Welcome to the second of our “Monday Misinformation” updates, where we will respond to any instances of misinformation, insinuation, blatant lies and “dirty tricks” (a new addition!) that are directed at our campaign from any source.

Today’s update focusses on our new Facebook group, the Reddit & Next Door social media platforms.

Next Door is an online community forum which you can find here: https://nextdoor.co.uk

Reddit is an online community you can find here: https://www.reddit.com/

Firstly, our new Facebook group for our supporters “No Exercising Dogs in Edinburgh Cemeteries”:

We made our new Facebook group “live” on Thursday evening.

Despite VERY clear Membership Questions and Membership Rules, we had our first counter petition troll try to gain access less than 12 hours later, on Friday lunchtime.

Question 2: Are you AGAINST cemeteries being used as dog exercise areas? If not, this is NOT the group for you. (Yes or No answer)

Question 3: Do you agree to abide by the group rules? (Yes or No answer)

Rule 1: Do not join under false pretences - This group is only for supporters of the "No Exercising Dogs in Edinburgh Cemeteries" campaign - if you do not agree with that premise, this is NOT the group for you.

A certain Mr S. Musgrove applied to join the group around Friday lunchtime.

Luckily, Paul’s “Spidey Senses” are so highly attuned that he immediately thought “this is a wrong ‘un” and alerted Andy.

It took Andy all of five seconds to confirm this. Mr Musgrove had left his Facebook profile wide open…and what was sitting as his most recent post?

A link to the counter petition, alongside a post from Mr Musgrove describing us and you, our supporters, as…well…let’s just say it was less than complimentary (screen shot taken for posterity).

Needless to say, we declined Mr Musgrove entry to our group.

“A dirty trick” indeed…ironically, a term the counter petition have levelled at us.

(To recap, we have asked the counter petition to provide one example of us using “dirty tricks”…nothing forthcoming yet)

What idiots like Mr Musgrove don’t realise is, every time they pull a stunt like this, it reflects badly on the counter petition and their supporters.

There is a pattern developing here amongst this minority of dog owners…and that pattern reeks of selfish entitlement, mixed with a healthy dose of lying and deceptive behaviour.

Reddit & Next Door:

This week, in a Reddit thread (screen shots taken) where Andy was promoting our Scottish Parliament petition, he noticed this comment from user “Red_Brummy”:

Red_Brummy: “I see OP is spamming this on Nextdoor (sic) and deleting the rival petition posts.”

Let us be 100% clear on this. This is a lie.

It is impossible to delete another authors post on Next Door.

You do not have to take our word for this. Next Door clearly states this on their Help pages:  

https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/How-to-delete-a-post-or-reply?language=en_US

We challenged the comment:

Andy: “Get your facts right. We share information on our two petitions regularly on Next Door…we have not “deleted the rival petition posts” - we blocked & muted them for consistently writing misinformation and lies”

Red_Brummy: “Thanks Andrew. We have signed the counter petition because you raised it”.

Andy: No problem. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But again, please get your facts right - users on Next Door cannot "delete" other users posts. Every single post that the counter petition has put up on Next Door is still there, for everyone to read...we just can’t see them, because we blocked & muted the person in question due to their behaviour.

Red_Brummy: “That is not what other users of Next Door are claiming Andrew. Get your facts right.”

Andy: Then they are lying - it is impossible for me to delete a comment on Next Door by another author. That is a fact. (We included a screenshot from Next door’s own Help pages with this reply, clearly showing you can only delete a comment or post if YOU are the author).

This is typical of the sort of misinformation and lies we are constantly up against.

Let us be crystal clear on this – we have NEVER deleted any posts or locked any threads from commenting, relating to our petition or the counter petition on any platform - not Facebook, not Reddit, not Next Door, and not here on our Change petition.

The only petition to delete any comments is the counter petition (they did this on their own petition, admitted by themselves).

The only petition to lock a thread from further comment is the counter petition (they did this on one of their Next Door threads)

Speaking of the counter petition...

In the spirit of thanking people - we'd also like to thank the other petition for giving a day's update for publicity to us - Misinformation Monday!  Whilst we are hurt by some of their comments, fevour (sic) and interpretations of what we have written we're getting used to it and as the sayings go "there is no such thing as bad publicity" and "all publicity is good publicity". Indeed, we often see a little upturn in signers after such posts or discussions on nextdoor (sic).

That’s the thing about truth. Sometimes it hurts.

Interesting re “all publicity is good publicity”. Let’s test that claim, shall we?

Luckily, we keep a daily record of the number of signatures on each petition:

We posted our first “Misinformation Monday” post on Monday 4th March. Let’s look at the figures for both petitions from that day, for the following four days. We are (obviously) the larger number:

04/03/2024       1103     517  (THE DAY WE POSTED)       

05/03/2024       1112     520        

06/03/2024       1130     523        

07/03/2024       1137     523        

08/03/2024       1157     526        

So, for the next four days we got 54 new signatures…and the counter petition got 9.

Well, they are quite correct…that is a “little” upturn…very little.

It would seem there is such a thing as "bad publicity" after all...

See you next Monday,

Paul & Andy