sorry if this has been mentioned but..

[WideWebWitch]

Did Justine not say somewhere that 'pinned' or sticky threads would be reserved for site related stuff only? Just wondering since Expat's thread is pinned and that seems to me to be a charitable appeal rather than site stuff. And I guess I'm wondering if we're going down that road of making charitable/philanthropic thread 'sticky' (not that it's my site, mumsnet can do whatever they want, of course) then erm, who decides who is deserving of being pinned and who is not?

Sorry if this is a silly question. I've only skimmed the thread iq so I may be talkign bollocks do tell me fk off if so! But I only just came on tonight and it was at the top so I thought I'd ask

(I hope no-one incl EPIS takes offence at this, I am just interested in the answer, it's not that I'm unsympathetic, I absolutely am not)

I think that it just boils down to what JustineMumsnet and the other ones (who sorry, I can't remeber your names lol) think is worthy of staying at the top.
End of.

I don't think Justine has ever pronounced on it, TBH (or Carrie, or Olivia, or Abby, or Steve - that's for TR's benefit )

thanks rabbit

Oh I think Justine has pronounced on this which is why I asked. But I am prepared to be corrected.

And btw, I intensely dislike 'end of' as a method of ending a discussion, it's not what I would call a reasoned argument.

I hate it because it is very "footballer"

I have been unable to find it WWW, but will happily concede if you can (or if J comes on here and pronounces!)

Llapin, I couldn't find it either but thought I remembered Justine saying it and I thought I remembered thinking 'fair enough or we will get into all sorts of debates about who is and isn't deserving' - maybe I imagined it? Or dreamt it? Entirely possible!

Never mind, I do realise it's not important in the grand scheme of things.

Calif, yes, it was better half an hour later, weird huh? Although loads of people had it from he same stuff. Scary briefly but reassuring once I'd posted here and people said so.

Bollocks RACHEL, I knew I had missed at least one person off

WWW, if you are dreaming about MN, you need one of these my lovely!

hi www. Am not sure if we've pronounced on it but I think we may have something along those lines in correspondence a out stickies and about worthy causes in general so you're right in the sense that making this thread a sticky is a somewhat inconsistent. (Should have known we'd get caught.)
So here's the thing - we instinctively want to help in these situations and to some extent we also want to help our own - ie mumsnetters who've contributed a lot via their posts to the community - when and where we can. But there's no doubt if we made every worthy cause a sticky it would make active conversations a farce and would also change the character of the boards into a massive guilt trip, which we'd rather not do. So you're right there is an element of choice about what gets made a sticky and it doesn't sit entirely comfortably with the way we generally do things because as a rule we don't think its our place to make these choices and we quite understand if you'd rather we didn't. That said we don't think it appropriate to throw it open to a public vote every time the situation arises either. And I can't imagine for instance not making mile for maude a sticky. But then again where do you deW the line? So, as you can see, another triumphantly clear policy emanates from m towers! Do let us know which way you think we should go. For my own part I think www has made a valid point and perhaps we should reserve stickies for site bus except in exceptional circumstances.

I think the Expat thread just evolved from a thread about what happened to Expat and then to a how can we help her kind of thing. I personally think its lovely that it got pinned even though its not technically site stuff as a lot of people wanted to help and it saved them trawling through the threads to find it.

At the end of the day, even if a thread is pinned - it doesn't have to be opened and read

blimey that's a hard post to read Justine!

can my thread be a sticky? please?

your xmas tree one?

why?

so that lots of people can be involved. why not?

let me see...a sticky to help a very regular prolific poster have a better experience of a situation that could affect her mental and ohysical self Vs a christmas tree comp where the prize is a bar of chocolate

where is the xmas spirit? i am well aware of expats problems and have helped towards raising some money. i was not asking for it to be compared i think that is a bit unfair.

anyway i'm not up for argument over it. i can see where you are coming from. just though that being christmas it would be nice.

Sorry that was so illegible by the way - posting from my phone.

why did the book club get one..was it an error?

Thanks Justine for the answer.

It's a hard one I think. I agree it wouldn't be good to throw it open to a vote everytime and although mumsnet does operate democratically on a lot of things I think it entirely proper that mntowers get the final say and also that of course it shouldn't be necessary to consult on everything: it's your site, you can do what you like. Quite right too.

So of course it's up to you guys what gets pinned and what doesn't but I think it must be very difficult since at any one time there can be many loved and prolific posters who are having terrible times and hardship and heartache. Martianbishop and Onlyjoking spring to mind (I know neither of them are asking for help and there aren't current threads wrt helping them in any way) but over the years there have been many many deserving causes.

I suppose my question was why this one and if so did it mean you'd changed your mind on stickies being mainly for site stuff like announcements re site changes/christmas parties and so on? And your answer is, I think Justine, that you might have. Maybe, but you're not sure

I suppose this discussion hasn't happened before because there weren't stickies before and if you're asking for my view I think stickies should be reserved for site stuff really.

I think this because there are SO many threads and posters which deserve attention/help/people posting and so if you go down this road you will have some hard decisions to make about who is and isn't deserving. Plus there will be endless threads about why so and so is deserving of a stickie and so and so isn't. And what one person considers a worthy charitable cause another might think entirely inappropriate.

As I've already said, this isn't about the thread in question, it's about the principle, which I think is reasonable to discuss here. (Before anyone accuses me of being heartless and unsympathetic which I'm not.)

And btw if you have an iphone Justine I am looking at you like this >

i used my ericsson for internet for a year!

You gotta get one WWW - it's the nicest thing I've ever had. (apart from dh natch)