Thread sabotage

[JustineMumsnet]

Evening all,
As you know we aren't ones to intervene when threads go off topic as a rule but we think that sabotaging threads you would rather weren't on Mumsnet/find distasteful is not really in the spirit of the place. We are, after all, generally in favour of free speech and people's right to express their opinions - even ones we might prefer not expressed.
If you believe any particular posts break our abuse policy - i.e. are personal attacks, obscene or defamatory - please do report them and we will respond as soon as we can - though not always immediately at weekends/after hours/during England matches.

Cheers,

Mumsnet Towers

I lurked on the thread a bit yesterday - the reason I saw it was because it was in active convos a lot. This was due both to the 'discussion' AND the bumping.

I realised why people were using distraction techniques and very nearly joined them. But didn't as that would mean I'd be doing my bit to keep the thread bumped in active convos.

I do not post now on McC threads and this message is breaking my rule. I do not like the ghoulish, gossiping aspects of some of the posts.

But if everyone who feels like me kept silent with disapproval and didn't post, they would have no voice on mumsnet and that viewpoint would be lost. People who feel strongly that other people should not be revelling in the details of the case on this site, have two options if they want to express an open opinion. They either start posting on the thread and oppose the views expressed or they post distracting comments.

The third option - reporting a distasteful post to Mumsnet HQ is not public. I think in future, if I see a post I object to and want to report it, I will consider stating this in a simple message on the thread. I wish I had done that yesterday.

whilst bumping may not have been the way to go - that speculation thread really was/is vile. And this thread is now being taken as justification for it being acceptable discussion. Is there no way you can separate out those threads, or delete them. They're vile and offesive. Free speech my backside.

Agree, gess. You'd think that a site like this could rely on parents to show some idea of what is acceptable and self-censor their comments.

And I still think those who wanted to stop such threads were exercising their right to protest.

At the time I was frustrated that, because I have not posted on those threads, as I find them so repugnant, my silence was effectivly giving concent. And I don't want people to think that.

MNHQ has said that they shouldn't have been blocked, and I'll go along with that. But I di want some way of regestering my abhorance of these threads. There were posts on 'the thread' which went way boying a simple discussion of the actual legal changes that had been reported in the press, and delved into things as horrible as how the body could have been disposed of. And none of this was based on fact, simple vile speculation. And such speculation doesn't help any one.

People have the freedom to say what they like and then the responsibilty to take the consequences of saying it. Trouble is they are free to talk and MN is taking the responsibility. In other words 'posters from MN' are being quoted by the press as saying XYand Z. And I really don't want to be tarred with the same brush as people who want to discuss the practicalities of disposing of a body of a real live child.

Given that MNHQ has said , effectivly they can carry on, I want some other way of regestiering the fact that I have dissociated myself from these postings. I'm not sure the best way of doing this, possibly an opt out button? It is either that or start I'm not taking part posts, which would probably degenerate into a tit for tat bun fight and I don't want that to happen.

Basically I'm saying, yes you are free to discuss this, but 'not in my name' I suppose.

Good morning all.

I apologise to you all if anything i said on that perticular thread was ghoulish and out of order. But i think if you do read back over it you will see me being far more diplomatic and realistic.

A simple explanation from those who feel it is a dangerous topic, an explanation of the risks of libel etc would have been suffucient. If you all wanted to lodge a post along these lines then we (those discussing the case) would of realised what you were particularly protesting about.

However, bumping and sabbotaging the thread with "poopants" really didnt do those against the topic any favours. And came accross as rude and childish - im sure that is not what you want MN to be portrayed as.

I do apologise again.

I do hope the case has closure soon so we can all move on.

Trouble is tho, people were trying to stop the posts, and other posters were taking sweet f a notice of it. And you were mildly offensive to me, and indicated that I was like a 6 year old. So people were hardly being responsive in that thread.

I'm quite serious, I find these threads so repugnant I want some ay of saying so, or regestering it. So that when some hack postst that 'People on MN say X' I can be sure that I am not being linked to it.

I still have a problem with the understanding that any discussion of the MMC can be repungent. I accept some of the details that were posted were grim and horrific, but in the context of the whole conversation, the poster in question was trying to detail how there are mothers out there who have comitted such offences.

