Some people on here are ridiculously gullible

157 replies

SkipperTheEyeChild · Yesterday 08:57

Honestly, some of the stories posted on here are so far fetched it’s laughable, yet people lap them up and spend hours earnestly replying.
Do people genuinely not question anything they read? Some of the threads are so obviously made up, I can’t believe how many people fall for them.

AIBU?

OP posts:

VerityMarch · Today 05:36

Most replies are as far fetched as the post.
A lot of the advice is unhinged and not something people would actually do in real life.
Much of it is mumsnet only advice that you never hear or see in the real world.

SummerAsh · Today 06:27

3luckystars · Yesterday 09:05

What are people gaining from making things up though? They are just wasting time ? It’s a mystery to me.

They’re no more wasting time on MN than you are.

SummerAsh · Today 06:30

OP, I think you’re gullible for thinking that people necessarily believe the threads are true. MN is no more than interactive entertainment for many.

CleverlyBeery · Today 13:38

NiftyKoala · Today 03:31

There are posts just in the last week so outlandishly fake yet you report and you get an email saying that admin thinks it fine. But God forbid you say the tr@!! Word and instant ban.

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Tbf I don't need anyone to point out that a story could be fake - that's baked-in in my head with everything I read, and allowing it simply means all threads potentially get derailed with whether or not it's possible to have happened. So I agree with banning troll-hunting on threads.

TheBrambleDormouse · Today 15:08

Calliopespa · Yesterday 10:53

I think this is why troll hunting or doubting the veracity of the thread can get you deleted. It would be upsetting to have a predicament so awful people couldn't think it was real, for instance.

But sometimes you do see posters leaning in and fuelling what is obviously a made up thread and wonder why they are giving it fuel - though just as often I think what does it matter: if someone is so desperate for attention that they make up a thread, perhaps they really do need the attention!

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Yes, I had one of those. In fairness, I was posting on behalf of a friend, it wasn't my scenario but she had asked me to! It was deleted.

I was asking for advice about an encounter of sexual abuse. I had been on here for donkey's years at the time too.

FieldInWhichFucksAreGrownIsBarren · Today 15:10

I take everything on here with a pinch of salt and assume the majority is absolute horse shit.

latetothefisting · Today 15:23

Hmm I initially voted YABU, not because you're necessarily wrong but because I don't really see how it matters. Either way I'll never actually meet the DH with the sex beaker or the interfering MIL so does it actually matter if they're real or not? Nobody is forcing anyone else to respond.

But then thinking about it there are some people who do get sucked in, and, in extreme cases, send money etc. Also while 5-10 years ago talking about Russian influence and bots information farming etc would have got you funny looks, unfortunately it's no longer tin-hattery. One made up thread with a thinly-veiled implication regarding immigration or benefits or whatever is one thing, multiple repeated over months to an audience of 8 million, can influence people, subliminally or otherwise, particularly when a fair number of MN users are perhaps a bit more socially excluded/nervous then the general population.

The fact that so many people can't tell when posts are so obviously AI-assisted or completely generated is worrying as well.

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