Petitions on here will be deleted

[HolyCalamityJane]

Never in my life have I become involved in trying to raise awareness about special needs. 2 days ago I posted a thread asking my lovely Mums to sign a petition calling for educators to be given special needs training. That was all I wasn't calling for them to sacked or anything just a little bit if training.
Sadly my post was reported not sure why I was not notified I message HQ asking why and was told someone reported it as spam???? But I could post again without the link to the petition. This has made me feel a bit sad about this site.

sallybears thread is about to go poof

Hello. Thought it might be helpful to explain our stance on this one, just to make sure we don't get any crossed wires.

We do have a general policy of deleting threads that are specifically started to ask MNers to sign an epetition - once they are reported to us.

That's because we have lately seen a mahoosive rise in people joining MN purely to "spam" the boards with links to their epetition. Their interest, generally speaking, isn't really in joining in discussions but in promoting their epetition. This, quite understandably, annoys folks. So we do delete - and we clearly say we will in our Talk Guidelines.

However, we do recognise that many MN regulars may know about a campaign/issue that they'd like other MNers to know about, too.

We're fine with that, of course. But we do ask you, please, to frame your OP as a discussion of the issue, rather than a plain plea to sign an epetition - which, with the best will in the world, could well be seen by us and other MNers as a spammy epetition post.

So, an OP that said "Please sign this epetition to save endangered rabbits" would probably be deleted.

But one that said, "Anyone feel strongly about endangered rabbits? Did you know that rabbits are under threat from x and y?" - so clearly calling for a discussion, rather than just baldly promoting the epetition - would be fine. If you subsequently posted that there is a epetition about this, and included one quiet and tactful link, that would probably be fine, too.

We appreciate that it's a fine line - and that we may sometimes get it wrong - but our main concern is to prevent the boards being overrun by spammy links to frankly uninteresting or seriously annoying epetitions posted by people who have no other interest in being on Mumsnet.

Oh I do not believe it they are deleted the petition for cuts to services for deaf children. This is just disgraceful. They have a policy against petitions but it's perfectly ok to start an SN bashing thread. I really don't think I can be part of this site any longer. HQ had the chance to do the right thing here but instead they have taken a stance which is just plain wrong! I hope the original reporter is thrilled with your decision HQ as you are just about to really anger a lot of your other posters

Thanks for the explanation the title of my e petition was self explanatory and if you had of clicked on it you would have seen it wasn't a spam thing. I also do not need to raise a discussion about it on here as we all know that it is a problem you will be hard pushed to find anyone who agrees that teachers get sufficient training. Exasperated

'Fraid I didn't personally see your thread, HolyCalamityJane. But judging by what you're saying here, I think a thread asking other posters to come and discuss their support (or not) for the campaign for educators to be given special needs training would be absolutely fine.

If subsequently in another post, you linked to the epetition, that would be fine, too.

If we got things wrong here or expressed things confusingly, we do apologise.

that's the kind of discussion we have on most threads over on SN Helen!

Surely discretion should be used by the person who does the deleting. I can't understand why anyone would think it is ok to delete threads asking for support for e-petitions about sn training or support for deaf children. Whoever reported it should be ashamed of themselves.

The whole, 'quietly mentioning a petition' thing just seems a bit pointless in these circumstances, where it is obvious that regular posters are asking for support for extremely worthy issues.

People aren't forced to click on the link and sign.

@TheNinjaGooseIsOnAMission

that's the kind of discussion we have on most threads over on SN Helen!

Exactly!

And everyone will know I am a regular and not some lurking spam queen . I am absolutely shocked as well that I have just had an email from HQ asking would I mind reporting Sallybear's thread. For the official reord I will do no such thing I support it whole heatedly so you are now deleting a thread that no-one has reported! What on earth is going on??

@hazeyjane

Surely discretion should be used by the person who does the deleting. I can't understand why anyone would think it is ok to delete threads asking for support for e-petitions about sn training or support for deaf children. Whoever reported it should be ashamed of themselves.

The whole, 'quietly mentioning a petition' thing just seems a bit pointless in these circumstances, where it is obvious that regular posters are asking for support for extremely worthy issues.

People aren't forced to click on the link and sign.

Yes, we absolutely should use discretion. Agreed.

But we also have to have a "rule" we can use to zap the annoying epetition spammers - a rule that can be seen to be applied fairly to all.

Sometimes, we have simply deleted the epetition link from the OP and left the thread. That probably would have been the better option in the case of Calamity's thread.

@HolyCalamityJane

And everyone will know I am a regular and not some lurking spam queen . I am absolutely shocked as well that I have just had an email from HQ asking would I mind reporting Sallybear's thread. For the official reord I will do no such thing I support it whole heatedly so you are now deleting a thread that no-one has reported! What on earth is going on??

Oh dear. I imagine you must have pointed out the Sallybear's thread was still there while yours was not. And the MNHQer on duty got the wrong end of the stick.

I didn't even post the link because I am crap at these things Ninja kindly did it for me!

This is getting a bit farcical < looks for hidden camera>

@HolyCalamityJane

I didn't even post the link because I am crap at these things Ninja kindly did it for me!

Well, in that case, if there was no link in the OP, we should have offered to edit your thread title for you, so that it wasn't an explicit call to sign the epetition.

And then it would have been absolutely fine.

Huge apols. Obviously, we've made a mistake.

Thank- you I am glad I raised this now .

No, thank you, CalamityJane. It's obviously a policy we're not explaining well enough - and one we need to work on applying with better discretion.

[URL]www.petitiononline.co.uk/petition/compulsory-training-for-educators-to-ensure-better-treatment-of-children-with-adhd-in-the-northern-ireland-education-system/2656[/URL]

This is it Ladies anyone feel strongly about supporting teachers and educators in getting some special needs training. I thank-you all for your support on this today

Ninja have I done the link correctly???

Do you mean this link, Calamity?

That's the one Helen Thanks so much for that. Told you I was useless.

Now let's see if we can increase their numbers a bit with our Mummy poor. I mean 670 signatures in a year is pretty depressing.

I mean Mummy POWER

Thank you so much for deleting my deaf children's services thread. It was an attack on vulnerable members of society who don't have a voice except through people who champion their cause, like the NDCS. I have two deaf school age children, there are other parents on here with deaf children who are affected by these cuts to services.

The NDCS will delighted with the level of support shown by MNHQ. I think not.

I have emailed HQ and asked for your thread to be re-instated Sally and just to re-iterate I did NOT ask for it to be deleted quite the opposite and I have signed in.

It appears to have returned think I am living in the twilight zone today!

so pleased both threads are back, I think things work slightly different over on sn to maybe the rest of the boards and I hope mnhq can appreciate that.

and holy, you managed to completely bugger it up again you need double brackets!

Have signed HolyCalamityJane.

Off to find Sally's thread now.