Dear MNHQ:

[PerfectPretender]

It's become perfectly clear now that pointing out safeguarding failures over recent years has not been unreasonable, or mean-spirited, or unkind, but actually completely reasonable and expected of educational guidelines and safeguarding procedures.

It's time for you to accept that our concerns were, shall we say, valid.

And every single time you deleted one of us for pointing out these blindingly obvious safeguarding failures? Wrong side of history. You.

You owe a lot of women an apology.

You’ve not been perfect but you have been better than anyone

Apt for Mums Net.

You’ve not been perfect but you have been better than anyone
Great quote

I’m grateful to MNHQ for hosting the discussion. And more grateful to everyone whose efforts have led to the two pieces of good news this week. I’m also crossing my fingers that Ann Sinnott’s judicial review will lead us further into the light.

But I also have to agree with PP. Posters have been banned for discussing topics politely and truthfully. Often fighting heavy artillery from bad faith posters.

We must be able to discuss the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s rights, it’s time to release the prisoners of this war.

@Al1Langdownthecleghole

I’m grateful to MNHQ for hosting the discussion. And more grateful to everyone whose efforts have led to the two pieces of good news this week. I’m also crossing my fingers that Ann Sinnott’s judicial review will lead us further into the light.

But I also have to agree with PP. Posters have been banned for discussing topics politely and truthfully. Often fighting heavy artillery from bad faith posters.

We must be able to discuss the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s rights, it’s time to release the prisoners of this war.

Bad faith posters are allowed to goad women here, spout anti-feminist arguments and spread outright lies, without being subject to the same heavy-handed moderation FWR regulars are.

I'd call out the one mod who most often lets bad faith actors stand while punishing women, but that would be a ban, I'm sure.

I think that given what Liz Truss said today in the House of Commons about biology and the Equality Act, she's expecting Ann Sinnott to win.

And in a joyful dialectic for once, what Truss says strengthens Sinnott's case.

Here you go Errol. Another MNer mentioned it in another thread, so I’m appropriating work (again).

I think the biscuits on the cover are a nice touch.

mobile.twitter.com/SarahPedersen2/status/1307983471680380933

At the end of the day, they could have done better. They didn't have to create oblique and shifting guidelines and ban women while refusing to tell them why. Mumsnet has profited from the massive increase in traffic to this board that has trickled out elsewhere and an increase in notoriety and public awareness of its existence. All off the backs of women providing content for free. Sorry, but the obsequiousness is a bit sick making.

@Kazakaren

I think *@mnhq* were treading a difficult line here, with overwhelming pressure and harrassment from all sorts of aggressive activist groups to remove their advertising, remove them off their platform etc. Despite the theats and unprecedented abuse, despite all of this, they kept the conversation going for women. One of the very few platforms thàt did. And I am grateful to *@mnhq* for that

Agreed.

Thanks Emma. (They look like shortbreads not the iconic jammy dodgers.)

I too would like a "Radicalised by Mumsnet" mug please.
Thanks to @mnhq for allowing the threads and posts to stand, but also for the sheer genius of allowing repeated posts on other boards about the horrible transphobic women of FWR.
I came over to look out of sheer curiosity and am now a member of the Resisters.
Cheers!

I would like a mug. Does @MNHQ do merchandise?

It has indeed been quite a day. No two bit poster on here is going to bring that down.

mug for me too

I am deeply grateful to @MNHQ - what they've enabled women to do and discuss, whilst towing a difficult line with people trying to silence and shut them down has been an incredible feminist action. FWR is an invaluable resource - long may it live!

I'm a reddit refugee from the Gender Critical site (which I found accidentally while questioning why Rachel McKinnon was allowed to compete against biological women and why US news media wasn't accurately calling out McKinnon's well-documented misogyny). When reddit shut GC down (I was never a reddit user, just for that subreddit), I found MN and FELL IN LOVE with it.

MN also pushed me to stay smart, using civil discourse and not give in to the human urge to pile on in a hot mess of rage.

However, we also lost a lot of very good threads. I'm cool when you shut down individuals who crossed the line. But I'm saddened by all the lost threads from some of the world's smartest feminists. Losing women's voices is both a tragedy and a tradition.

Losing women's voices is both a tragedy and a tradition.

That's an awesome saying. This is why I keep returning to MN.

@Littlefiendsusan...oh I hear you..I too have woke teen girls...who have learned to debate as strongly as their momma. I think moderating woke teen girls is likely on par w/ @MNHQ moderating trolls on FWR

‘Hosting the conversation’ is all well and good, but we are now missing input from women who had particular knowledge and expertise around safeguarding, and the analytical skill to bring this knowledge to bear in relation to implications of men being allowed to be treated as if they were women.

As great as conversations can be here now, they are hampered, both by being heavily monitored and policed, and by no longer benefitting from the banned posters’ input.

Another one very grateful to MNHQ.

Very hard to resist the pressure to ban and censor.

We have been given a space to talk. Now the pushback has started, it will get easier. But that pushback might not have happened if MNHQ had not had the wisdom to see which lot was going to be on "the right side of history."

I find it exasperating and inconsistent. Yes, it’s great that there is this forum to discuss, and threads can be about many things. Then all of a sudden we can’t discuss some things. Terms and words become banned out of the blue. Then we can discuss some people and their tweets. We can express our personal opinions on some people. But if one of those people has a mantrum about their publicly available tweets being discussed here and doesn’t like what we are saying about him, and falsely accuses us of homophobia the thread is deleted. Then we can discuss themes in the tweets if we keep it general, and Justine personally defends our right to do so on Twitter (genuine thanks Justine). It’s like a bloody yo-yo, up and down, and isn’t helped by the fact FWR gets special scrutiny from moaning men and allies on Twitter and FWR has special rules that can change without notice. And threads deleted because of a professional derail by someone with clear intent to do so remains a problem.

I do agree with mollscroll about advertising. It’s something I’ve never understood. Look at the reaction to JK Rowling, 65,000 books sold. That’s a market that is here waiting. Who cares if the woke complain? Look what happened with the GMB.

I get that it’s hard, and moderation must consider the hassle of empty threats of legal proceedings etc, but I think a bit more consistency would be good and it could start with people moaning on Twitter about here to be consistently told to fuck off .

Another one de-lurking to say I'd like the mug. Without this board, there are petitions & letters I've signed that I wouldn't have known about (or understood).

Not perfect, but it's done a lot of good.

I'm grateful for this space, whilst I've never thought that TWAW biologically, I was happy to accept them as such because...be kind. This board and all the informed people providing links has really opened my eyes and I'm grateful for that. I suspect MNHQ have been learning alongside us and are treading a fine line. I doubt they have the financial security of JK to be able to say fuck you to the woke world.

Not:

Radicalised by Mumsnet

Radicalised by Mumsnetters.

We are not allowed on Trending don’t forget. You can be sure threads on the BAME MN topic about black women’s experience of racism won’t be banned from Trending.

What is it about our topic that differentiates us ? It’s because it’s about some of the words we are not allowed to say on a parenting site.

I think 'The Radicalised by Mumsnet' mug is available on Wild Womyn Workshop. I'm another that wandered in from other threads to see what all this transphobia was.

There was a concerted campaign to try and close down Mumsnet by targeting their advertisers. The site didn't have to stand behind the fwr board. So thanks MNHQ but yes, is it time to relook at moderation decisions for some banned posters.