Why was this thread hidden?

[Zonder]

I'm a bit shocked by the thread about MN using people's generic quotes about products as advertising for specific brands of a product. That seems disingenuous.

However I am even more shocked that the thread concerned has been hidden. That seems doubly disingenuous, especially as other people had photographic evidence of the same happening to them.

It does look like we can't trust MN promotion of products to have true comments on them.

Can anyone explain this? And will you be reinstating the thread?

Yikes!!

I think there's an automatic process here. Enough reports (and people were reporting so mnhq could see it as it was in AIBU not site stuff) and threads automatically get hidden.

Oh I’ve just been looking for that thread, glad I spotted this one!

They also took down the TAAT so expect this to go too.

TBF mumsnet is a business and there has got to be some way of making money. I'm not saying lie, but I understand the caution about that thread.

Nevertheless MN the website must comply with the rules of the regulator the ASA.

Ahh I was just looking for that thread and hoping there's an update.

Thank you for asking the question. It was my thread and I’m wondering the same.

I’m working today but will check at various points to see if it’s been reinstated or if MN have privately messaged me. However, I think they owe an explanation more broadly than just to me as it became clear on that thread that this wasn’t an isolated incident.

Thanks for posting @Wondermoomin I was hoping you would see it.

I agree.

Its fundamentally dishonest to claim/imply X users product Y and loves it when X has never been anywhere near product why. At the least its a fake review.

Same goes for all the “tests” - this isn’t Which? its advertising and should at least be open and honest and not pretend the recommendations are anything other than paid advertising/advertorial content.

It’s really very interesting...

@Wondermoomin you're back!

I wondered what had happened to the original thread… I suspect this thread will also disappear soon for being a TAAT.

@Wondermoomin I was going to comment last night but didn’t get a chance to. I would strongly recommend contacting the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) if you have not already done so.

The original thread has been reinstated after being auto-hidden due to reports. MN are looking into it 👀

That’s interesting, I can’t actually find your original thread still, even when I search via your username. I didn’t comment on it previously so can’t see it via threads I am on either.

@Evenworseformeeces
hopefully this works
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5326652-mn-have-used-my-quote-to-promote-a-product-ive-never-bought

I wonder if they’ve hidden it from active threads?

Hello @Zonder - any time a thread or post receives a high number of reports, it will be auto-hidden, as happened here. (Many of the reports were from posters asking us to respond!) The thread was reinstated as soon as we were aware and was not removed from Active at any stage. FWIW, we don't, as a general rule, remove criticism of MNHQ.

Thanks for explaining @BeckyAMumsnet
I'm wondering if you could also answer the question that has come up on the original thread about why that thread isn't in active threads?

Thanks.

Hi @Zonder you're welcome. The thread was not removed from Active - what appears there is determined on popularity and how new the thread is. The thread was very busy but it may have since dropped off as new threads appeared.

I thought that as a thread gets posted on it pops up in active? Is that not the case @BeckyAMumsnet ? I checked Active immediately after someone posted and again after I posted and it wasn't there, and yet less posted on, and later posted on threads were there. So it did look as if it wasn't appearing in active for some reason.

Thanks.

Really, @BeckyAMumsnet?

I just posted on a tiny, quiet, not new thread, and it immediately popped up in Active.

I post on the MN Advertising Mess thread and it does not appear in Active. Others are having the same experience.

The thread is clearly being suppressed by Mumsnet.

And this one - another small, not busy thread - has just popped up in Active after my post.

Something strange going on again… the explanations from MNHQ sound more Trump like every time. I think they believe them 🤣🤣

The original thread is showing in Active currently for me, about 5 threads below this one

Just posting on here to clarify because I was always under the impression like Zonder that a thread that was posted on automatically bumped up to the top of active threads? That's always happened on every thread I've ever posted on except Wondermoomin's thread?

I thought that as a thread gets posted on it pops up in active? Is that not the case ?

I too would like an answer to the above ^^

On the original thread, @jessycarr has posted an old thread from 2021 that explains things perhaps more accurately than MN's input on this thread:

"Removing a thread from Active gives things a chance to calm down..."

It seems they also have the option not to entirely remove a thread from Active, but to suppress it so that way fewer MNers are alerted to this mess.