A simple one off post by yourself detailing the risks of libel and or how you are disassociating yourself from the issue for those reasons would be enough would it not, to lodge your protest. Leave it to those that want to discuss it and seperate yourself from the issue.

I apologise i called you 6yrs old, you clearly arent, but i was annoyed myself at the time due to the childish way some had bumped and destroyed the thread.

I said before, we are all mums, moums of dc, some with dds the same age as Madeleine. Its a topic that i have found myself drawn to (right or wrong). Its a topic i think we are all disturbed by. Some of us beleive its a topic worthy of discussion in light of the recent developments. Some are intruiged to discuss how another mum could possibly harm their own child.

I'd rather 'poopants' portrayed mumnset than the stupid idiotic offensive speculation tbh

i have avoided the mccann threads because i do find discussing the case in this way quite distasteful. however the people who have bumped it up to 1000, discussed cleaning products on it etc are the same ones who protested the loudest when the SWMNBN case was in flow about freedom of speech. of course people want to discuss it. mners are predominantly middle class mothers and lots of us identify with the mccanns as a typical family unit. if you dont like the threads and you find them distasteful/disrespectful/repugnant then dont open them. i dont like cleaning, therefore never click on the fly threads. its really not that hard!

yeah but then the shit they spout gets quoted in the Guardian. I'd far rather The guardian was quoting poopants- it's more intelligent. I'd never really read a McCann thread before, didn't bump that one, read it stunned and didn't go back . I completely object to haychee taking this thread as meaning that her ridiculous gutter gossip is perfectly acceptable. It appears the vast majority of posters don't want it and should be allowed to show that in some way.

Haychee - it wasn't an abstraact intellectual debate about how a mother can possibly hurt her child though. It was revolting speculation on the lives of real people as though they are merely characters in a soap opera, and as others have said far better than I can (Hunker, Tigermoth, exactly)something that shames the entire site.

And gess, exactly!

I have been trying to find a way of giving and analogy into why I feel the need for some form of way of showing my repugnance for the endles, scab picking of this topic.

If I see a child drop littler, and say nothing, I tacitly give that child the message that dropping littler is wrong.

I've avoided the threads because I feel that the depth and nature of the 'dicussion' (and it is in inverted commas because it is , at best speculation) is vile.

i can undetstand people wanting to post 'Did you see the latest news', however the mind set of a woman who weants to speculate how another mother could hide the body of a child she has just keilled escapes me.

So revoled at this spectacle, I've avoided them. As have many , many other MNetters. And in doing so we have tacitly been giving the pessage that posting such things is OK, even normal.

And when people have posted regesting their objection, they are swatted down with the never ending chant of 'Freedom of speech'

What I saw yesterday revoled me. and I was horrified that I had said nothing.

I'm serious I want a way of dissociating myself from women who feel that it is normal to talk about dead children being fed to pigs and then having the audacity to dress this up as 'discussion'.

In 'A man for All seasons' they make the point that at the time that law said that silence goves consent. However the law stands now I want to make it plain that my silence* does not give consent for sick and twisted postings on MN.

My right to free speech.

sorry, 'That litter draopping is *right8'!

Good post MB.
I withdraw my apology for sabotage on that basis.
Those threads have brought some awful people with repugnant views to mumsnet. And while we can't stop them posting, we can tell them what we think of their views, you're right.

in that case i apologise. i didnt see that part of the discussion.

I agree MB. So how are we meant to dissociate ourselves from those threads?

Agree with MB too - says everything about why I avoided those threads and why I'm surprised really you allowed them to continue.

Nobody minds a bit of ' God it must be awful for them' but when it degenerates into how she may have drugged the child etc, it goes way way beyond and the 'freedom of speech' is just a way to justify it and is just bollocks tbh.

Ghastly, tasteless, goulish and downright rude.

Message withdrawn

Kerrymum, she was talkinmg about another mother who had fed her child's body to pigs. I understand that this was in some for a 'justification' for the discussion of a mother killing her child. And yes, she really did post that and that was the point at which I snapped and realised that by not posting on these threads I had inadvertantly led people into thinking that posting such things was normal

We have the right to free speech but with that comes the resoponsibility of thinking whether we should say something.

I've got to the point where I feel I have to say something.