Hi all,
We can see there are a few different concerns being discussed here, so we wanted to come back on a few things.
First off, we do understand that having a post deleted can feel unsettling, especially if you’ve been here a long time, you’re posting in good faith, and you don’t immediately know why. To be clear, we don’t want to ban genuine posters. If someone is having posts deleted and we think there’s a real risk their account may end up being suspended, we will contact them well before that point wherever we can. A deletion is not meant to be a mysterious thing that silently moves someone closer to the door without explanation. We appreciate the point made on this thread that the wording of some deletion mails can feel alarming, and we’re going to look again at how we approach that as we don't want to put the frighteners on anyone!
On reports, a post isn’t removed simply because it’s been reported. We’ll remove something if we think it breaks our Talk guidelines, not because one side of a debate has managed to press the report button more often than another.
With regards to brigading - we know that word gets used a lot, especially on heated threads. Sometimes there are posters arriving with an agenda, and we do keep an eye on patterns of behaviour. But often what’s being described as brigading is simply people with a different view posting on the same thread. Mumsnet isn’t an echo chamber and we do allow a wide range of views across the site, including views that other posters may strongly disagree with. The basic principle is that robust debate is fine, personal attacks and posts that make the discussion impossible are not.
We’re always happy to explain a moderation decision. If your post has been deleted and you don’t understand why, please do mail us at [email protected]. Sometimes we’ll stand by the deletion. Sometimes we’ll look again and decide we got it wrong.
We know people won’t always agree with every call we make, but our aim is not to shut down discussion. It’s to keep Mumsnet a place where difficult subjects can still be discussed without threads becoming a free-for-all.
Thanks again to everyone who has shared their views.