Take pity on a granny of very little brain

If what jess suggests is true, then I suggest to HQ that when they delete a thread because it is deemed "bad for business", they just say so.

On the other hand, it hardly matters what they say since their comments are deleted too

I'd still prefer up front straightforwardness though.

Please.

Coming over with you, kitty!

Anyone who works for commercial radio or TV knows that the advertisers pay their salaries. That's why they get spectacularly sacked if they say or do something to damage the advertising revenue.

We don't get paid, we're just a captive audience for advertisements (not that I look at them much.)

If some of the comments we post are deemed 'bad for business' that's because we've been around the block a bit and don't intend spending our old age retirement biting our tongues.

I realise there are quidelines and have always tried to observe them but sometimes some things just have to be said.

Why should antagonistic posts from us be any worse for business than the ones on Mumsnet? I don't get it.

The posts which were antagonistic to the product, on the page that the advertiser had sponsored, could have been bad for business. Would you advertise on a site where your wonderful product was soundly trashed, and the target market clearly does not want it?

I think some of the Mumsnet posters are very antagonistic towards each other !

Are they antagonistic toward the paying advertisers?

I am not sure I like the idea of sponsored threads, but if they pay the rent . . .

Own Goal for the advertisers then, Elegran. Their marketing department made an error.

Captive audience merlot? I see no handcuffs. As with any internet site you can choose to look away from advertisements. Just as you can when travelling on a train or reading a newspaper.
I am astonished at the number of people who are regular users but who are so lacking in support for and sensitivity towards the team that run the site. It would seem to me that courtesy and self interest would require that we do not act as saboteurs. There is nothing to stop them closing it down if they become discouraged. Which would be a pity. Or start charging for membership.
If we were grateful users of a free local bus service that was subsidised by a sponsor I doubt whether any of us would be so insensitive as to publicly criticise the sponsor, criticise and challenge the drivers when they uphold the rules for passengers and write all over the sponsor's bus stop adverts with lipstick.

Charging for membership wouldn't be such a bad thing, surely? Not a huge amount, obviously, but it might deter some of the troll-types. On the other hand it might make members more demanding...(we demand more emoticons for our money, etc...)

What would be the going rate for emoticons, I wonder?

The reason given was not that the thread broke the rules, jess, just that the thread was circular and was making Lara dizzy. It just doesn't sound like a good reason so naturally people ask questions. This has nothing to do with not supporting the team or lacking in sensitivity towards its members. So far as I can tell "the team" is doing a good job but it's not unreasonable for forum members ask to be spoken to as adults rather than feel they have been rapped over the knuckles for they know not what.

Until now I've pretty much always understood and accepted the reasons for thread deletions and wondered what all the subsequent fuss was about. Now I don't understand.

Bluebell

I am not in a hissy fit but I just wondered what your post of 21/10/13 at 07.35 means? What is 'abd' as in POGS abd Aka.

I think it's a typo for 'and', pogs. I wondered too at first.

gracesmum the thread was pretty unpleasant re one member/ex member.
If someone leaves then so be it. Discussing the manner of their going is not helpful to anyone is it? Least of all GNHQ if they have had to make a difficult "disciplinary" decision. I feel sorry for GNHQ staff having the bones of their decisions picked over - there is always someone on call but sometimes they have to make tricky decisions on their own I would guess. As in many other roles where tricky decisions have to be made in work, nobody gets it right every time but whether we agree or not, a bit of support from the back row wouldn't go amiss.
Those of us who have been teachers have experienced this "oh miss that wasn't fair " syndrome from class members, or those of us who have done the difficult job of sitting on disciplinary panels will have hoped that colleagues will not debate or challenge our decisions after they have been made.

I don't agree about the hoping you mention in the last bit, jess. I expect decisions to be talked over at least. That's quite different from them being challenged outright.

GNHQ made it quite clear on that thread that J08 had not been suspended. It was her decision to leave, not GNHQ's.

And we're not at school.

Correct, Ana. The decision that is being talked about here is the decision to delete the thread.

I simply took it to be a typo- abd for and - too ealisy done

So it is, Bags. My brain has been scrambled...

Simply asking for an explanation JessM - others seemed to know more about it than I.

'abd'

Good then it doesn't stand for 'abridged' or 'abbreviated'.

Both would have seemed stupid as it went from 4 letters to 3 but you never know with some nit-picking, stupid posts that are in evident at times.

This post is inevitably heading the way of the deleted thread.

Those who found the original thread and the OP not to their 'liking' inferred they thought both the member and the thread a waste of time and didn't give a toss about either.

The IRONY was they kept the thread going instead of 'letting it go'.

If you don't find a thread worth your while don't prolong it ! To some of us we found more than one issue was raised in the deleted thread and were happy to post, and more to the point listen to 'reasoned' reply.

De ja vu