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 Their argument was that they had changed T&Cs and my complaint was therefore no longer valid.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!

eh?

'fess up DP...or else...

i noooo naaaathing

silly, I don't want to know Zoe William's user name, just what is the Jc thing?

JC???

jeremy clarkson

Jesus Christ?

ah! all is explained! at least re DP top gear post. not the rest (sadly).

Nancy, Have been out most of the day, otherwise I would have done this sooner.

December 1990.
High Court London.
end of the 'gravy train' for someone.

Should be enough for you to go on!

Have fun!

I think what is interesting if my memory of contract law is correct, is that in negotiating and agreeing terms with the DM, MNHQ have given tacit agreement to a contractual relationship (on those terms) with the DM. If MNHQ did not want the DM to proceed with the column then it would have to have said so and stuck to that, insisting that no further columns were run until they had sought legal advice. Of course the DM could (would?) still have run the column, but legally MNHQ would not have given their consent to their doing so.

Hence, whatever the legal advice now obtained, MNHQ have entered into this relationship with the DM.

I find the issue of why they have done so quite contradictory. Justine tells us that after these columns were run there was no increase in traffic to the site. So it is clearly NOT helpful to MNHQ in terms of increased hits on the site. On the other hand there is quite a strength of feeling on the various threads on this topic that the posters do not like this development and there is the possibility that some advertisers will not want to be associated with a site that is shifting discernibly downmarket. So WHY would MN do this? Unless somewhere someone is being rather disingenuous

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1207788/What-SHOULD-childrens-lunch-boxes.html here we go.

lol at the names.

I want to be toots...hands off, its mine.

But on serious note, yes, aitch, they have given away all their smarties in the vain hope of a chance at the skipping rope.

CarrieMN - "In the meantime, given the latest information on what the column will be about and how it will be presented in the future, is it something we could live with? Do let us know (we know you will )"

I'll let you know - this is utter shit. You have a few lone voices who like the idea of collaboration with the DM. I don't see much love otherwise. So what are you going to do? Gather opinions and carry on anyway. It's all becoming just money for you. Maybe it always was? Or maybe greed just got the better of you.

sorry, I meant that serious reply to spetacular.

I've just read the link posted. My opinion of the DM is even lower. That's journalism?

I'm loving the articles along the right hand side:

"Fitness = flatness for Jesse Wallace"
"Why I like to steal other women's husbands"
"Beyonce looking bootylicious in bikini"
"What's eating Fiona Phillips/battle to keep in shape"
"Doting father Ricky Martin shows off twin sons"
"Amy Winehouse back to old habits with spotty skin etc"

Spot the odd one out...

time to update the about us page then. from no political axe to grind to something along the lines of we'll get into cahoots with whichever polical media outlet is willing to have us.

I know that many on here wanted the name changes if the DM was to publish threads, but my god the ones they are using in the article do make members sound like real yummy mummys - pretty yuck in my opinion. Such a shame as really takes away from what mumnset is really about.

The fake usernames are really lame. Guess that's the point where she actually had to think up something original

it's awful

just beyond awful

IMO the daily mail are rascist pigs and hate any association with them and I am hugely offended. I am having a shit night and I can't post as I would normally. Plus most people have name changed so the friendly atmosphere has gone. Fed up.

it's so trite

must say if i was a mail reader it wouldn't make me want to pop over here to see what's going on

mn is different and spiky, not dull and predictable

So now the wider world thinks that Mumsnet is a)affiliated to the DM and b)populated by utterly bland people (nns having lots of the MN humor in them IME). In addition presumably people who read and presumably enjoy the DM may make their way over here too (one daftpunk is quite enough for me).

I loathe the Daily Mail, it stands for a huge amount of things that I really hate, and Femail in particular is a nasty bit of work.

I used to be proud that I was a Mumsnet member and have recommended the site to friends and aquaintances on a regular basis. I have even spoken with work colleagues about interesting threads. With this DM association frankly I would feel ashamed to tell anyone I had anything to do with the site now, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

MN has been an important part of my life for a good few years now. I've enjoyed some great debates and talked trivia here, but much more important (and the support side of the site is surely what it is really all about isn't it?) I've had some really excellent advice and support, some of which I hope I have been able to reciprocate. In the course of the slightly excessive amount of posts I've made I have shared my experiences (generally to help others, sometimes to make a point), and I'm now going to have to go through all my posts and try and persuade MN to delete or change some of them because they are just way too unique to my circumstances. Which feels quite shitty really.

Because this is the thin edge of the wedge really isn't it? I've not liked any of the formal pieces on mumsnet anywhere because they have always caused pain and upset to at least one member, sometimes quite badly. The site is obviously too big and too popular to be in any way a safe haven any more, and that's a big loss I think.

So why can't they just post a request in media each week for answers to the subject they want to cover, that way they get answers, and we get to know what they are looking at and that we won't be suprised to see our answers in the DM.

This week they have taken the answers to one thread about nursery lunches being speciifed by the nursery and given it aheading about ham sarnies which it was not about, surely this is just as wrong as putting the wrong name against a post if not worst?