Threads started by PBPs

[PurpleDaisies]

Is there a change in policy? These were never allowed to stand before but that appears to have changed.

FWIW I thought you had it right before-leaving those threads up encouraged people to keep coming back after they’re banned and people who commented in good faith are left with their posts available for the PBP to keep reading. This doesn’t seem very fair.

MNHQ doesn't have a consistent policy on anything. More flip-flops than Margate in July.

More flip-flops than Margate in July

I also don’t understand why a thread by a PBP is left up. Surely this just encourages people to do it again.

Some helpful advice on that other thread for anyone genuinely in that position, but then anyone who poured their heart and deepest feelings out about such a sensitive subject may be left feeling a bit exploited.

I really am not sure how to feel about all this.

Some consistency would be nice, though.

Hi there all,

Thanks so much for getting in touch about this. We do appreciate your concerns and why some people might feel uncomfortable with leaving threads started by PBPs up, but in the case we think you're referring to, on balance we thought it was best left.

We don't have a hard and fast rule about threads like these. This time, it seems like there was more or less an equal amount of support and opposition to us leaving the thread up. If we think the information in the thread could be useful, we can see value in leaving it up. As this is such a taboo topic, and users have taken the time to write heartfelt posts about their own personal experience, we didn't think it would be right to just delete the thread. We know people often come to Mumsnet because it allows them to talk about things they might not be able to talk about so easily in real life, and whilst it might not have been for the OP, for a lot of posters we think this might have been one of those instances.

With respect Anya, there have been loads of threads where many posters have asked for them to stay up when the op has been unmasked as a PBP but for some reason, this one has been treated differently. Recently, an active suicide thread was allowed to stand when they’d always been deleted before.

Your moderators should all be singing from the same hymn sheet. You’re sending the message that coming back after you’ve been banned if you time it when a sympathetic moderator is on.