Can we have a separate topic for all the Israel/Palestine threads?

[AngeloMysterioso]

I understand that it’s obviously a very big deal at the moment and of course people want to discuss it, but I’m not sure how good for some people’s mental health it’s going to be if we’re confronted by dozens of threads talking about war, violence and suffering.

Hi OP

Thanks so much for the suggestion. We'll have a chat about this and get back to you.

No.

People need to see.

If I have to deal with heightened police presence at my daughter's school, being made to feel like I'm to blame for what my family is going through, scared to wear my star of David necklace, the deafening silence from my so-called friends, then I'm sure you can deal with seeing some threads that might discomfort you.

They could be moved to News.

However, as I’ve repeatedly found when asking for posts to be moved to relevant topics, MNHQ generally won’t do it and in the case of AIBU, if voting is enabled, it gets to stay where it is.

I know I’m a total stuck record on this but I find it absolutely ridiculous that there are eleventy million topics with zero traffic because everyone posts in AIBU/Chat ‘for traffic’ thus ensuring that other areas of the site remain as tumbleweed and MNHQ refuse to take the simple step of moving threads to fix it.

People are seeing. It’s on the news, it’s on the radio, it’s on social media, it’s being talked about by everyone- with good reason. But it doesn’t need countless threads on AIBU and chat all saying the same things over and over again, does it? How does that help anybody? It doesn’t. The same way people didn’t want to be confronted by endless Covid threads during the pandemic, even though some people were being very badly affected by that too.

You could just hide the threads

Why the need to have endless threads about the same thing?

Can I ask what you mean by the ‘defeating silence from your friends’?

Do you mean they haven’t reached out to see if you’re OK, or if you have lost anyone?

Apologies if this question is insensitive, or if I’m wide of the mark.

I’m worried this might be me with a relatively new friend. I don’t know how to message her about what’s going on. Anything I think of seems deeply trite.

I completely agree @AngeloMysterioso Was the same with Covid. Thread after thread after thread just clogging up the boards, saying the same thing. No need for it. And many people don't put it on the NEWS board either. They put it on AIBU for the traffic, because they want the attention, because they think their views are more important than anyone else's.

As you said, it's on every single news bulletin on every channel on the TV. On the evening news, it takes up some 80% of the bulletin. The half hour news on BBC1 last night, had 23 minutes of it about Gaza/Israel. It's like there's no other news. Yes of course it's awful that it's happening, but there are atrocities all over the world, every day. Yet the majority of the news is being bogged down by reports on this.

It's total saturation, and is making me and people I know switch off now, and put something else on. There's a danger of compassion fatigue here. The news does this every time something like this happens. Just spends 80-85% of any given news show talking about the latest big thing going on in the world.

Yes it's OK to report on these things, and some people want to hear about it, but when it's reported so much/so often, and takes up the majority of the news coverage, people get irritated and switch off. So the last thing I - and many others want is to have mumsnet clogged up with threads about it.

Definitely need a separate board for it.

Please can we have a separate board, entitled "War - huh - what is it good for? Absolutely nothing".

Yes, and that would be significantly easier if they were all on one board.

I’m all for discussion and education, but the ignorance, propaganda and bloodlust on many of these threads precludes such a thing.

Exactly the same thing happened when everyone was starting Ukraine threads.

@MNHQ, can you give a reason why all these threads can’t be moved into News apart from ‘we don’t like to punish people for posting in the wrong topic’ or ‘we don’t like to dictate where people post’?

Every. Single. Time there is a big news item, you get multiple threads on it and every single time, people ask for a new topic to be created to move all the threads into so they don’t clog up chat and AIBU. For the millionth time, why are you not using existing topics to deal with an issue which clearly annoys a lot of your user base?

It’s worse than the Ukraine threads. Posters weren’t cheering on the bombing of thousands of civilians and children and saying that it was an appropriate and understandable response to a the actions of a terrorist group. The bloodlust on some of the threads is sickening.

I agree OP. This isn't the only war going on in the world too so there's no need to treat it any differently from other serious events. Best to move the threads to one place so everyone knows where to find them if they want and those who need a break from all the information can focus on other things.

Or MNHQ could remove all the barely-used boards they have and leave only AIBU, Chat and the few other ones that are actually used. That way, we know Mumsnet is a one-size-fits-all forum and anything can be posted anywhere for the most part.

Yes please!!!!

You know there are a lot of people who don't watch the news, right? Masses.

I don't know; I was all for a Covid section because of the amount of threads, and the discussions being so similar; but this feels different. I'm not sure that ignoring it is possible; or wise. It's a massively escalating situation and not one that you should be able to sanitise your internet usage to ignore, I don't think.

That said, I do think they are easy to avoid; I have no real interest in debating it here so I haven't clicked anything about it.

the same thing happened with Ukraine. mn hq said no.

Just came here to see if anyone else asked. I did via report on 11th.

It doesn't have to be specific gaza/israel topic, just "current war" or something because this is getting ridiculous.
Every "dummy" is starting new thread on the same topic because their thoughts are special and must be heard separately and it is taking over.

Yes I agree. There was one this morning just posting Twitter links.

I agree with and support this comment.

I agree we need a separate topic for it.

Interesting. I found this thread as I was checking to see if anyone had already suggested a separate topic and if not, was going to. I'm finding the constant barrage of overt and covert antisemitism incredibly debilitating and I'm wondering if I have to just leave mumsnet for a while. At least if it was contained in a single place I could choose if and when I engage with it.

I'm already frightened for my family in Israel and my children and family here. I'd like to be able to enjoy some escapism on occasion for my mental health without being constantly reminded how many people wish us ill.

Being moved to News would be fine surely, oh and some actual decent moderation by MN.

I mean I'm pretty sure multiple threads containing large amount of ignorance and misinformation aren't particularly helpful though are they? I do think people should be able to discuss on here, but plenty of better places to get information and I do think if people are coming to MN for an escape they shouldn't have to be bombarded with tonnes of threads full of the same incorrect info.

I've come on here to ask the same thing.

I'm avoiding the news because I'm finding it overwhelming and now it's all over MN, in almost every section.

Seeing the nth thread asking for someone to explain the situation in words of one syllable is really starting to grate as well. If you’re too stupid to search for the 25 other threads asking the same question, how will you understand?