In light of the recent NETY thread that was closed...

what does NETY mean and why do people expect everyone to know EVERY acronym out there?

Nurses Eat Their Young

It's a huge topic here, so I guess there is an assumption that it is widely known.

While I absolutely agree on principle, I have no doubt that there will be those who will insist that just because it's an old, hashed-out, wrung-out, beaten-to-death topic, that people still have "the right" to post about it.....yet again.

And then it will end the same way all the dozens and dozens of hashed-out, wrung-out, beaten-to-death threads about the same topic do: with giant FLAMES.

What an appropriate unofficial idea!

I don't think necessarily that people who post here are trolling; some come on here, don't browse, then post with a chip on their shoulder.

*shrugs* Some haven't ever found a professional message board and have NO idea how this one operates, or have no idea of netiquette, or heck, they bypass reading the TOS altogether.

Well, I just scrolled through 22 pages of topics and could not find a closed thread. Your post piqued my interest and I had to see what thread was so interesting that it was deemed worthy of being closed.

Page Two. You scrolled too quickly :)

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/nursing-eating-young-964891.html

Holy crap that thread turned into all kinds of ridiculousness after I stopped reading it.

Yet another one today.....

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/advice-965081.html

Wow, a metaNETY thread. Or is it a NETY metathread? This is interesting.

I am on a number of lists for volunteers and professionals in and out of nursing. One has a rule that I find particularly apropos to this discussion, which is that there are three topics that always generate more heat than light, and as a result we are firmly encouraged not to bring them up. It's in the FAQs you get when you sign up. People do anyway, of course, from time to time, mostly but not always new people.

The difference is that there are no anonymous posters and we have an overarching code of behavior we all signed up for when we jointed the organization. So generally a short note from the listowners/listmoms (all volunteers, BTW, in case anyone cares) to remind us is enough to get us back on track. It is very, very, very rare that a poster is put on moderated status, and rarer still that a poster is banned from the list entirely. Of course, there are only about 3000 members, not nearly 900,000.

This difference means, alas, that I don't think we could institute a similar rule here. There will, apparently, always be the naively aggrieved; there will always be the old bats trying to enlighten the newbies not to take it so personally because it's the behavior, not the person; there will always be the old-bats-in-waiting (though they don't know it yet) who are somewhere in the middle. We all feel we have something to offer in the way of perspective, plus the newbies want cuddling and support and calming. I don't know as it's possible to meet all those needs without some discussion back and forth. And it seems unlikely that unless AN institutes better word-recognition software that can pick up NETY and its related phrases as efficiently as it picks up vulgarities for human anatomy and behavior, there will be any way to banish the entire topic from a community of nurses this large.

So regretfully, though I weary of NETY discussions as much as anyone, I vote for leaving them until they get out of hand, and then turning them off. It's an opportunity to deliver a lesson that apparently still has utility.

It's sort of like teaching square knots to year after year of new 10- and 11-year-old Boy Scouts. A lot of people get tired of it and leave Scouting after 6-7 years (the average tenure of an adult volunteer in Scouting); some don't mind trying to teach new kids every year because, well, somebody has to do it because there will always be new kids who have to learn it, and teachers enjoy seeing the light dawn. Me? I've been in Scouting for 26 years. And still teaching ABGs and F&E. And NETY, what it is and what it is not (to coin a phrase).

Page Two. You scrolled too quickly :)

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/nursing-eating-young-964891.html

Wow. I originally though "no, they shouldn't be closed quickly." Then I read the nonsense in the first 2 pages that came from the OP in that thread and I decided to vote yes in the poll. It's a bit of an embarrassment to the profession that newer nurses cannot handle constructive criticism from experienced nurses without coming to an anonymous forum and yelling "NETY!!"