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.

wtf?

My thread is called Cuts to Deaf Children's Services. If any of you are interested. The NDCS are petitioning the Govt to kick LAs into touch about sneaking cutting these invaluable services for deaf kids.

Despite my nickname, I would have signed your petition if it hadn't been deleted.

Go find it DailyMailSpy! It could be worthy of an article?!

Thank you Moose. Unfortunately the link is a bit hidden now as original thread still not returned and since all this hoo haa I have only managed to get one more signature

Just noticed it's been reposted :)

Not my original I'm afraid I was told I had to repost

MNHQ!!! For goodness sake you can surely tell the difference between an e-petition spammer and a regular poster asking for people to sign a petition on the supportive SN board. All you need to do is search on their posts and see whether they're a regular poster or not.

Can someone please put the links to the 2 petitions on this thread.

agree with saintly and others. possibly you could consider making an exception for links to SN related petitions posted on the SN board by MN regulars?

Saintlyjimjams - you can find the epetition on Cuts to Services for Deaf Children. Thank you for your support.

Lightpassenger. This was the epetition that HolyCalamityJane was trying to raise the profile of. here

So soon after an incident where posters have had to rally around a mother whose child tried SUICIDE as a direct result of the lack of support out there in the real world this "policy" of not allowing the sharing of info on e-petitions that may support disabled kids services & rights doesn't sit right with me MNHQ.

So we are expected to tolerate and even "educate" the bigoted rants posted elsewhere on the site,yet are forbidden to share information that may help a VERY disadvantaged group of children in the real world?

Hmmmmmn

And also petitions are often about services that will affect us. I posted asking people to sign a petition concerning the closure of the ACE centre in Oxford. This is/was a service that could be useful to many on this board - potentially useful for anyone needing a communication aid.

Posted in the main board could it be viewed as spam? Possibly I guess, although it would reach the wider audience of friends of people with communication difficulties. But here surely it's something that has the potential to affect many on this board directly. So how in the world could it be spam.

Same goes for any e-petion regarding issues around SN posted in the SN section. Surely?

I posted on here a while ago asking if people had a spare minute could they vote for my son's charity run special needs nursery to get some extra equipment. I had it removed and an email from mumnet saying they had recieved 'many complaints' about it.
I specifically posted on here and not the other boards as I thought people on here wouldn't mind. Quite a few people actually did vote for us (thank you very much), but it made me sad that 'many' people felt the need to complain about it.
I'm now off to track down the petitions!

Saintly, I signed your petition as I live near Oxford.

Sazza76, I'm sorry to say that I must have missed your petition. I campaigned hard to save our local council day run nurseries from closure last year. We were successful in getting a new buyer for them, so I can appreciate how hard it was for you Sazza76 to be let down by the place where you feel that you will be heard.

Are there really many complaints? Or is that some standard email MNHQ is sending out? Perhaps they could clarify? Will report this post.

I would find it very odd if regular SN section posters were complaining about SN related petitions posted in the SN section. We are all so affected by cuts in services that I can't understand why we wouldn't want to hear about these.

If the people complaining are not affected by SN themselves then perhaps they could stop complaining (or be ignored if they do).

MNHQ could you clarify please?

I believe there is a thread in chat asking what people's pet peeves on Mumsnet are and the OP states " E petitions" are hers so clearly some people really do hate seeing them

i've posted on that thread Holy, but the OP hasn't come back on as yet.

i think raising awareness is a very special part of this section, and glad to see MNHQ have seen some of the light, can't see your original thread though - did they say they'd be reinstating it?

I'll sign any petition re better services/treatment for people with disabilities or SN whether it affects me personally or not. If posters don't like petitions, then just don't sign them. Like I don't sponsor everyone who asks me on FB. Or agree with all of their causes.

They said I had to repost it but I am so crap with links I need a master class. It is heartening to see on the chat thread that there is only one person who hates the e petitions so there is hope in the world

or maybe even if we just had one thread on this board where all SN related e-petitions could go? Even if an issue doesn't affect our families, as a group (the SN board regulars) I think we do tend to be interested in SN issues that affect our friends/online buddies.

Saintly, you'd think wouldn't you, but maybe not.

Hi all, Helen did recently put up a more detailed explanation of e-petition threads and how we handle them on HolyCalamityJane's thread in SS.

When it's obviously spam, or if it's a link to an individuals Facebook page canvassing for votes then we will delete. However we do try to look at context, and if it's an awareness issue that's important to our members we don't want to silence it.

So in those instances, we ask that the OP doesn't write the word 'petition' in their thread title, and phrases the OP around the discussion element - so then the awareness raising becomes a part of the thread, rather than the sole purpose.

We know it can be confusing, but we do hope that helps. Feel free to email us with your comments on [email protected]

The trouble is that, if I see a thread that is a discussion about something that doesn't affect me, eg support for deaf children, or SN training in an area far from me, then I probably wouldn't click on it(sorry). But if I see a thread asking for support, especially when it is something as simple as signing a petition, then I will always click.

@CatherineMumsnet my post was entitled "Cuts in Services for Deaf Children". It didn't mention the word Petition in it's title, yet it was still taken down. Thankfully someone saw the light and realised that there are a number if parents with deaf children on this board affected by these cuts, so put my thread back up. I am very grateful that those people on my thread signed the NDCS's petition.