The MN Mail Column - what we think, and what we plan to do next... part 2

[whataboutthisone]

Firstly, I am a regular but have created a new name for this.

My thoughts about what I know so far:

1. In a much earlier post there was a discussion about a change in T&Cs and whether they are valid or not. Several years ago I took a company to court for a breach of their T&Cs. Their argument was that they had changed T&Cs and my complaint was therefore no longer valid. However, the judge said that because I had not specifically been asked to accept the new T&Cs, I was entitled to rely on the ones I had accepted and therefore I won my case.

1. I choose to post on MN in the knowledge that the details I give are probably just obscure enough to anyone I may know in RL who also posts, so that what I say still effectively remains private. However, that doesn't mean that the same could be said of, for instance, my mother, who reads the DM (!) There is probably just enough about my circumstances that would enable her to put 2+2 together. I would like the option to choose whether or not I let my Mum ( or anyone else in RL) in on certain areas of my life, and there is a real possibility that this hack, has taken that choice away from me.

1. I have never ( and now will never) post asking for advice, but I will also be very careful about offering advice in the future. I, along with many others, occasionally use examples from my life to explain where I am coming from. If I continue to do that, as I said earlier, it is possible that some people would be able to work out who I am. Now, I am not so big-headed as to believe that any advice I offer is worth taking, however, there are many fantastic posters on here who do give amazing and insightful advice based on their own experiences. It would be a real shame if that was to stop because they, like me, do not want to share some of those experiences with the folk they are close to in RL. It would also be a real tragedy if others were prevented from asking for help for the same reasons.

I am very disappointed that any MNer would feel it is acceptable to violate the trust we place in each other on this forum. I do not know who she is. I do not want to know who she is. But I hope she is hanging her head in shame for breaching the trust that has been placed in her by everyone whose words she has stolen to make a few bucks!

I think Mumsnet aligning itself with any one paper is disgraceful. What happens when the DM come out for UKIP at the next election and Mumsnet threads are spun to support that party?

Funnily enough I do see a need for a round up of what's being discussed on broadly female fora in the UK as women are hopelessly under-represented politically. But a tie-in between Mumsnet and the DM is a step too far.

MP, you should do one for the express/news of the world/take a break....

the precident is set

Sorry MP - I proposed KingCs adventures on mumsnet on an earlier thread, it is mine I tell ye

I can't believe they're still going ahead with it again.

I hadn't thought of that Schubert and I agree with you completely.

Why don't they use their own comments on their own boards? It's all a bit wanky.

No I think it is shit.

I hate the fact that MN is associated in anyway with those misogynistic fuckers, however it was done.

But I also think that MNHQ have been, to put it mildly, a bit stupid. Entering into any kind of discussion like this with them, making agreements - surely this will be taken as a sign that they have given the DM permission to use the material and they now have - I reckon - no hope of reasserting copyright over the material. So it's stupid and ill-thought out as well as shit (I'm prepared to bet that they didn't ask a legal person whether or not they should talk to them).

Pissup/brewery. I'm not going anywhere near any of these MNHQ threads any more, as the fury can be better spent somewhere useful. And I'll spend some of it trying to go cold turkey.

h dear, KingC, it seems as if our seemingly unassailable position of being the only sad bastards interested in this drivel has been overrun. Meet you at the barricade.

i read the DM and agree with pretty much all it stands for,...will prob vote UKIP next election....why can't people like me feel welcome on mumsnet.?

reading the DM and voting for anyone who isn't labour is not a crime.

What makes you feel unwelcome dp? your minority MN view is the only one that is dignified with an MN tie-in deal with the newspaper that represents it. You seem to want to feel persecuted by the unpopularity of your views. We are each entitled to our opinions -- even those in the majority.

its not that you are not welcome on mumsnet daft, its a formal alliance with any paper, including and (in my case) particularly the DM. Mumsnet should be the Switzerland of chat forums, ie politically neutral so everyone feels they have a place here.

MD, do you think this is the last stand?

Could we not start a pressure campaign on MNHQ to get them to insist that MP be the writer of any MN national columns. It's a freelance piece anyone jurno could do it.

If MNHQ are really happy with all the security offered by the DM, and they want the publicity, then surely they could pitch an idea for a MN based but funny column to a more appropriate newspaper? (not sure exactly how things things work.) Send them a few copies of the weekly round up and you can see the making of a hilarious column there.

With the secuiry issues addressed, MP writing it, and in a different paper, I'd actually like to see a MN based column. heck I'd even buy the paper to read it!

I would honestly trust MP to reflect the whole ethos and ambience of MN through her writing.

She would attract the right sort of people.

oh rofl MD..politically neutral?...it's like the labour party HQ here..

who would decide which was the more appropriate newspaper?
I think a lot of this is a bit of snobbery tbh. funny how most links people do are too the DM, yet in the next sentence they are slagging it off.(not on here but in general on the board)

It is no good pressuring HQ, they are not doing the hiring and firing here - feel free to try and pressure the DM but I think it will take a bigger shoulder than ours to lean on them!

Daftpunk individuals are obviously welcome, that does not mean we should form ties with a parper for example - it is not dissimilar to forming a tie with a certain political party regardless of the fact that posters here probably represent most if not all political parties....or were you joking?

Rev, that is because they are linking specifically to slag off the terrible journalism/story lines etc.

darling dafty, there is a difference between the obvious (and not so obvious) political allegiances expressed by posters, and the stance the MNHQ takes. Or there should be.

hmm, I think forming ties with a parper could be a good move at this point....

but there is an essentially liberal ethos around the MN brand (live and let live) that it would be a shame to lose.

Having been out for the afternoon enjoying RL.

Not completely satisfied with today's progress tbh. Going to stick to postnatal and chat from now and not post anywhere else.

FWIW daftpunk. I have never voted labour. I occasionally read the daily mail, although do like the broadsheets now they are handbag sized too. Hated all that paper folding before.

My Dad reads the daily mail. Dont really want him enlightened into my world.

Leaving this topic now as wasting so much time. Will however be trawling through my old posts and asking MN to delete any exposing ones.....could take me a long time though. Sigh.

daftpunk - too right! (re. Labour party HQ).

Presumably a more 'appropriate' newspaper would be the Guardian?

I think more posters on MN read the DM (with some excuse, such as they were in Costa Coffee and it was the only paper there, honest) than let on...

Daftpunk - Isn't the point that you are welcome on Mumsnet? Even men with their penises are welcome on Mumsnet.

I don't fall into the Guardianista, old Labour-leaning, LibDem-sympathysing, with a Green underbelly of your average Mooncup-wearing, fruit-shoot shooing Mumsnetter. But that's because an average Mumsnetter is a mythical beast; that's what's so fantastic and refreshing about it.

How about of Toad of Toad Hall Times, he's a good parper...

parp! parp!

(am brushing up on the second and third verses of the Marsellaise, am a bit rusty...)

(Again: why on earth does anyone think they're so fascinating that the DM will be trawling the archives to find their posts?! I'm certainly not that interesting...)

TheRev are you The Rev?