Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

Announcement re deletion of Wig and Robe/Judge Flounce threads

871 replies

carrie (mumsnet) · 13/01/2005 13:15

Dear mumsnetters,

We are now able to shed a bit more light as to what actually occurred re the Wig and Robe/Judge Flounce episode. We are pretty sure (having received a confession of as much) that, as some of you suspected, W&R/JF was a non-lawyer masquerading as a QC. Given this knowledge we have deleted the relevant postings and banned the user from the site.

If nothing else the whole business is a salutary reminder that you can never be completely sure that folks are who they say they are and neither should you necessarily completely trust the advice, especially "professional" advice, posted on mumsnet.

As a result of some concerns raised by you we are looking into making parts of the site, the swaps and weight loss clubs for example, something that operates via mumsnet HQ so that people's addresses are not being circulated. If anyone has any other suggestions then please [email protected] or post them here and we promise to consider them.

We?d also remind folks that when organising meet ups you should take the same precautions you would when meeting anyone from the net - make sure you meet in a public place and that others know where you are going.

Having said all that, it would be a shame if this relatively rare occurrence of someone pretending to be someone they are not changed the warm, supportive, welcoming and caring atmosphere on mumsnet - and we're confident that you won't let it!

Thanks for all the supportive and helpful emails we've received from so many of you.

Carrie, Rachel and Justine

OP posts:
NameChangingMancMidlander · 13/01/2005 13:17

Gosh

I do feel v foolish for defending this person now.

Hausfrau · 13/01/2005 13:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

noddyholder · 13/01/2005 13:18

I defended her at the start too!

nutcracker · 13/01/2005 13:18

Can you tell us if they were banned before or after the incidents with the photos being deleted and passwords changed thing.

Poshpaws · 13/01/2005 13:19

Thanks for the info.

Always very cautious, me, but good to know that the MN philosophy will not be drastically altered by this episode.

bundle · 13/01/2005 13:19

gosh. when i met up with another MNer the other day, we both laughed about how her dh feared (jokingly) that I was going to roll her up in a piece of old carpet and keep her in my cellar...but I suppose you can never be too careful, given the level of cover/anonymity chatrooms offer both nice people (the majority of us ) and those with other motives..

munnzieb · 13/01/2005 13:21

hold on W&R is FJ who was a fake?? is that right? god, I thought she was good at advice etc.. hmm that's really scary. Well thanks for letting us know anyhow.

ThomCat · 13/01/2005 13:21

Oh my goodness. kept out ofmost of the whole business but have to say i'm shocked at the outcome, as in W&R was a phoney.

As you say it's a salutary reminder of what the internet can be like.

Thank you for letting us know.

nutcracker · 13/01/2005 13:21

how do i contact MN ??

nailpolish · 13/01/2005 13:23

thanks carrie

NameChangingMancMidlander · 13/01/2005 13:23

[email protected] nutty

nutcracker · 13/01/2005 13:24

Thanks NCMM

sobernow · 13/01/2005 13:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NameChangingMancMidlander · 13/01/2005 13:24

It certainly was a fairly elaborate scam....

galaxy · 13/01/2005 13:24

I defended her too as well. How very sad.

SoupDragon · 13/01/2005 13:24

nutty, email [email protected]

suzywong · 13/01/2005 13:25

was the stuff about her bereavement a lie aswell?

munnzieb · 13/01/2005 13:26

I just can't believe it, and to think I defended her when she wanted to flounce. Y did she do it then? (makes you question what actually is true on line when chatting to ppl)

LIZS · 13/01/2005 13:27

Doubt we'll ever know ...

lowcalCOD · 13/01/2005 13:27

was she a she?
so those of us who outed her wernt so dasrtardly after allt hen guys?

elliott · 13/01/2005 13:30

Thanks for this. Still some unanswered questions, but I guess I'll have to draw my own conclusions. Nutcracker I don't think it would make a difference - whether banned or not, anyone can read what is posted here.
Personally I think the biggest lesson from this is that we are our own best defence - and shouldn't be too quick to close ranks when people raise concerns/suspicions. If it weren't for people saying the unsayable, we might be none the wiser even now....

NameChangingMancMidlander · 13/01/2005 13:30

Everyone had a right to question JF's professional credibility, but I still think that it wasn't handled in the best way by those who knew her to be a fraud.

lowcalCOD · 13/01/2005 13:30

thansk elliott

NameChangingMancMidlander · 13/01/2005 13:31

Sorry, grammar and english are both crap on that post, but I guess I'm saying that right or not those people who made some of the more comments could have handled it better.

coppertop · 13/01/2005 13:32

It's sad that JF wasn't who he/she said they were but I don't regret giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Swipe left for the next trending thread