Sex board in Active and Ann Summers

[AutumnLeavesFallingIntoPlace]

Hi @MNHQ

As the previous thread about the sex board being in Active is almost full after a lot of discussion, I think a few of us were hoping you could address the main concerns arising:

• firstly and most importantly, it seems that no one wants it in Active. Posters on the sex board and off are widely agreeing across all threads that it was better not showing in Active for many reasons. It's making everyone's experience worse.
• secondly, we'd like to know to what extent Ann Summers and other advertisers have dictated the change in the sex board's visibility and the change in users being required to register three months prior to being able to post on the sex board to seven days. The 'reigniting intimacy' promotional piece seems to suggest this is a deliberate choice to bring the forum 'inline with [Ann Summers'] Pleasure Positivity Project'. Given the response to previous threads on Ann Summers in 2021 and 2022, they are not popular with many site users and their maternity/postpartum promotion might be considered to be unhelpful and unsupportive of new mothers and very much not in the spirit of MN.
• the sex board hosts a sexchat thread which invites users to contact each other via DM for explicit conversation and then move to other platforms to continue. There are no safety warnings or age verification on the sex board and this puts users at risk of predators exploiting MN's trustworthy reputation, particularly given the change in registration requirements
• finally, a lot of us wonder why MN have done such a u turn on the sex board, having argued initially that it would attract trolls. How and why did this change?

What's wrong with discussing sex on the sex board, @Janiie ? Well, one thing I'm worried about is that there is no safety information and no attempt at age verification on the sexchat thread. Safeguarding children is all of our business and a thread that encourages explicit messaging offsite does need to carry warnings at the very least to protect underage and vulnerable users.

Also awaiting the response. I am particularly concerned about the safeguarding element of the sex chat thread. It seems like a tragedy/scandal waiting to happen.

I'm also interested in MNHQ's response to this excellent OP.

Sex chat thread is grim and storing up trouble. Surely the Internet is full of better alternatives if that's what you're looking for in a website?!

I didn't know there was a sex chat thread on there, and if that's the case it is worrying for safeguarding reasons.

I can see some people might feel it's safer on Mumsnet, a familiar and trusted site with a good reputation. But they're making no attempt to protect users from people who might join specifically to play on that - and who only need to have been here seven days.

(Not to mention all the married men on there looking for 'any available female' - that's a direct quote! - presumably those whose wives didn't get to Ann Summers quick enough after giving birth amirite)

“Any available female”. 😳 How grim. 🤢

It really brings down the tone of the site. There’s just no need. So many other places for those kind of chats.

I really hope MNHQ are only quiet because they are reconsidering their recent changes carefully and not quiet because they hope it will all blow over.

See also the charmer 'not getting any at home' @Xrays . It's so in the spirit of (new, improved) MN to give a helping hand - and who knows what else - to the neglected men trawling for thrills.

Good post, OP

I think if they were going to reconsider they would have done so already. Sadly it's more likely that they're hoping it will fizzle out. 😔

Thanks for the new thread @AutumnLeavesFallingIntoPlace

We're not shutting up!

Of course there's nothing wrong with talking about sex. The thing is, so many of the "like-minded people" on the sex board have been drawn to Mumsnet purely for the sexual content, as shown by the unusual numbers of men posting there. The changes to registration time restrictions and putting it in active have altered the dynamic here - otherwise this thread and the last almost 1000 poster wouldn't exist.

On so many occasions I've seen someone ask questions about sex, but deliberately not put it in the sex topic because they know they will get a different demographic responding to them than they would wish. Along with the risk of drawing attention in the form of unwanted DMs.

Reading with intrigue

Thank you for starting the next thread @AutumnLeavesFallingIntoPlace

I'd particularly like to register my concern over the sex chat thread and its potential impact on the rest of the site. As well as what appears to be a strategic shift for Mumsnet away from the needs of women.

We need the Spirit of Mumsnet to pay Justine a visit and show a vision of the future where this place has become Only Mums

BIWI that made me lol 😂

@MNHQ’s radio silence over the issues raised in this and the previous thread is concerning.

Ha! I remember the good old days when the pervy blokes would rock up, lad in hand, on a Friday night and start their badly disguised 'sex advice' threads and get roundly told to fuck off. Now we direct them to a live sex chat thread?!

I hope MNHQ are listening, but I reckon it's the draw of the money from the advertising that's keeping them quiet.

"Lad in hand"

The yoni massage guy will be back soon I bet

Ann Summers have them (furry) handcuffed and gagged in a basement

He would be welcomed these days and anyone taking the piss would be deleted. He's just the sort of perv MN seem to be encouraging.

For me, the biggest problem is the sex chat thread.

And for all that women defend it over there, there's lots of them on that actual thread itself who pop back all disillusioned that - surprise, surprise - they weren't messaged by an erudite, witty and charming raconteur...

No, they got messages saying 'horny... wanna play?' and 'hey sexy'

It's also filled with married men. Is this what HQ want? A seedy little space filled with desperates, wanting a shag with anything that'll bite?

At least yoni massage guy had to be a bit creative, offering his therapeutic hands to us all, or at least to the women of Hull. Now he just has to show up on the sex board and say 'Brian, 58M, feeling horny' and wait hopefully for the DMs to roll in.