Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk

Back to thread
MNHQ

Recognise your fellow Mumsnetters by nominating your favourite Mumsnet user to win Silent Pool gin

16 replies

AbbiCMumsnet · 12/07/2019 11:12

To tie in with their new #FortheSpirited campaign, Silent Pool Gin is on a quest to unearth the UK’s most spirited characters – and the search starts right here. For two months, the award-winning distillers will be celebrating the spirit of Mumsnet by getting you to nominate the users who you think show the most – well – spirit. They'll be giving one bottle of gin per week to a winning Mumsnet user. In addition, if your nominee wins, you'll also receive a shopping voucher worth £30..

Here’s what Silent Pool Gin have to say:
“For the spirited. Three small words that capture the essence of Silent Pool Gin. It represents our independent mindset and our uncompromising commitment to producing a gin with a refreshingly individual character.

For the spirited is about following your own path. Embracing life and living for the best things it has to offer. It’s about doing something kind, inspiring, creative, different. Could be finally handing in your notice, booking that round-the-world trip, starting that new Japanese course or even just deciding to make your very first post on AIBU.

Whatever your version of ‘spirited' is, we applaud you. However, applause only gets you so far, so to officially recognise the wonderful achievements of the Mumsnet community, we are launching the Silent Pool Gin For the Spirited award. Each week, one lucky Mumsnet member will be recognised as a kindred spirit and will win one bottle of Silent Pool Gin.

Also we’d love to hear your spirited stories so please tag us in at #forthespirited @silentpoolgin”

There's no such thing as a best Mumsnet user but you probably have your favourite(s). Is there someone: Whose posts you always read? Who brightens your days and whose views keep you glued to the screen? Who has given you priceless advice, yet you wouldn't know from Adam in real life?

Every week for two months, Silent Pool will be giving the #FortheSpirited award to one lucky Mumsnet user – with the prize of a bottle of gin. Simply nominate your favourite Mumsnet user on the discussion thread and they'll be in with a chance of winning. In turn, if your nominee wins, you'll also receive a £30 voucher. Win, win (gin) Gin.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

[EDITED BY MNHQ TO INCLUDE FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE DESPATCH OF PRIZES]

Terms and conditions of prize draw:
Activity specific T&Cs: Mumsnet will run a random prize draw once per week. The nominees within the winning entries will be contacted via email or PM to inform them of the win, and to ask if they would like to receive the prize. A non-alcoholic prize will also be available if desired. To receive an alcoholic prize, nominees will need to provide a copy of photographic ID to Mumsnet (eg a photograph of a passport or driving licence), as well as a physical name and address for the prize to be dispatched to. The name and address will be shared with Silent Pool Gin, with the user's permission. Mumsnet will dispose of this information within one week of users' receipt of the prize. Posters of the winning entries will be emailed by Mumsnet to inform them of the win, and to give them the opportunity to choose the voucher they would like. Their name and email address, with the user's permission, will be shared with Mumsnet's voucher fulfilment company for the purposes of ordering the voucher. Voucher winner's details will be retained for audit purposes. Winner's details will be used for the purpose of the prize draw and prize delivery only, and not for any other marketing purpose. Standard Mumsnet T&Cs can be found here.

[POST EDITED BY MNHQ to remove language around 'courage' and 'bravery']

Recognise your fellow Mumsnetters by nominating your favourite Mumsnet user to win Silent Pool gin
Go to post
MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 15/07/2019 15:35

Thanks all for the comments, nominations and thoughts so far, and apologies for the delayed response.

This one has landed, erm, awkwardly - and we seem to have missed the mark a bit. Please bear with us - we're continuing to discuss the thread and the competition in the office. We're reading your comments and will come back with a fuller response when we've gathered our thoughts.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 15/07/2019 17:22

These ideas are great. Thank you : )
(I'd post a gin emoji, but you know... too soon)

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 11:53

Hello

As Michael said yesterday, we're sorry we've upset some of you with this.

