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 Their argument was that they had changed T&Cs and my complaint was therefore no longer valid.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

saintlydame - Well it's fine if MNHQ want the association. They should be clear if that's the case. But at the moment they are sitting on the fence, suggesting there's nothing they can do.

It doesn't cost anything to come out and say MN aren't happy with any form of association with the DM as lots of MN members feel it's misogynist, racist and small-minded. That would be a marketing triumph.

A nicely worded letter from a solicitor to their legal dept asking them to desist using MN copy until an agreement, if that is what MNHQ want, has been reached. That would have stated their position clearly.

One letter costs very little. MN would not have had to get into any more correspondence, and if the DM had continued to publish, at least they would have had proof they had asserted their rights.

well if there were no talk boards then you could aruge that most of the media coverage theyve had wouldnt have happened

saintlydamemrsturnip I didn't say talk members were its lifeblood. I said members, meaning of the whole site. I do not use talk alone in fact I use recipes, discounts, shopping and competitions more!

My point was that if members ie people who regularly use the site are unhappy and leave then they will not do so well as a business.

Therefore surely the users of mumsnet should have a say on something that involves changing the terms and conditions of use?

btw have namechanged again! 3 times this week am losing my identity....

i do agree with madamedefarge on this, they could have easily pressed pause on this with a legal letter until they're all back from holidays.

I don't believe for a moment there's nothing they could do if they wanted to.

of course they want this column. That's been my point all along - that the anger was directed at the wrong person. Talk members may not like it, but it is no different to Mothercare- MN want a big open site. They have always been very clear about that- nothing new there. So they cannot afford to pass on these opportunities.

Of course they could aitch and madamedefarge. To me it just proves that they are more than happy with the publicity unfortunately.

This is why I think they will not poll members to get a majority opinion one way or the other.

"It doesn't cost anything to come out and say MN aren't happy with any form of association with the DM as lots of MN members feel it's misogynist, racist and small-minded. That would be a marketing triumph"

in the same breath wouldn't it be best if they were honest about wanting to be involved? At least then mumsnet members would know where they stood

since when was mothercare politically biased and stand for what most normal people think is wrong. mumsnet already said hits didnt go up after the column last week so what are they GAINING from this

well, to be fair, MN is not a democracy, or a cooperative, however much it feels like it (which is of course part of the joy), it is a business, and as such entitled to do anything they want.

But unhappy customers vote with their feet. Maybe not many will, but it will alter peoples perception of MN.

Maybe it's an inevitable by product of growing the business, but i feel it does impact negatively on MN's social enterprise remit.

And I still firmly believe a formal association with the DM is plain wrong in business terms for MN.

"Three years ago, Mothercare sold tapes containing a version of Humpty Dumpty with a happy ending. It seems he could 'count to ten and get up again'"

This is the most political thing I could find about mothercare

hth

By KingCnutBoredOfDMButWontL... Thu 20-Aug-09 1
....As you say started on the 8th but comments this week so I suppose it could count - it is still not a thread relating to HamGate though is it!...

If you search the name of the Poster that re-opened the nursery/lunch thread that the DM is using, it shows that s/he's only started posting that day.
Now, i'm not making any accusations towards that particular poster, BUT it does make me wonder if the DM/LH will actually trawl through old threads, then just open them up again to fit into the criteria of "This Week On Mumsnet"

Kinda makes a whole mockery of the assurances that they have giving to MNHQ.

Re Mothercare. Babygrows for 18-24 month olds are just wrong.

oh I love sleepsuits on inappropriately aged children. My daughter had some when she was 3 out of vertbaudet. They were velour with a collar and feet

I asked my mum for some popper vest for ds2 for his 2nd birthday and she said she could not find any and maybe I was babying him too much

fiofio

We have a version of Oranges and Lemons in which the 'candle to light you to bed' line is repeated twice instead of the 'chopper to chop off your head'. DP and I make a point of drowning it out with a loud renditon of the correct line.

It's PC gone mad, I tell you

how can they repeat it twice?! Who in their right mind needs two candles?

Admittedly it's on a lullaby CD, but still. You couldn't play the Oranges and Lemons game if there was no flippin chopper, could you? Though no doubt that too has been abandoned as a form of party entertainment.

Ah the olden days.

For whoever it was who was asking about when the Chat topic came into being, sometime between Feb 03 and June 03.

See web archive here

Interestingly, the MN I signed up to in October 2004 looked like this T&C-wise - and gave you the option to opt out of books.

I don't think this was ever overtly changed - don't you have to sign up to the new T&C for them to take effect?

" i feel it does impact negatively on MN's social enterprise remit"

I certainly agree with that Mme Dafarge. It puts the onus on MN to defend its social enterprise status or to drop the claim to be a social enterprise.

I thought you had to plough your profits back into the community you were set up to serve to be a social enterprise?

I'm also interested to read of "shareholders" - I thought if you were a social enterprise the limited business structure you chose was limited by guarantee, because then anyone investing/funding would know you couldn't just divvy up the money between the shareholders?

I had no idea the John Lewis was a social enterprise....

Do you think it's possible to build a rapport with Daily Mail readers? [catsbumface emoticon]

Actually the DM piece makes no sense at all. They have used the no processed meats headline, and joined with the nursery insisting on kids bringing in packed lunches from the different food groups, and no fizzy drinks or crisps thread.

Bleh! It makes MNetters look daft!

Hi there

Still here...but in haste...

For those who think we've been lily-livered on the legal front, all I can say is that having done the legal thing - when forced to - by SWMNBN we have absolutely no desire or resources to return to legal battles if we don't absolutely have to. And we don't have a "legal department"

And what do I think? Well as Justine says lots of companies/websites/PR's would give their eye teeth to be getting free publicity in a national newspaper. Do I think MN and the DM are a great fit - not particularly. But although I don't buy or particularly like the DM - some friends and even - dare I say it in case you firebomb them - members of my family are regular readers and they are not evil BNP voting/mysogynistic racists - well not all the time.

BUT - and please keep reading before you respond to my post. Do I want long standing members - or even short standing members - to be outraged, upset, leave, feel insulted, betrayed etc ? Would I like to make all this ill-feeling, bitterness and anger stop? Hell, yes.

Do I think appearing in the DM affects our status as a social enterprise? No I don't. It's not as if we went to the DM and took out a full page ad (though not sure even that would compromise Social Enterprise status.. but heck let's not worry about that as it won't be happening)

Anyway - apologies again for another long post. If I don't come back for a while I'm not ignoring the thread, but am off for a (possibly tmi, but this is Mumsnet) ovarian scan