For a slight shift in tone....

[Connebert]

Dear MNHQ

Would it be possible to do an experiment and deactivate AIBU (and possibly Relationships), just for a couple of days? Often, once you hide these topics, there isn‘t much left, and the effect they give is an overall negative atmosphere. (I don‘t mean the threads in Relationships which constructively help in difficult situations, obviously).

I wonder if things would be discussed in a different tone if the starting point were different, and possibly a wider range of topics would be used, too. You influence and attract such a lot of members and it would be really interesting to see if the focus could shift a little bit to bring out the best in people.

There's value in both the blunt opinion and the deeper debate. MN provides both.

I object to your suggestion that MN should make it harder for women to access the blunt parts of MN.

The idea that women bluntly stating their opinions on AIBU is the same as being a gratuitously insulting mob that should be damped down sits wrongly with me too.

I don't see it as a crazed mob at all and so it seems to me that pleas to get rid of it smack of We must show these uncouth women how to be nice for their own protection and education.

I fundamentally disagree with requests to shut down or hide women speaking bluntly.

That said, I spend a lot of time on other boards. There's some great stuff there. I'd like to see more of it promoted by the editorial team.

Active and Trending are great. I'd also like to see another list that is more about highlighting some interesting but lower traffic threads. That would be more work for MNHQ. A way for people to vote a thread into the interesting backwater list could help.

Now that is a great idea.

This is the second thread this morning I've read about whinging about something on here they want to change.

If you want something done a certain way then you can always set up your own place to do it on.

Not whinging at all. Just throwing out a suggestion for debate.

And a really good constructive idea has already come out of it, a much better one then the idea of deactivating topics, even just to see what happens...

We could have a 'latest' option that showed the latest reply on every board with a time and date stamp. Might be useful if 'active' is boring also would highlight boards that could be dropped if the latest was e.g 01/01/15!

Or we could have a new „Round-Up“ with the focus on the variety of topics we discuss rather than on the wit, although that was also great fun to read. It‘s so das to miss a real gem of a thread. In fact, I would offer to do that for free.

sorry, my keyboard meant „it‘s so easy to miss“

AIBU started as a board for genuinely undecided people and the responses were pretty much helpful. Now it seems to attract a large number of goady and belligerent posters.

And is there something wrong with questioning aspects of the site? Isn't that exactly what site stuff is for?

The other change I once suggested is that the weightloss threads really belong in the Health section, to remove the stigma, focus on what it‘s really about and to hopefully stop the nastiness there too.

Fuck me the 'oh are you saying women have to be nice' trope is so fucking boring now. There's a middle ground between nice and being a complete cunt.