Couple of things to clear up: first, Silent Pool aren't paying us any money for this - believe it or not this was our (MNHQ's) idea and the aim is to do something nice for MNers and spread a bit of happiness . Silent Pool (who sponsor our podcast) were just generous enough to step in with the offer of the free gin - no money has changed hands over this at all.

Our original idea was for the gin to go to 'the MNer who most deserves a surprise treat this week' - something along the lines of the old Xmas Appeal where MNers could recognise people who'd had a tough time/been particularly lovely/made you bark with laughter on the bus. Unfortunately that point got a bit lost along the way and we've ended up with the dreaded 'fave MNer' metric instead, basically down to a failure of communication at MNHQ between the various teams involved. (Can we get away with blaming the hot weather?)

Just on a point of order: 'who's your fave MNer' threads aren't actually banned (there are very few 'types' of thread that are automatically disallowed). It's just that they tend to go pear-shaped, so often end up being deleted for that reason.

We know lots of MNers have difficult relationships with alcohol for various reasons. We try to be mindful of that while recognising that gin/wine o'clock jokes have a long history on MN and are for better or worse a part of the fabric of the community (and indeed we at MNHQ have been the grateful recipients of crateloads of the stuff from MNers at some difficult moments in our history). There isn't an easy way to resolve that tension tbh but we are aware of it and obviously don't want to crash about making people's lives difficult, while also recognising that quite a lot of you would rather appreciate a surprise bottle in the post. Answers on a postcard to that one - it goes without saying we wouldn't want to force a bottle of alcohol on anyone who didn't want it and we were intending to check before actually putting the things in the post.

On the ASA guidelines: the intention is to recognise MNers who already have 'spirit', not to imply that a G and T will make you spirited. If we were to do this again we'd probably not use the words 'courage' and 'bravery' just to avoid muddying the waters, and we'll bear that in mind in any future alcohol references. We'll edit the opening post to that effect (we'll also add a note to explain that it's been edited).

And finally... we like the idea of 'post of the week' as suggested here and are tempted to use that as the metric going forwards. Or we could revert to our original idea of 'MNer who deserves a treat this week'. Let us know what you think. To be fair to the many MNers who've received nominations so far it feels to us that the first prize should go to one of those nominated, but we're happy to change the way we organise this going forwards. Just FYI the plan is to draw at random out of a hat, so multiple nominations etc won't affect this.

Thanks
MNHQ

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 12:13

@BeyondDangerousTshirts

Thanks for the epic clarification Rowan Grin

Q though - will multiple nominations get multiple raffle tickets?

Yeah sorry that was long wasn't it

Think the idea is to treat each nomination/nominee as a pair and draw them out of the hat - so only one nomination will be drawn as a pair with the person they nominated

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 12:16

@KurriKurri

Surely this thread qualifies for deletion under the Tits Up criterion ?

The old Christmas appeal was all done by private nominations IIRC, - which would be a better approach, if you are determined to have popularity contests.

Well we don't delete for going tits up, especially if it's our mistake in the first place

It's really not intended to be a popularity contest. We take the point about private nominations but it's potentially rather nice to have a public thread where stalwarts are named and celebrated - different thing from mass popularity contests esp as it's not about the number of nominations? Some of the names on here and the reasons they've been nominated will be new to other MNers

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 12:29

@PenguinsRabbits

It could be you could do different boards each week so week 1 could be who deserves a treat who often posts on health boards so someone like TQ or IVampire Then say relationships, and 6 other categories.

Thanks Penguins, these are all good thoughts. Would love to find a resolution that works for you all so please keep ideas coming and let us know what you think

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 13:47

@TheHopefulTraveller

It's really not intended to be a popularity contest.

I think it was really naive to imagine that would not be the outcome, though. Nearly every day, there are threads, particularly in AIBU, where the main thrust of the debate veers heavily in one direction or the other, often resulting in a really cruel pile-on, because MNetters, like most of the human race, are susceptible to peer pressure. There are too many people here for that not to be a issue. Inviting people to publicly state who they 'like' or 'admire' was always going to be a hostage to fortune imo.

