Is MN an anonymous site

[100thtime]

I joined MN thinking it was an anonymous site for exchanging opinions and asking for help for problems etc.

I thought we were all supposed to be equal on this site, although in the past have been upset by other posters " ganging up" and joining together to bully other posters , including myself on occasion.

It was a revelation to me today to find out from another thread today that actually other MNers are friends with each other in real life, that they know each other's real identity, that they socialise with each other in real life, attend Christmas parties together.

I would never have set up an MN account if I'd known i was intruding on a friendship group.I think l think MN should be transparent as to that iswhat it is: a friendship group and is not actually a site for people to interact with each other equally on an anonymous basis.

What??

I don’t knowing know anyone on here.

Hmmmm. I don’t know anyone on here but I think you’re a tad naive to think that there wouldn’t be people who didn’t know each other before they all joined, or bonded over shared experiences on here, and started meeting up IRL. I don’t think it matters tbh. If you’ve been ganged up on you can report it.

Some posters have met up and become friends in the past. I went to a couple of meet ups about 15 years ago. I think as the site has got bigger though that’s become less common.

You sound deeply paranoid.

There are hundreds of thousands of users on this site, of course plenty of them know each other.

With so many thousands of members some are bound to know each other in real life or be related to each other. I would assume the majority are anonymous though.

lol

😆🤣😆🤣
What a batshit thought. There's thousands of members on MN, so what if a few are friends!

mumsnet is anonymous there are people who know each other on Reddit, doesn’t mean it’s a friendship group.

Oh lord, you again.

For the (cough) 100th time …

Some people on a site with literally tens of thousands of users met up separately due to a shared interest. It does not exclude you. It’s not about you. Get a grip.

Just as well you weren't here about 20 years ago. That was when there was a Christmas meet up every year, widely anticipated and talked about here afterwards.

It's not a friendship group..it's visited by millions. Do you think we all have a mega meet up in a place that holds millions?

People will always get on and form friendships. Meet up and stuff on internet forums. Or visit the sex board and do sex talk via PM.

It's absolutely nothing to do with the owners of the site.

MN has literally millions of users. A minuscule percentage of them may have a small group they know in real life. That doesn't make MN a friendship group you'd be intruding on!

Occasionally meet ups are arranged but you can generally tell from the thread, it doesn't seem that common now.

There are goodness knows how many members here - hundreds? Thousands? You have come across a few who know each other in real life and I am baffled why you have reached the conclusion you have.

Ooh I love a back story …. !!

Some of the political threads can be a bit bullying if you are not one of them but avoid all of those and it's fine

Mumsnetters are doing sex talk by PM 😮

It used to be so back in the early days. No MN Christmas parties or meeting for prob nearly 20 years I reckon.

The site was small and we were wet behind the ears about keeping ourselves safe in Internet interactions. Haircurlingly awful in fact.

Please tell us more!

MN doesn’t organise meet ups.

Sometimes people have a reason to meet up- because they are passing on an item
or something like that.

I have a neighbour I know uses it, but no idea what her name is here.

So if there are a million people on here, maybe a hundred of them tops have met up deliberately in any given year.

Are you joking? Hundreds of thousands of people use this site. Of course they’re not all friends!

If a few people from a particular thread decide to meet up, that’s up to them. It certainly doesn’t mean those people have, either individually, or collectively, any greater influence on a random thread.

Many, many people on MN are keen enough on maintaining their anonymity to name change all the time. I enjoy the general chat here but have no interest in becoming part of any clique, even on threads I’ve been part of for years.

Seriously, find what you’re interested in and post, or just read threads if you prefer. I can absolutely assure you MN isn’t one vast homogenous group of best friends.

This

waves to @catin8oot5

we had some excellent noisey london nights

You're anonymous if you want to be - and obviously don't give out very identifying information about yourself - but other people prefer not to be.

They might join at the same time as friends; or strike up friendships on MN and then mutually use private messaging to become friends (although you can always ignore or reply to a PM without giving any info that you don't want to).

Even people who do have friends on MN are anonymous to the vast majority of other people on MN.

I didn't know this and if I had known i would never ever have joined MN and I would never have posted anything.

I feel feel absolutely dreadful now.
I had no idea that posters on here knew each other's identity .

I thought it was the one place I was equal with other people but I'm not.