Mumsnet Corpus

[TokyoBouncyBall]

Not a TAAT, but a bit of googling as a result of a now deleted thread has led me to this:

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/18

I note it says that the License is uncertain. Can you confirm that you have given permission for posts to be used in this way, or is there something that Aston might like to look into?

I note it says Users who wish to access this dataset must make a detailed application to FoLD and the researcher, as well as potentially gain additional agreement from an external organisation before they can be approved for access.

Given one of the uses it is being put to, I think it is a bit dubious to say the least.

This says 'The selected item is withdrawn and is no longer available.' on the link, OP.

How interesting!

The link definitely worked earlier.

HQ were looking at the original (now-deleted) thread yesterday with an emphasis on the person's linked in post which I shall not repeat here.

Best let the inhouse lawyers do their sleuthing, IMO.

Ha! Really interesting, I wish I had archived it. It absolutely worked both yesterday and this morning when I posted the thread.

However if you go onto the internet archive you can find the content if you want.

I came a bit late to this, but I presume this is to do with an event being held by the Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics, and that is still live on the Eventbrite website.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-corpus-assisted-discourse-analysis-of-linguistic-transphobia-on-mumsnet-tickets-880795271367

Is this it? If so, it's complete nonsense - the bibliography includes Vice magazine and Pink News.

Thanks, OP.

Found it.

'Information: This dataset contains highly sensitive material or data that come from a third party and have heavy constraints on access and use. This dataset is therefore stored not on the FoLD web server but on an air-gapped, offline computer in our secure data lab at the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics. Users who wish to access this dataset must make a detailed application to FoLD and the researcher, as well as potentially gain additional agreement from an external organisation before they can be approved for access.'

Thanks for the heads up about this - we had no knowledge our site was being scraped (against our T&Cs) and the data used in this way. We contacted Aston University today and though they've yet to respond, as you've noted they've now taken the page down. We'll let you know what their response is as and when.

Interesting to see the mnhq take on this

Thanks!

Thanks @JustineMumsnet

Scraping data en masse feels a bit beyond 'fair use'.

Shocking isn't it.

👀

Thanks, Justine. It did seem unethical, frankly.

Can someone explain what's happening?
Feel a bit nosey.

Well done for your clever sleuthing there OP.

Do you happen to know why the thread yesterday was deleted?

If you look at the link above you'll see that some PhD research is being conducted using data from MN. Investigation revealed that Aston uni has a mahusive database of many years worth of MN posts available for researchers to use as data.

This will probably include deleted posts, name-changed posts, and potentially ways to identify posters through jigsaw identification.

Hi all,

The FWR thread was hidden in error - sorry about that. We've unhidden it now.

While staying quite vague to keep this thread alive, there is a PhD being written (or perhaps not now) using the Mumsnet Corpus in the first post. The person writing that, described it elsewhere on the internet as research into transphobic hate crimes on Mumsnet. This page, however, has now also disappeared (!) although not before the hate crimes text had been removed.

I did a fair bit of sleuthing - because, Friday - today and found this person and their PhD supervisor. Disappointingly, the supervisor has the image below as their Twitter banner. Not sure how she squares this with the supervision, but never mind.

Am waiting for the Eventbrite link to go pouf in a minute too.

votes for women!

(except mean TERFS who won’t accept TWAW amirite?)

i wonder how much they’ve looked into how newspapers of the time reported a suffragettes and compared it ti how GC women & men are talked about now and if that’s possibly jogged any thoughts in their brain….

This is the description of the content of the forensic linguistic databank on its website. I would be interested in Aston's explanation of the decision making process and ethical oversight they apply when they decide which website scrapes to upload, and which other websites form part of their corpus.

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/

We broadly understand forensic linguistics as any academic research with a potential to improve the delivery of justice through the analysis of language. FoLD thus comprises a wide range of datasets with relevance to forensic linguistics and language and law, including commercial extortion letters, investigative interviews in police and other contexts, legal documents, forum posts from far-right online groups, and comment threads from political blogs.

I think the heads of the institute should hold a seminar in which they are quizzed by Mumsnetters

I would like to know what Aston university has already used mumsnet data for (prior to deletion)

I wonder if MNHQ is aware that the MN logo is being used to advertise on Eventbrite?
<reports post>
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-corpus-assisted-discourse-analysis-of-linguistic-transphobia-on-mumsnet-tickets-880795271367

I wonder if people know it's possible to report events on that website. Which events, and why, is up to each person to decide.