FWR clarification; deletion and strikes

[ItsLateHumpty]

Hey MNHQ

(I’m) Back on site stuff from FWR to talk to you because either we’re not understanding the rules or the rules have changed and we’ve not changed with them.

There seems to be a marked increase in all thread rather than suspect post deletion.
Or regular posters getting posts deleted but not sure why.
Or you acknowledge ‘not in faith’ posters and delete a whole thread, even though there’s been some very good discussion.
And we don’t know if we’re on a ‘strike’ deletion or not 😬

Totally appreciate you guys do a difficult job, and sometimes between a rock and a hard place! but if the rules sticky was updated or deletions were explained, we’d stop tripping over our own feet which causes you extra admin work.

Can you help us?

Individual posters are definitely targeted

You can see it in action on some threads

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Individual posters are definitely targeted

You can see it in action on some threads

And I know of at least two regular posters who have been on the receiving end of it recently.

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Individual posters are definitely targeted

You can see it in action on some threads

Yes, it's very obvious.

Actually, I can post. Just not on one thread.

What?! They can stop you posting on a specific thread, or you can’t post honestly on a thread without being deleted and banned 😱

In other news are MNHQ ever going to come back to this thread? 💀👻

Interesting to find this thread. I agree it seems like the way things are being moderated has changed.

I'm on two strikes (I frequently name change and got one under each on different occasions) and both times I didn't think I'd broken rules. Both times I posted about AGP. I asked for clarification but the responses just didn't clarify anything for me. "We shouldn't post anything on FWB that might be taken as offensive" was the sentiment of the response. Which just seems like the "why can't women just be nice and give up our rights" sentiments that are the whole thing we are rallying against.

I also perceive an increase in whole thread deletions by with the deletion message saying "posted in bad faith" or "not within the spirit of the site". This also seems to happen overzealously and I know I've been accused of "in bad faith" when I know I've posted in good faith but it's just a matter of one word against another.

Has who is moderating and interpreting wooly rules changed recently?

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Oh and do you know what...in for a penny in for a pound and all that

People have been deleted for saying things that weren’t even against talk guidelines when they were originally posted...and get a strike

How is that fair

Is it poor form quoting myself?

Anyhoo

I’ve heard people saying that they have received deletions and strikes for old posts

I know lily explained this upthread but i think that If the the deletions Happen within a 6 week period then 3 strikes could be made within that Time frame without the poster realising

This is horrendously unfair...especially when you have posters gleefully reporting on old fucking threads

MNHQ is being gamed...and maybe they don’t mind being gamed

I mean, if thats the way you want to run the report system then all power to you...your playground and your rules and all that. But it would be much fairer to tell people the rules

And i like Mumsnet And I’m fairly confident that you could check all my posts and not find anything deletable (apart from cartoon characters obvs) but this isn’t fair

The old threads keep appearing. I had a look and it is always a once-only poster who is bumping these threads.

I saw that a post had been deleted on one of them today. It is obviously being gamed.

Seen that too. A very infrequent poster has re-appeared on the same day that an old post of theirs (from 2019) is revived by someone else and posts on that thread are then deleted. It's like MN is being used by outsiders as a platform for planted posts that become screenshots to vilify Mumsnetters.

It's like MN is being used by outsiders hmm as a platform for planted posts that become screenshots to vilify Mumsnetters

Not just like it. That's exactly what is happening.

Hey MN

Any update for us?

I’ve just seen from another thread that the phrase 'alphabet soup' has become not only deleteworthy but strikeworthy, so as request before an updated banned words / phrase list would be really useful.

There has been another glut of whole thread deletions, with the message that “there are several posts on this thread that break our talk guidelines". If it’s regular (ie with an actual posting history) MN’ers can they not be benched for eg a week if they keep offending with a reminder of which guidelines they broke, and delete the post, rather than taking down a whole thread?

If threads are going to be deleted for linking to content that breaks talk guidelines, can the posts just be edited to remove the link?
Again if we could have clarity of what content is problematic it might save posters falling foul.
Although I’m a bit nonplussed that we have to censor outside resources to MN modd’ing standards as I’m assuming that one of the MN rules that might be infringed is correctly sexing someone.

