What is it with all these threads being deleted??

[Lilifer]

Every day now there seems to be a thread deleted on aibu - it's the only section I'm really on, but pretty much every day lately I'll see a thread, read it, then return to it later to get an update and it's been deleted. I've been on Mumsnet since 2009 and threads were rarely deleted until recently , this last year or so it seems to happen so much. Are more people just trying to troll or wind us up, or what's the reason behind this huge increase in deletions?

I had a comment deleted once for breaking the talk guidelines but I couldn’t work out why, even after reading the guidelines.

If what I put was offensive, surely it’s better to leave it there and let others let me know why it was offensive to help to educate me and other people rather than just cancel? I would never put something knowingly offensive.

I do feel that cancel culture is going too far and that some people are now looking for reasons to be offended and reporting threads. It may be better to leave the thread (unless it is obviously offensive) with details if, how many and why people have reported it. It would certainly be more of sn adult way of dealing with things.

But they're deleted because they're made up

That's all you've got? A passive-aggressive reply to my stating there is more and more people coming out to say it's happened to them or someone they know, and you're simply annoyed your narrative isn't holding up.

I read that OP, and she was speaking about her experience of being told she should foster/adopt. It wasn't offensive. If anyone took her speaking her truth about being told to give up trying and accept her fate and foster/adopt, then that says more about them than her.

See, that post was a good example of bullies reporting to silence someone because they make a person's personal experience all about them. It was a perfect example of how easy it is for people with a vindictive agenda to silence someone and get them deleted.

Where's your proof they are made up?

@Vidax not always - my thread was deleted and it was genuine and any check in my posting history could have shown that.

I rarely post and just read some of the posts. I have been here since my dd was born 6 years ago. It's a pity some people need to make up stuff and ruin things for posters who have genuine problems, worries, need advice, a rant etc. I was pondering whether to get a 4d number plate ( probably give it a miss) Saw the title of the ketchup one, however didn't read as I love it. I did think the sd thread seemed a bit off as it escalated very fast, also the neighbour with the massage oil on the doorstep.
It would be a shame if people stop posting because they are scared it is assumed they are lying.

Social media is subject to a form of Gresham's Law. If you allow a total free market then posts which are deliberately crafted to attract attention and provoke a response will always win out in the battle for responses over posts which are honest reflections of people's situations and thoughts.

Sometimes that's benign. Often it's not.

Mumsnet decide they are, they (hopefully) look at the posting history etc, and there should be algorithms to pull out classic troll type posts.

You'll never have definitive proof, but I would guess at least 80% of those removed are pure fiction

Absolutely this.

15 years ago, MN was hot right now for having AIBU. It’s become a joke and the reason everyone else sneers at MN because AIBU has become the centre of the site but ‘for traffic’ or for ridiculous ‘AIBU to think Russia is awful’ type posts. Journalists use AIBU for content on a slow news day and in real life I’ve literally heard people make jokes about how AIBU is pathetic.

I would remove AIBU totally and move threads in the wrong topics into the right ones. But of course, @mnhq will never do that. They can’t even merge Employment Issues, Work and Back to Work.

I’ve reported blatant covid threads in AIBU and been told that it’s fine.

You are actually defending the people who troll about dead babies?

Were you around for Dizzymare?
Were you around for Oliver's Army?

I can only assume not. You really, really need to educate yourself about what these trolls do to people.

Everything in my watch list has apparently been deleted this morning. Even the totally innocuous ones.

There is something weird going on with MNHQ.

One thing I remember from that one is that op was going to adopt dsd when she turned 18, and other posters said you can't adopt 18 and over (I don't know if that's correct, but?)

That is crazy. I am thinking of asking MNHQ about this, maybe this is actually a technical issue as a result of that site update that's been causing so many problems 🤔

The latest one to disappear from my watchlist is the thread from the woman who wanted her friend to keep their friendship a secret from a colleague. Yet again the OP cited ‘privacy concerns’. Was it not a private situation when she posted publicly about it? Would she have been so concerned about her privacy if everyone had said ‘OMG hun, of course your not bein U! Luv n hugz xxx’?

Trolls defending trolls
plus ca change

One I was following was just deleted. It was about a seller pulling out of a property sale the day before exchange. Why was it deleted? It wasn't abusive or controversial, it was someone venting about a fairly shitty situation and getting sympathy.

Perhaps MNHQ could issue a list of things we are allowed to discuss.

I noticed it was deleted too. I wonder if it’s because the OP named and shamed the developer?

If it was the developer being named then surely it could just have been that comment that was deleted?

I find mumsnet very anti free speech. I think you just have to accept that there's a whole bunch of random things they will not allow you to say. Personally I think platforms like this should be forced by law to allow freedom of speech. If you're not breaking the law here, you should be allowed to say even if other people don't like to hear it. I'm gender critical in case that's not obvious. 🤓

Yeah it seems odd, doesn’t it? Can’t see why that thread was deleted, maybe there’s a glitch in the system.

Pretty sure it was the naming… lots of links to Companies House etc and it may affect any chances the OP has with a legal claim

Yes - this happens all the time. It's blatantly obvious that the OP hasn't had privacy concerns as much as they're disappointed that people think they're being a prat.

One went yesterday that I was finding interesting - a woman wanted to sue her maternity service for a birth injury (cosmetic) to her daughter's face. She got her arse handed to her - not unfairly or maliciously - and then, POOF! The thread vanishes. No reason given. Presumably the OP - who also posted a picture of her daughter's scar - decided she'd be outed, and MNHQ just removing the picture wouldn't be enough. I bet if she'd got the response she wanted, which was clearly encouragement to go for a totally spurious medical negligence case, that that thread would be standing now.

Just chipping in to add my frustration with the deleted threads too..

I agree with the idea of an Under the Bridge section for them being moved to. That way the good advice from genuine posters is not lost if someone does a search - but later posters don’t waste time tailoring a response.

And threads like the ketchup one - I just clicked away when it was obviously stupid (didn’t even occur to me it was a troll tbh) but do they really need policing?

I post under a few different names, depending on topic and to save worry about being recognised but am already posting less recently