MNHQ, a word in your shell-like please - about these pro-BNP threads... consider this a petition

[TheLadyOfTheGreenKirtle]

hasn't this gone far enough? these threads are being allowed to stand which considering the "policies" of the BNP and the views expressed by "activists" is appalling. yes, free speech is wonderful, but some of these threads can be seen as inciting racial hatred, there are many, many, disablist, homophobic, racist remarks made and implied and they always go the same way. the threads are started to cause a bunfight. the BNP will not get anymore supporters on here, so why be deliberately controversial?

mn is a self-moderated site. this is great and one of the reasons i use it. however, the mners are now moderating and saying that we have had enough. we have complained a LOT about this type of thing - please take note!

Yes TheLady

I would be mortified if everyone here thought I was awful and that I'd upset so many and even made people feel they should leave!

Why
why does she stay?

I have a BNP thread.
I will see what happens.

Do feel free to join me in chat though

How is it against an ethos of self-moderation?

People here say they want it to stop.

The posters causing the trouble take it on board and fuck off. That is the very essence of self-moderation.

Why would somebody want to be a member of a site that clearly doesn't want them? What's in it for them?

let's give it a whirl and find out, smallorange.

Oh, and on the liberal knockers in a twist thing- yup, I agree.

Banning trolling with a BNP focus is NOT the same as the slippery slope to a dictatorship.

It is simply saying that this is our site, them's the rules. You piss people off too much and you're out, because we are about supporting each other.

The bosses of Mumsnet don't have to privide a microcosm for the political process in civil society or anything. It's only a bloody website- they can do what they like. or what their members like. And if the members don't like the way the site is being run, they can leave. And have done in some numbers, I imagine, if all this is the case.

What kind of community do people want? One where you can be repeatedly hurtful and prejudiced as long as you stay within the letter of the law? Or one which actually is fun and supportive with decent people taking part? Because you can choose.

Actually I think we should report all such offensive posts en masse. Eventually the weight of opinion has to be taken into account by MNHQ (even if drunk surely 200+ people sending cross little messages to them will have effect). Don't reply, just report it?

Just a thought.

Maybe (just speculating) MNHQ do want us to sort this out for ourselves - ie make this a hostile environment for BNP trolls and drive them off ourselves, rather than MNHQ taking a policy decision that will then set a precedent that might be difficult to follow?

There is the old repetitive posting technique, which I don't generally hold with but would certainly work for driving certain threads out of existence.

I do see the point that if a poster has made repeated personal attacks, s/he should be banned outright.

But where do you draw the line, larrysgal?

did mn hq clarify why they deleted the anti bnp thread and not the pro bnp ones?

In fact are mn hq going to comment at all on this thread?

I think you draw the line at x number of complaints- poster gets chance to apologize and STOP pissing people off, then they are out if that doesn't happen.

I guess from my perspective- white, heterosexual- DP's views are a ridiculous argument , but to others they are hurtful, intimidating and not in the spirit of mumsnet.

So I think DP needs to take a break.

"I think you draw the line at x number of complaints- poster gets chance to apologize and STOP pissing people off, then they are out if that doesn't happen."

Definitely.

But then you get the opportunity for gang bullying, larrysgal. You can't ask a poster to change their views.

but they asked us not to do repetitive posts, though? i do think it's up to MNHQ to enforce its own trolling policy tbh. anyway, she's been warned plenty, she's told us so.

fact is, dp revels in all this. back a while ago i really liked dp's posts, thought that she was a bit of vinegar in the mix, which is good for a site like this where opinion tends to the mean. i'd see people getting cross with her and think 'well she is entitled to an opinion, we can't all be the same nor should we want to be' (that's what moldies is for ).

however, once you start paying attention to her, it's very clear that she only takes the contrary opinion, and the one most calculated to offend.

it's a fairly recent development, tbh, one that i presume has been provoked by some crisis or other in her life. some time back she was merrily pitching in against a BNP voter, saying that she'd be ashamed to vote BNP iirc, now she's an activist, for example. she used to post across all of the boards, now she's strictly Politics...

it's all constructed to hurt as many people as she can, probably not because she's thinking of Riv's hurt or Lenin's fury even, but because that guarantees her the most attention. it's pathetic, really.

so without wishing to pull rank on the relatively new people i see who value the right to free speech on MN, on this occasion i'd have to say that those who have seen more, know more.

also i am sure that i remember dp posting at least a year ago that she is the 'most hated mner and won't be bullied off' etc etc etc... i remember at the time thinking 'huh?, why would she think that?'

this was loooooooong before it was true, i think it's a title she was after rather than one that she held at the time. for some reason.

What makes MN so great is that people can have views, and other posters can challenge them. It creates opportunities for people to get educated about things that they presumed they knew about. Clearly marginal views that are prejudiced need to be challenged robustly. But that doesn't mean they go away just because you stamp on them. The posters will just go elsewhere where people are less about to challenge them intelligently, and that is, IMO, more worrying for society as a whole. At least on MN they will get absolutely no impression that anyone supports those views.

i would agree with you, lou, if that was what was happening here. but it isn't. she's a troll, she's not here to engage, she's here to enrage.

Aitch;

I started 2 threads in politics...those threads could have been hidden or ignored.

I don't want this attention, I want people to ignore me if they don't like me, I want people to hide my threads...(all 2 of them)

isn't that why there's a hide thread option..?

Yes, they've asked us not to do repetitive posting. There are non-repetitive ways to drive a thread off the board though

I take your point about the gang bullying. In which case, if there are more messages of support than complaint, it would be Stern Words rather than a ban. But posters should still be decent enough to apologise when they've upset and offended people (and lets be rational here, I'm not talking the odd sweary post or slip of the tongue)...but for an apology to mean anything, the behaviour which necessitated it has to STOP.

A couple of points

Has everyone read Callmedave's post. How utterly tragic that she feels unable to post her problems because of DP's continual and disgusting hijack of threads. How sad. How UNMN.

Lou031205 - I would totally agree with you, but DP will not engage in anyway, and just keeps on ramping up the bile until people react. She's not interested in anything other than hurting people IMO.

Oh and I've not cross posted with the poster in question. I am ignoring it.