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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

To be confused as to why people make this stuff up?

98 replies

TheEagle · 06/01/2015 12:02

So I've followed a few threads in the premature birth section and both have been zapped for the OPs being "not what they seem"/"less than genuine".

Why do people manufacture such elaborate lies?

Does it get easier to pick out trolls as you read more threads? Confused

OP posts:
HowCanIMissYouIfYouWontGoAway · 06/01/2015 12:57

not always.

There are quite a few that leap out at you once you've been round a bit. There are a few that keep coming back and back and back and you just start to recognise their style.

There are some that just don't read 'right' and you can't put your finger on it but it turns out you were correct Grin

There are some that suck you right in.

People lie online for all sorts of different reasons. Attention, amusement, malice...

People have done studies and written books about it!

here

LadyLuck10 · 06/01/2015 13:05

Yanbu it really makes you question the credibility of this site.

RandomNPC · 06/01/2015 13:08

For the life of me, I really can't get my head around trolling. What's the point?
Fucking inadequates.

lyspaere · 06/01/2015 13:11

Combination of low self-esteem and the temporary inflation that the ego gets from the drama or reaction caused by putting a story that provokes high emotion on the internet. Creating that drama, being the 'power' behind it inflates an ego temporarily which is a feeling that can become addictive to posters with a very low self-esteem. I know of somebody who does this repeatedly and I feel very bad for her. Her life is not one I'd envy and she has been quite self-destructive. Where she could make a decision to do something difficult that would eventually improve her life, she always picks what's easiest right this second and her life is never sorted out.

MagratsHair · 06/01/2015 13:17

MN have trolls that return & return again under various guises & once you have been here too many a few years you get a trolldar that makes you read maybe half of the OP before closing the thread.

Even then you sometimes get taken in but I look at it this way, if the post isn't in aibu & if someone is asking for help then I'd rather post & look like a twat if they are a troll than ignore someone in need because I wrongly thought they were a troll.

The only time it bothers me is when the subject gets a bit too close to home or if I think I can give meaningful & helpful advice & actually help somebody, then to find out its all lies pisses me off.

Trolls ime either entertain, so they write funny threads in order to amuse people (like the I ate the hamster one) or they try to garner peoples' sympathy & attention for malicious reasons or to fuck people off or to make them feel like shit.

If someone on MN makes you feel like shit for longer than a nanosecond then you probably spend to much time on here or are too emotionally invested in the thread & need to close it down :)

DeWee · 06/01/2015 13:25

I can sort of understand trolling if it's just to wind people up or see how they react. I don't understand the emotional vampire ones. I think they're cruel and pretty unforgivable. Sad

I think there could be a certain challenge in creating an online persona totally different and seeing how long you could keep it up without being challenged or making major inconsistances. I haven't tried this btw. Grin

I've got a fairly strong troll-ometre though. I've often read through them and felt uneasy before they're zapped. I also don't take things on face value. If an OP says how dreadful someone is to them, my first train of thought is what has led up to that, and also how would the other person put it

I also don't believe any drip feeding that changes the situation. You know, the ones that go:
"AIBU to stay at home and cuddle my pweshious lil darling rather than go to work because I don't really want to go out. I've told them I'm sick."
Responses x 100 "YABU"
"Well I really am not feeling too good, I've got a cold."
Responses x 100 "YABU"
"I am posting this from intensive care with full on pneumonia, so wasn't I right not to go in?"
Responses x 100 "Oh you poor thing...."

Sorry, but if you really were feeling that bad then you wouldn't have said in your OP just you "didn't want to go out" you'd have put "I'm feeling really ill".

Original poster
TheEagle · 06/01/2015 13:26

I suppose I was a bit Shock at the second thread being zapped because the OP had offered me (very kind) advice on another thread!

I need to a) spend less time thinking about these things and b) hone my troll-dar Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
TheEagle · 06/01/2015 13:28

And yy DeWee, I don't like the emotional vampire ones whereas the obviously silly, windup ones are just amusing.

