Deleted threads

[iQofaCrayon]

I've been searching for a thread that was started this morning (foolishly I didn't 'follow' it) and I'm guessing it has been deleted, which is no real surprise given the circumstances. But I was wondering how many other readers end up not knowing what happened to a thread?

Would it be possible to have a separate 'topic' titled 'Deleted Threads' where Mumnset admin post the title of a deleted thread and the reasons for its deletion? It might only have to be posted there for a few days or a week maybe, but its really annoying when you search and the thread has gone 'poof!' into thin air and you miss the 'this thread has been deleted' announcement. (Or am I being ridiculous?)

And AI wreplied with this when asked to suggest a title –
We could not fetch a suggested title right now. You can still write your own.

😂

I'd assume troll thread and move on.

Hello @iQofaCrayon it’s not a ridiculous suggestion and we completely get why it’s annoying when a thread disappears and you’re left wondering what happened.

Our main concern with a deleted threads topic is it may just draw more attention to threads we've removed (and trolls especially thrive on that). Where we can, we do leave a deletion message explaining why a thread has gone, although sometimes that explanation has to be fairly general. Your wider point about making it clearer to people who were following a thread is a fair one, and we'll have a chat about it. Thank you.

@iQofaCrayon If you can remember the thread title, or some of it, or at least what the thread was about, you could try going onto Google, and looking for it.

I have done this quite a number of times when I have thought (for example) 'oooh that thread about that woman who had the friend who was flirting with - and messaging her husband...... where is it?!'

If I can't seem to find it in my watched threads, (as it's either dropped down so far that it's 100+ threads down, or it's been deleted, OR I forgot to put it on my watchlist, and didn't post on it) I Google what I thought the title was, and what it was about... EG: I type into Google, 'Mumsnet. Friend has been sharing photos of herself with my husband'. 4 out of 5 times I manage to find the thread I am looking for.

.

I just assume it was probably made-up shite and move on with my day. 😂

Hi @BeckyAMumsnet I’ve just come to have a look for guidance on deleted threads and stumbled across this. Without derailing the OP’s post with my issue, I think it would be really helpful to have some more context about the decision-making so that people can understand it more.

eg today I commented on a thread about toilets in Cambridge that was clearly meant to troll - it left out tonnes of important information and focused solely on the inflammatory, right-wing friendly bit.

A few of us respectfully but firmly corrected the OP with the actual facts, and a few others also probed on some of the reasons for posting the thread. The OP then asked for it to be deleted and that request was granted.

Responding properly to that misinformation was an effort but it also felt important - people who had also read half a story about it could get the full story from the thread. So aside from my own frustration about my time and energy being wasted, I felt there was a merit to keeping it up. The OP wasn’t under attack and nobody was breaking the talk guidelines as far as I could see.

So i find it frustrating that the OP’s request was granted and I don’t know why it was

edited an embarrassing typo

Hi there @MayWelland. Thanks for your feedback. We do understand people's frustration when a thread that they've taken time to contribute to is deleted. We try, wherever possible, to keep conversations going and not to delete entire threads. Having said that, we don't want to make anyone's lives harder than they already are so, in some circumstances, we will agree to remove a thread in its entirety if no other option will work. We try to give explanations for that as fully as we can but occasionally it's just not possible, for example, if explaining the reasons for deletion made an OP more identifiable than they would have been. You're always welcome to drop us a line though and ask and if we can give further explanation we'll try to do that.