Corpus 2

[TokyoBouncyBall]

A summary would be good and I might do one later but Aston, data scraping, astonishing lack of contrition…

I'm angry about the LGBT Children board being used too; the board was set up at my request because of our situation with my (gay) son. While I realise that anything I post is visible to anyone else, it feels wrong and intrusive to be using personal posts like mine in the overall context of 'proving' that MN is transphobic.

I'm really sorry, BIWI. It's a gross invasion of privacy and the casual way that Eden fails to even acknowledge that the discussions on that board are sensitive and personal is appalling.

I would suggest Aston needs to consider that they will be outing the entire family and potentially putting posters into dangerous situations eg. if a partner recognises themselves.

BIWI I am sorry.

I admit I was still too annoyed at the FWR board being scraped so hadn't really noticed which other boards they were using!I

Christ!

Fuck me they are ethically and morally corrupt!

And yes, the Relationships board has women in abusive relationships seeking help, and being offered help by other women, many of whom share highly intimate details of their histories and lives.

MN estimates the site helps over 1,000 women a year leave abusive relationships.

The people at Aston merrily 'scraping' data are going to impact on that. They are jeopardising a source of support for women in the worst possible situations. Cut off a source of support, advice and comfort to women suffering abuse.

I'm barely able to formulate how fucking angry that makes me.

you don't even @ some OPs because its too dangerous on the relationship board.

You are so fucking irresponsible Aston University!

Fine (I mean it's not but you know!) go after FWR most of us know what we are getting ourselves in to. But the LGBT children's board and the relationship board.

Have you lost you bloody minds Aston University?

Honestly have you? because I can see no other reason for your complete lack of giving a fuck!

On the plus side imagine the scene...

Come September there will be all those mumsnetters who over the past 17/18 years have been here since their 6ft teenager was the size of bean in their belly. And those teenagers will be in their final year of school looking at universities.

When their parents are deciding on which university gets their hard earned pension pot that they are putting towards their children's university education I can imagine many will not want to give one single penny to Aston after they've done an advanced search on Here for Aston University.

Good luck Aston because like most things in life if you have a good experience you maybe tell one person, if you have a bad experience you'll tell AT LEAST 10 people. And how many mumsnet users is Eden looking at pissing off over the three boards?? Then multiply it by 10!

Reap what you sow Aston University! Reap what you sow

In what way is snooping on women in abusive relationships going to help Eden in her brave fight against the evil gender critical feminists? I know I could ask the same question about people's LGB children (though I suppose from Eden's point of view supporting them might be seen as transphobic, because if they are happy and supported they won't need to feel the need to explore the trans option).

Before all this Aston stuff came to light, on a different thread about something else, I had a little rant to the effect that the social sciences are academically dodgy and we'd be better off without any of them. Someone suggested a couple of disciplines that (unlike sociology and psychology) had some credibility - linguistics was one. The more I read about this, and particularly the dishonest and semi-literate stuff posted by this PhD candidate the more I think it's as stinky as any other stinky thing. An undergraduate essay writer wouldn't get away with such a shoddy statement in any respectable discipline.

Because of the mean women in relationships who want to leave their husband's after discovering the abusive Arsehole they've been married to for 30 years who had affairs, watched extreme porm, and beat the crap out of their wives are not at work like they're supposed to be but parading around the living in their wife's knickers. Of course those women will be labelled as transphobic, no mention will be made of the fact that the trans thing for some men is just another way to abuse their wives!

@Boiledbeetle You have no idea how right you are. I came here for support after a series of miscarriages. The result of the subsequent pregnancy while not 6ft is now in Year 12 and - wait for this - aiming to study linguistics. I need say no more.

Can you talk them out of it! Tell them it's actually a morally and ethically corrupt subject and that they'd be better picking something else. Anything! Just not linguistics!😁

I apologise in advance, its waiting to be ironed!

This will also allow me to assign pseudonyms to participants
We shud start a list 4 Edam
1 Karen
2 Susan
3 Jane
She gunna run out of stereotype names pretty quick.

There'll need be a few of the
1 Kevin
2 Nigel

Variety if she can work out which posters are... Shock horror... Gasp... Men

As someone who is an academic in a linguistics department (NOT Aston), today’s FOI has floored me. I can’t understand how this was approved and not questioned more intensely?

It is into politic to say around my workplace, but CDA does have some seriously dubious aspects.

I promise there are ethical and rigorous areas of linguistics.

I do feel somewhat vindicated because I got seriously annoyed by Tim Grant at a conference once and was told I just didn’t understand the work.

And not just this September. My DC are only in primary school, but as this is the only thing I have ever heard of Aston to date, it will likely stick.

I hadn't even thought of that!
Wow!

Big mistake Aston! Big. Huge!

I can foresee the trans widows support threads being framed as transphobic and the women posting framed as the abusers.

It's probably been said multiple times before but I wonder if Eden planned to look into the ins and outs of what the site rules have been over the years she's scraped. How can you track the change in language over time and make an assumption about it if over the same period of time the posters of the information you are using have been strangled by the rules of the site, that have changed massively just in the last few years, in what was and wasn't and now is and still isn't allowed?

And it's even more nuanced. Mnhq don't have a list of banned words as such it's more to do with the context of each individual post, and whether someone bothered to report a post or not and even then it depends on which moderator gets the report

There are just too many things that actually corrupt their data.

That's my concern! Edens PhD is going to be a shit show!

The smaller subset of data that Eden scraped in January 2024 wasn't listed on the 'final [sic] ethics application form'.

Didn't Justine say that Aston said they'd delete it - I can't find the post?

Where was the ethics application form that covered the use of that data? I presume it didn't exist and that's why Aston were willing to comply.

the casual way that Eden fails to even acknowledge that the discussions on that board are sensitive and personal is appalling.

Like her supervisor and her casual attitude to the rape survivors who provided the material for her PhD. I wasn't exactly blown away by her sensitivity and compassion.

I think we should see this PhD as a blessing! Hear me out...
Eden will be wading into the FWR forum expecting to find horrific, genocidal transphobia and will probably find the first few weeks difficult and distressing, but there may come a point when a lightbulb switches on in Eden's gender addled brain and she reads something that she cannot deny is the truth. In my experience plenty of young women allies let slip "transphobic" opinions from time to time. Things like "if you haven't got a uterus you don't get an opinion" and they have all grown up with misogyny in life and online, but the social status gained by being "on the right side of history" is too compelling so they deny their inner terf but she is in there and once you've seen it for the first time you can't unsee it. This drama might one day lead to the peakening of Eden Palmer.
We could have a bet on who breaks her gender goggles. My money is on @ArabellaScott who should probably do a PhD in gender critical studies.

In my experience plenty of young women allies let slip "transphobic" opinions from time to time

I've seen them get scolded for it by TRAs on Reddit, especially.