The other thing I think this thread has brought out into the harsh light of day is the complex relationship between participation (as opposed to lurking) and prior experiences of social success or failure. Consider for instance:

  • how many threads here are about precisely the feelings that arise out of current or historic experiences of friendships/relationships gone wrong, bullying, exclusion, not understanding what you've done wrong, etc
  • that a large part of the attraction of online forums is the opportunity to present yourself as you wish to be seen, not as you may have been characterised by others in the past
  • that many people here namechange often not just for security/privacy reasons but in order to be able to walk away from threads that have turned nasty or against them for no very good reason BUT that simultaneously their 'popularity' gets reset to zero every time they do that.

If @MNHQ are genuinely surprised at how badly this thread backfired, I suggest you all have a good think about some of those things (and I'm sure there are many more besides). They really shouldn't be new concepts for anyone running an online community.

The way the OP was a flat-out error caused by bad communication at MNHQ - we're not surprised by the response.

Re popularity contests - we think there really has to be some way to recognise the contribution of individual MNers to collective wisdom/gaiety/kindness without most MNers feeling it's unpleasant (would be sad indeed if there isn't a way to do that)

On your 'nasty pile-on' point PLEASE do report stuff like that (if you don't already)

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 14:30

@Mysterian

I would have voted for *@RowanMumsnet* but I didn't think that would be allowed. I'm sure you're still allowed to vote for me though *@RowanMumsnet*. BTW, what a lovely blouse you have on!

I don't wish to put my thumb on the scale here but IT IS MY BIRTHDAY

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 16:22

@Mysterian

Happy Birthday! Take the rest of the day off. We all promise to behave ourselves.

As. If.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 16:50

@MrsTerryPratchett

Was *@MichaelMumsnet* the 'over my dead body' HQer? In which case, I nominate him.

Yes - and have been told one MNer said he might be a woman 'like Princess Michael of Kent' so obviously that's now his name

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 16:52

@EmpressLesbianInChair

Happy birthday Rowan!

Do you remember stalking Honeydragon when she made her Brave Final Stand in her board & broke Mumsnet?

Been trying to forget that for years

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 16/07/2019 17:11

Thank you all v much for the birthday wishes that I blatantly solicited

I think Justine will be along to undo my padlock soon but please do keep thoughts coming about how we can make this work because we really do want to hand out some free stuff to good people

And thanks to everyone who's nominated someone so far

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/07/2019 14:06

@00100001

Why would they be holding it longer than necessary to write a posting label?

marketing.

They an gather information on the location/demographic etc of mumnsetters etc they can sell that data on...

No - we would be collecting details for the specific purpose of dispatching prizes - we'd have no permission to use the info for marketing purposes (and will not do so). The relevant bits of our privacy policy are linked in the OP.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 17/07/2019 14:21

: )

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 17/07/2019 15:08

@00100001

" we'd have no permission to use the info for marketing purposes (and will not do so). The relevant bits of our privacy policy are linked in the OP."

so why keep it for 7 years?

The policy says it's for accounting purposes - suspect this is to do with keeping an audit trail when we're purchasing and sending out shopping vouchers, but I'll see if we can get an answer from someone who knows for sure

MNHQ

AbbiCMumsnet · 24/07/2019 14:36

Thanks to everyone for their nominations, questions, and comments - you've given us a lot to think about here at MNHQ.
First things first though - our winners from the first week of nominations are @Minkies11, who nominated @awesmum "for digging deep and coming out the other side. Inspirational"
Congratulations to the both of you.
We’ve made a few changes following your suggestions and we’ve cleared up a bit of confusion too (not least here at MNHQ). With this in mind, we thought we'd start a spanking new nominations thread so that everything is nice and tidy. Fear not, all your nominations from this thread will still be included in this week’s draw.
Going forward, we'd like you all to keep nominating MNers on the new thread based on who you think deserves a treat, and we will continue to select a prize winner each week.

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread

Back to thread