to eat but not something that you would remember the next day. The FWR threads have had an impact on my life. It's quite a different thing.

Waterlego very good point about impact, like birdsdestiny says. Bloody excellent point, actually.

Agree with waterlego. The really interesting thing about this thread is that a lot of us probably read more AIBU just as a lot of us probably read more trashy summer reads than literature. But it’s FWR that hooks in your head.

One of the very very best things I like about MN is that you as a company are not anonymous. I always feel that the mods and MNHQ are real people taking real life decisions in the interests of both the site as a business but also in the interests of the users here

This

This is what is unique and special about MN. I do feel like I have a stake and a voice.

Oh, and what waterlego said. I’ll mindlessly browse active convos for AIBU lunacy. Bit I’ll go onto FWR Aand read every word of every post. And think about it for days.

I love so many things about Mumsnet, but agree with previous posters that FWR is the most important thing to me.

I'm so grateful to Mumsnet for continuing to host the conversations despite immense pressure to silence us.

And, like others have said, Mumsnet has opened my eyes to just how incredible women are.

Joined for pregnancy advice and have stayed for FWR. The posts are brilliantly written by strong and articulate women, and they have helped me put into words a lot of frustrations I’ve felt I’ve not been able to talk about anywhere else. No question is too silly and you’re not made to feel patronised if you don’t understand or need something explaining.

I joined for the baby threads, feeding, weaning etc. AIBU and chat then kept me sane whilst sleep deprived, it often felt like a chat with a really good friend about anything and everything. Nowadays its the Feminisim board. This feels like the pivotal moment in my time to impact the changes that threaten women's rights. The courage and tenacity of the women who tirelessly debate and educate on this topic don't seem to have an equivalent elsewhere and I admire them enormously. I am extraordinarily grateful to have been able to access these discussions.

I can't remember when I first visited Mumsnet. Probably about 15 years ago when DC1 was young. Drifted away for a while but firmly back now.

I trust the women on here. There's so much I have bought following their recommendations - my favourite dress, my handbag, my trainers, the chocolate in the fridge (Aldi Moser Roth!) the phone I am typing this on, and much more. If I see 'Mumsnet rated' on a product, I know it must be good.

In the early days I hung out in chat and AIBU. Still do occasionally. Sometimes visit relationships and am so moved by the help and support women give and get on there.

But for the past year it's been all about FWR. It's made me so much more aware. It's inspired me to activism.

Thank you for continuing to host these discussions. I know you come in for a lot of stick.

Mumsnet may seem like a nest of vipers to some, but they're my vipers.

I seem to keep getting something in my eye every time I pop back to look at this thread.

💐 vipers

Currently going through a gut wrenching soul destroying self esteem shredding break up of a 24 year marriage. Current and older threads let me know I am not alone in my experiences and that I will get through this and things will get better.

Ive only been here for 5 years, I was a stepmum and found the boards helpful. With advice from Mumsnet I left my partner and have found it to be a valuable source of information and advice since.

Even though I'm not a mum and will never be (now diagnosed as infertile ) I have had some fantastic advice and rely on such advice if I can't talk in real life.

I also stay for the funny threads!

I'm really sorry Frog. 24 years
You're definitely right in that women before you have been where you are and got through it. Take care