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Original poster

MNHQ: Please take another look at the posters who have been suspended

8 replies

BarrackerBarmer · 17/09/2018 13:10

Hi MNHQ

I'm asking you, please, to take another look at recent bannings and suspensions, in particular those which occurred on a webchat without warning or communication, and especially those which did not breach talk guidelines, and were served on posters without strikes, or not at strike limits.

We have seen the recently added 'rule 3' which pertains specifically to webchats. However I don't think posters are aware that this may result in an immediate and permanent ban, nor does the rule seem to imply that.

I don't know if you have a review process to ensure that all bannings and suspensions are sound, but I'm hoping you do.

I'm respectfully requesting, in the interests of fairness, trust and respect between the moderation team and the posters here, that you take another look and see if there are any decisions which can be reconsidered.

I'm not naming posters specifically, because I think it may be counterproductive.

I hope you'll consider this request to take another look.

Thanks.

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MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 15:04

Just to be clear folks - almost all of the suspensions were temporary, so most people will be able to post now. They were given to posters who repeatedly refused to follow a MNHQ request. We don't think that's unreasonable - it's hard to moderate if people really are unwilling to listen, and it's against our TGs.

One poster has chosen to dereg after we got in touch with them, and there were two permanent bans. We don't want to comment on individuals but the decision to remove someone's ability to post is really not taken lightly and is definitely not done on the basis of people's actions on one or two threads.

Our rules around civil debate are there to enable the kind of discussions which many other sites no longer allow. When people repeatedly say that they believe we are acting in bad faith or are being abusive, it's exhausting and pretty toxic for the people who work here. When it happens over and over again, it seems a bit pointless to continue that spiral and we'd rather call it a day.

Sorry - we know this isn't what you want to hear but we hope it explains where we're coming from a bit more clearly.

Thanks,
MNHQ

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 15:30

But a pattern seems to be that some posters arent being told they are banned or indeed why and that is very unfair im sure you'll agree

We think we've been in touch with everyone - if not, that's an error, and we're very sorry. If we've accidentally not mailed you please get in touch via [email protected] and we'll take a look.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 15:33

But have you told them this? Because I'm aware of more people than that who believe themselves to have been permanently banned.

Yes, the mails we sent were clear that the suspensions were temporary - but we asked people to get back in touch with us first to confirm they were happy to stick withing TGs.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 16:05

Are there any checks and balances to keep consistency of moderation by mods taking a second opinion on each others' decisions?

The mod team have systems for sense-checking one another on anything that isn't completely straightforward, yes, and it would be clear if anyone was out of step. Policy issues and more tricky threads are usually run past or moderated by senior team members.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 16:09

@BernardBlacksWineIcelolly

Same here. No contact from MNHQ until I prodded them a day later

I was just logged out with nothing to indicate why

It does sometimes take us a day or two to get in touch - usually because the thread in question will have pulled us away from other work which then becomes more pressing. And it would be a bit contrarian to prioritise users who've broken the rules...

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 16:12

I missed the whole Stella Creasey business and had never heard of Rule 3 before this thread. I could easily have got banned for something I didn't even know was prohibited.

It wouldn't have been easy to be suspended, prawn - you would have had to ignore lots of MNHQ posts saying 'please don't post any more comments on this issue'.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 16:23

And reviewing/reconsidering a suspension or ban? Review done by the original moderator of the decision, or a different mod to get a second opinion?

There will usually have been more than one person feeding into the decision to suspend in the first place, so we wouldn't automatically review these decisions. Generally, too, we acknowledge that mods decisions will vary a bit - it's not realistic to expect them not to on a topic like this which is very complex. We ask mods to look at things through the lens of 'civil debate', and clearly that's not something that's fixed and rigid.

It'll get referred up for a final decision if there's a lot of discussion about whether it was the right decision. If it's on a broader issue - ie not just an individual suspension - we discuss it amongst the team and we're happy to row back if we feel we've gone in the wrong direction. But as we've said previously, we've given our policies overall an enormous amount of thought now, and we've come up with a set of principles that we think will allow us to continue hosting the discussion, and which we're going to be sticking to for the foreseeable future.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 17/09/2018 16:43

@BeyondAnOmnishambles

But Kate, you'd only be ignoring if you were reading the thread. How often does someone pop up with a YABU 500 posts into a thread, when the OP acknowledged they were being a dick three days ago? Grin

Ah, this is very true Beyond - but in this case, that's not what was going on, honest. There were very few suspensions, and only for people who had clearly seen the requests but didn't want to do what was being asked.

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