OP posts:
HowCanIMissYouIfYouWontGoAway · 06/01/2015 13:32

h yes. The drip feed.
aibu to go NC with my mil because she brought me biscuits.
yabu
they had razor blades in them and last time she baked me something she'd filled it with razorwire you bunch of bitches last time I come here for support I'm sobbing now, it's true what everyone says about mumsnet you sad hags I feel sorry for your kids, moderators please delete this thread...

Some people just cannot stand a different opinion. They don't post because they want opinions. They expect and demand validation. And they'll post any old shite to get it.

SpottedTent · 06/01/2015 13:33

Which threads were they? I must've missed them and I spend a bit of time lurking on the prem board.

WannaBe · 06/01/2015 13:43

which thread?

Tbh I am of the view that the majority of threads in certain sections are fake at worse or embellished at best. And I no longer thing it's about mh issues or having a laugh, to most trolls it's just like writing a novel IMO.

MrsCurrent · 06/01/2015 13:47

I'm getting to the point I cba opening half of them cos they're either having a laugh or just talking shit.

lyspaere · 06/01/2015 13:51

I don't know what thread you're all talking about but I think with drip feed, it's a reluctance to share information that could positively and definitely identify. Some times posters are hounded for information such as 'what line of work is he in OP?' 'Does he work in the City?', "is he foreign?". "hang on, did you say a dd of 7 or a a ds of 7".

Posters might as well put their screen name as Anna Johnson, 32 Acacia Avenue, Shrewsburyness.

NancyPurple · 06/01/2015 13:52

I know of one girl who trolls on here. She lived with my family for a while and scammed us out of money with stories of her children who didn't exist.

Sometimes people are just sick.

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut · 06/01/2015 13:53

It's attention seeking that's all.

They are inadequates and it's easier to be an attention-seeking inadequate from behind a screen then in real life.

Number3cometome · 06/01/2015 13:54

I was following the story of a lady on the pregnancy boards who went in to labour at 18 weeks. It was heart warming to read that she had infact been kept out of labour until 26 weeks, and then baby delivered safely. There was even a picture of the baby in SCBU.
Turns out she was lying, and apparently the picture wasn't even of her 26 week birth baby.

I was shocked and horrified someone could keep up such a lie for so long.

WannaBe · 06/01/2015 13:55

I read on a thread somewhere recently that someone had apparently committed suicide and someone close to them had come online to inform people and my immediate reaction was Hmm afaik someone echoed my thoughts on that thread but everyone else was posting about how Sad it was so I didn't say anything.

The thing is that people are so invested that even if the majority are suspicious there will always be a minority who will keep threads going and thus continue to feed troll posters.

Annbag · 06/01/2015 13:57

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at the poster's request.

Number3cometome · 06/01/2015 13:59

Annbag it was actually in the pregnancy thread, posted as a 'help me I think I'm in early labour' story.

Had hundreds of comments and now lots of angry ladies.

Shadow1986 · 06/01/2015 14:03

Well I had someone make up this stuff in RL. Pretended to be pregnant and lose the babies (twins). I can imagine she is the kind of person to post on a forum like this making stuff up. She did have a history of baby loss which I think it comes from. I think that people that make up stuff obviously have some troubles in their life so although it's easy to just say they are sick, we need to remember that they probably have some underlying issues there, which is actually quite sad.

Annbag · 06/01/2015 14:08

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at the poster's request.

Number3cometome · 06/01/2015 14:11

Absolutely. I've not been on the prem threads before so wasn't aware of this person. I totally believed the thread too, until it was pulled by Mumsnet and then another thread was started on why it was pulled and Mumsnet confirmed they believed the information was infact false.

Very very sad.

Gudgyx · 06/01/2015 14:11

I know that story Number3, followed it right from the beginning. She had a lot of support on that thread too, couldnt believe when I found out it was fake

Annbag · 06/01/2015 14:14

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at the poster's request.

YoullLikeItNotaLot · 06/01/2015 14:15

Having seen a prolific troll in action/uncovered, there are 5 things which set off my trolldar. I won't list them, but as soon as 2 of them appear together I think "here we go".