Netmums, Britmums, Me and The Ban.

I've been debating whether or not to write this post since it happened.

To do so seemed churlish, to not to seemed like I had something to hide.

Having received a few tweets since then which asked 'What on earth did you do to get banned?' I decided that yes, I probably should...

So, without dramatising it all too much here's my side of the story.

I started blogging about 9 months ago and joined Britmums almost immediately. I found it friendly, interesting and a great source for stumbling across other blogs.

I've been working with Netmums for the past few months building a Bloggers Review Team - basically matching up bloggers with brands for product review purposes.

On the back of this Netmums decided that these (and other) great blogs needed a wider audience and so began developing the Netmums Parents Bloggers Network.

On Friday the Network was launched.

On Saturday I received an email from another blogger advising that there were some questions being posed over on Britmums regarding the Netmums Network and would I be able to answer them.

I popped over and responded to the question that I knew the answer of and said that I would find out about the rest.

I think it was Sunday morning that I went back and responded to another post on the same thread by one of the Britmums founders which referred to the fact that Netmums should have used a link rather than a pop up for the blogs (which in my opinion is completely wrong as it's the pop up functionality that is so brilliant about the Netmums Network).

Anyway little later, having found out the answers to the remaining two questions that had been posed, I went back to Britmums to supply the answers.

Only problem was that I couldn't, because I had been banned from using it. The related email referred the fact that I had been using Britmums for the purposes of a competitor - or words to that affect.

So that's the story. The only points I'd like to make are:

1. Britmum is a closed community for bloggers only. Netmums Parents Bloggers Network is for showcasing blogs to their audience of 4 million+ hits a month.

2. I was not there 'spying' or doing anything untoward - I had been requested to answer some of their members' questions and was trying to do so.

3. Whatever their fears were would it not have been a little more grown up to just discuss them with me first?

Anyway - what is done is done. Water under the bridge. Their site, their decision.

Finally can I just say thank you to anyone and everyone who sent me lovely emails, tweets, msgs and comments - I didn't respond to many on Twitter as I didn't really think it was the place to air any grievances. And to those that quit Britmums in my support - there was really no need but I appreciate the gesture!

The End.