Should feminist petitions stay in Feminist Chat?

[wigglybluelines]

Another petition has been shuffled off Feminist Chat to languish in the tumbleweed of the Petitions board.

I can totally understand that petitions in AIBU or _Chat could be annoying, and if they were allowed MN might get overrun with petitions.

But AIBU to think feminism is different as it is by definition an activist part of the site? Feminism isn't just chat, it's about doing stuff also.

Would you like to see feminist petitions stay in FWR? (i.e. on this board) instead of being hidden away on the Petitions board?

Do any regular users of the feminist boards actually object to feminist petitions being here?

I think MN should make an exception to the petitions rule for petitions on the feminist boards. What do you think?

Just chipping in to say that it would be helpful to have petitions, about women's rights issues, on this board. With so many women being banned from Facebook and Twitter [cough cough, we're still banned], it can be hard to spread the word about causes that we want to support and amplify

Or any petition n shouid be anywhere. No special treatment

It's not about special treatment. It's about recognising not all the boards have the same culture or needs (such is life!)

If petitions were welcome in AIBU or chat (so, on any topic) I can well imagine they might get inundated with all sorts of spam and it'd get in the way of engaging with AIBU / Chat.

But in FWR, we love a good feminist petition. Forcing some false idea of fairness on very different boards means one group will miss out.

Equity over equality.

It can't be that hard to get into the habit of checking topics which interest you, can it?

This is the opposite of good design.

The way people use the web is generally very lazy. As much as you might like to put the responsibility on the individual for going and checking in Petitions, people simply won't do it. People will forget / not get the memo in the first place / get distracted before getting there / not be bothered etc etc

The reality is that putting petitions in another section is as good as hiding it. Effective design works with the reality of human behaviour, rather than trying to change it - and on the web that means sticking important content under your users noses, not hiding it away out of sight.

I personally dont understand why feminism is split into different threads.

Me neither. I can't remember what the rationale was for breaking up (and renaming) the original FWR. Maybe some users then thought it was a good idea and asked for it? If any are around now I'd be curious to know the reasons and whether it achieved what was intended.

Agree it would be helpful to have feminist petitions on this board.

I agree, it would be great to keep all feminist petitions in this section. That way we can get as many signatures as possible. I didn't even know a petitions board existed and would not want to go there every day to check for new petitions.

Thanks to all that managed to sigh the petition

I think that relevant petitions should be allowed in relevant boards, but I agree with not allowing crowdfunders.

The only boards petitions shouldn't be allowed on are chat and AIBU, and obviously talk guidelines would apply.

Maybe we should start a petition...

Or how about an AIBU thread with voting buttons?
I think ItsAllGoingToBeFine has the salient points, it shouldn't be special dispensation for FWR.

^I think that relevant petitions should be allowed in relevant boards, but I agree with not allowing crowdfunders.

The only boards petitions shouldn't be allowed on are chat and AIBU, and obviously talk guidelines would apply.^

it shouldn't be special dispensation for FWR

Why not? It depends on what other boards want. It seems clear the majority here want petitions, which makes sense as this board is all about activism.

But we can't assume other boards would want the same. They might, but we don't know that.

Maybe we should start a petition...

Tempting to post one here and see how long it lasts

how about an AIBU thread with voting buttons?

I wish we could do a post with voting buttons here, just got this.

The problem with AIBU is It's full of contrarian posters who just want an argument. I worry they'd skew the vote by disagreeing for the hell of it!

*just for this (not got).

Stupid phone!

I’d be happy to see feminism related petitions here too. Until this thread, I didn’t know there was a petitions board.

Maybe this thread (or a similar one) could be bumped when a new petition is put up, assuming policy doesn’t change....

Just noticed that this is right at the tail of the front page of FWR, so thought I'd bump.

Tally is 676, so we're rolling along quite well.

Yes I would like to see feminist petitions on FWR.

Petitions here: YES

Do I object to petitions here: NO

Another one who had no idea there was a "Petitions Board".

Obviously, only relevant Petitions. If something is not relevant to Feminism/Women's Rights (the URL is actually "womens_rights") then someone is sure to report it.

Posting a Petition often leads to discussion about the issue - which can be helpful if someone is unsure about whether or not to sign. Those discussions are not going to take place if the Petition is shunted off to what sounds like a Zombie Zone going by previous comments.

A Petition can be relevant to an existing discussion. It makes no sense at all to make a new post on the Petitions Board and then link to it in the Discussion here, assuming that in itself is even allowed. So, also allow linking to Petitions that are relevant to an existing discussion.

If people spam links to Petitions, they will get reported.

What other Boards want is up to regular posters and Mumsnet. I don't see how what we might want to happen here conflicts in any way with practice on other Boards.

I didn't know there were Rules about Petitions - I have read the Rules but I don't remember seeing anything about Petitions. If there is something in the Rules, I had forgotten all about it

Tally is 946! Very nearly the first thousand.

I started a thread in Site Stuff.

I quoted you, MoleSmokes :)

Site stuff thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3645184-MNHQ-please-can-feminist-petitions-stay-in-the-feminism-section

wigglybluelines "I quoted you, MoleSmokes"

How can we get the petition about lobby groups seen by more people? It's got about 1000 signatures so far but I feel it could get loads more if it was seen by the majority of regular people who don't buy into the daft ideology and who are now concerned about it after the notorious Canadian person and the weightlifter etc.

Not RTFT but I agree feminist petitions should remain in feminist chat.

"How can we get the petition about lobby groups seen by more people?"

Circulate it amongst your friends, and on campaigning sites where it is permitted.

MN is a chat site, and MNHQ were quick and firm with their answer on the Site Issues thread. There's no prospect of a change in policy, or one topic being treated differently from others on this.

Here is what LilyMumsnet said in the thread on Site Stuff that wigglybluelines posted, which is more open-ended and constructive than AuntieStella's summary:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3645184-MNHQ-please-can-feminist-petitions-stay-in-the-feminism-section?msgid=88747701

Hi folks,

We do understand where you're coming from with this - lots of other boards want similar with regards to being able to post petitions.^

The issue is, all petitions are important and worthy to the poster/topic. We have a separate section because if we didn't, the main boards would be overrun.

Unfortunately if were to allow FWR to post petitions, albeit, relevant and topical ones, we'd have to do the same elsewhere and there are many boards where we've concerns users wouldn't know when to stop.

We have no plans to change things at the moment but as ever, we'll bear this in mind (and we could give some thought to promoting the petitions topic).

I replied repeating the suggestion that someone else made in this thread . . . it was Jellylegsni

thank you for replying so promptly.

There was an alternative suggestion on FWR, which was to create a thread specifically to advertise Petitions posted on the Mumsnet Petitions Board. Would Mumsnet have any problems with FWR doing that?

Petitions do not crop up often at all on FWR but when they do they are on far from trivial matters.

No reply to that as yet from Mumsnet.