MNHQ want money from us

[JellySlice]

Perhaps now is the time to tell MNHQ what we want from them.

eg
Relaxation of the anti-women censorship rules.
Reinstating banned respected posters like LangCleg.

They have put a post up on the site info topic which gives on that although not their name. It also covers security. All they are asking for is an email to set up an account.

I think a disenchanted ex mums netter set it up - I could be wrong

I don’t gather they want an FWR-equivalent board there (which is quite understandable!!) otherwise I would sign up pronto

moles I agree MN’s expenditure and staffing is a matter for them.. and I’m not qualified to critique in any case. But to spend GBP 350,000 per month on staff... and it does not cover moderation around the clock, seems a bit odd to me. End derail /

I’ve wondered about this too. I’d like to go and clean my mum’s flat - maybe just the bathroom and put the Hoover round. Just to make things look a bit brighter - not because she lives in squalor. But I’ve come to the conclusion I can’t really. Unless as you say, something urgent comes up that needs doing.

Totally wrong thread ! Sorry

I think a disenchanted ex mums netter set it up - I could be wrong

And, not making any judgements here, these smaller offshoot forums tend to descend into cliques and arguing pretty quickly!

I've been in enough inter-forum flamewars in my time 😂

I gather 1000 mumsnetters have already signed up there I don’t really care that much about being able to edit or quote but might still try it out

I am not bothered about the edit/emoji function either but I like that it is free, considerate of data security and you can name biological sex.

It just feels a bit off to be plugging an alternative to Mumsnet on Mumsnet.

Where does it state that you can name biological sex?

Here. Admin's comment on Friday 6.33pm (10/04/2020): "Yes I think that's fine to state facts and call people by their biological sex"

Firstly, can anyone give me a brief explanation of the banning of Lang as I either wasn't on here when it happened or missed it completely
?
Secondly, I won't pay to lie about the sex of men. I won't pay to call men 'she' or 'her'.

And I won't pay to be banned from posting if I do tell the truth about men who pretend to be women.

Empress Potentially yes but Justine's thread asking for money was a bit off in the midst of a global pandemic when it must be mostly her wages that have until now formed the majority of the wage bill and when a lot of us are struggling.

Mner2000 - "Did you see that there has been a new site set up with an edit function (if that is important) and admin the site info section says you can use people’s sex to identify them?"

Edit function - IMHO big mistake unless severely time-limited.

"You can used people'e sex to identify them" . . . on the internet???

For future reference, attaching photos so that anyone who wishes to may identify my sex

I hope it works out OK for them, genuinely.

A quick look at that other site shows way too many threads just bitching about MN to be of much interest at the moment - how tedious.

And I wonder how well they’ll cope once they’re balancing increased site activity, legal threats, DDOS attacks and all the rest of the bullshit MN have to deal with.

(Not that I’m saying MN is perfect and no one should go anywhere else, just acknowledging MN have to put up with a lot).

(Anyone else wondering if MN have any sort of claim on the general look & feel of the website, plus the recognised AIBU “brand”?)

Reddit allows factual sexing, so it can be done..My impression is that FWR is considered a loss leader, and more trouble than it’s worth. So they would not be distraught to lose specifically FWR posters

My impression is that FWR is considered a loss leader, and more trouble than it’s worth

Really? Where do you get that impression from?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3302495-This-is-how-traffic-to-the-feminism-board-has-increased

From Justine’s recent comments on her Site Stuff thread... to the effect that any revenues generated via FWR are lower than the extra moderating costs, legal costs and loss of advertisers ... that FWR (unlike other boards) does not make enough $ to cover the cost of running it

If it’s a loss leader then it is earning its way.

to the effect that any revenues generated via FWR are lower than the extra moderating costs

It was MNHQ’s choice to spend so much time and money telling women that they can’t sex people properly, because they were annoyed by the TRAs. I can understand deleting downright abusive or personal comments, but telling women that they have to ignore material reality or they’ll get banned, is what has pushed the costs up. This isn’t the fault of the women on FWR, this is entirely Mumsnet’s choice. Each time they are told by the TRAs that something is offensive, we’re not permitted to use it and then the TRAs make up another ‘rule’, which MNHQ passes into us and the push against women and reality continues. Their choice.

This isn’t the fault of the women on FWR, this is entirely Mumsnet’s choice.

Do you think that the majority of women who post on MN agree with this? I know many who continue to post on other areas of the site despite the "orthodoxy" of this board, and it really wouldn't take much of a pitch in the direction of a less moderated FWR board to make them and more importantly the revenue-generating advertisers to abandon it.

It was not MNHQ's choice. It was the only option if they were to avoid losing a significant percentage of the total revenue across the whole site.

In the end, it didn't work and they did lose that percentage. Hence the lack of resilience going into coronavirus.

You really are determined to see MN as the aggressor rather than a victim of the same circumstances we all find ourselves in. It must be absolutely galling for MNHQ to read right now.

Mner2000 - I completely misunderstood what you meant by "you can use people’s sex to identify them" !!

2BthatUnnoticed - there may be some confusion over marketing terminology going on here with different people having different understandings.

A "loss leader" would be, for example, a Supermarket selling cans of baked beans for 3p (ie. at below cost-price), in order to draw in customers in to shop and gambling that they will stay and buy other products - which will be over-priced to cover the loss on sales of baked beans.

If FWR really is a "loss leader" for Mumsnet then it is something worth subsiding, maybe because it draws users to the site then they stay and bump up the ad revenue on other Boards. Or maybe as a reputational "gold star" for providing a "community service"?

If it neither pays its own way, nor acts as a "loss leader" nor adds any "extra value" in reputational terms (with either Premium members or advertisers) then it is going to be a liability when a Business is forced to look hard at the Bottom Line to make savings.

Mumsnet Alternatives

It would be shame if the new site is just a grumble-fest about Mumsnet - they might as well have shunted over to "Mumsnet Exiles" aka "Mumsnet Trollhunters". mumsnettrollhunters.proboards.com

I don’t think it will stay grumbly for long. The request for payment for premium membership was only a short while ago...understandable people are talking about it. It will die down soon enough especially as more people start posting and creating new threads.

I thought the lack of resilience stemmed from having a large loan to repay, then corona struck.

Is it actually due to FWR, and if so why didn’t Justine say so on that 1000 post thread?

(vitreous are you the former moderator from another thread or am I getting confused?)

Personally, I am very grateful to MN for this space, and for all their hard work. In fact, I still have my GBP100 on the table if they end up accepting donations as an alternative to subs. Many on this board have offered to donate.

What makes you think HQ would read this.. Surely they only read posts that are reported to them.