Cheers

It's like MN is being used by outsiders hmm as a platform for planted posts that become screenshots to vilify Mumsnetters

This^

And also what Humpty said.

MN, it really does look like you are being played. Please don't be fooled/fools.

I am on another board where the moderators keep a note of not just which posts have been reported, but by whom the reports are made -- not just for that post but for all posts. So if one person reports umpteen posts on a given Friday and is silent for the rest of the time, it gets noticed.

There is an offence on that board called "vexatious reporting", which is seen as a waste of the moderators' time. Someone who posts little or nothing him- or her- or them- or whatever-else-self but constantly reports the posts of others, particularly if the posts reported tend to be by the same poster or posters, will fairly soon be warned of unacceptable behaviour, and if he etc persists, banned from the board. I think there may be an upper limit per day, or something, possibly of reports which are not up upheld.

I have no idea whether this would be possible for Mumsnet, but if it were it would be enormously reassuring to be told both that it is possible and that it is done. That way, if we have actually said something wrong we can be sure that we have, and if we haven't we can be reasonably sure we are not being reported just for existing.

Very good points well made by Asking Questions and Humpty. MN are currently being played. I'm getting fed up of it and am sure that without intervention, FWR will be a ghost town before long. Which is exactly what these saboteurs want.

Adding my voice here to those above. Has sonething changed wrt modding FWR?

Threads are vanishing and I often really can't see why. Increasingly I feel that there is such a long list of things forbidden on FWR (not on other boards) that I am walking on eggshells. To be perfectly honest it reminds me of being in an abusive relationship - rules changing without prior warning, monitors so quick to censure and pass judgement, the ever present threat of 'strikes'.

I value this space hugely, but it's becoming more and more unpleasant and unsettling for those who actually use it.

I also consider FWR the absolute engine of the site, from that board springs so much insight, support, information and interesting discussion. MN'd be a shadow of a place without it, but I feel it's being slowly diminished and shut down.

Just giving a view as a user - I guess things might look very different from the moderating seat. But more communication would be great, so we can better understand what's going on. Ta.

more communication would be great, so we can better understand what's going on. Ta.

Yes please

Does anyone know how we can tag MNHQ?

Can we do it by reporting our posts to them, perhaps? Better during the day rather than now, though.

It is horrible.
Policing language, deleting threads.
Walking on eggshells and not even the courtesy of an explanation.
Who is doing this and is there any consensus at HQ?
Is is another intern with an agenda?
I have been on MN for years and years. I thought it was a safe place for women, but it is not looking like that any more.

I suspect MNHQ are hoping that FWR will just quietly die off. They'll get bad press if they kill it off, but being a "hotbed of transphobia" is a PITA for them too. I'm sure they just want FWR done but want to try and keep their hands clean.

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

I suspect MNHQ are hoping that FWR will just quietly die off. They'll get bad press if they kill it off, but being a "hotbed of transphobia" is a PITA for them too. I'm sure they just want FWR done but want to try and keep their hands clean.

It certainly seems that way

more communication would be great, so we can better understand what's going on. Ta

That would be very helpful MNHQ. Unnecessary time and hassle for mods and posters could be reduced if things were made clearer.

I think the thread that was deleted earlier this evening on FWR should have stood.

There was not a single deletion that I could see at the point it was pulled. What there was was a typical bad faith “plopper” OP, and an object lesson in how to demolish their points. I’ve no doubt MN did get plenty of reports in its latter stages - from the “monitors” who realised it wasn’t going the way they’d hoped. And that’s exactly why it should have stood, rather than giving the immature Twitter gloaters the opportunity of claiming the thread had to be pulled because we are all so transphobic

@OnlyTheLangoftheTitBerg

I think the thread that was deleted earlier this evening on FWR should have stood.

There was not a single deletion that I could see at the point it was pulled. What there was was a typical bad faith “plopper” OP, and an object lesson in how to demolish their points. I’ve no doubt MN did get plenty of reports in its latter stages - from the “monitors” who realised it wasn’t going the way they’d hoped. And that’s exactly why it should have stood, rather than giving the immature Twitter gloaters the opportunity of claiming the thread had to be pulled because we are all so transphobic

Completely agree. Mnhq should reinstate it.

Why was it deleted?