hide poster option

Who have you hidden then Mrs DV?

And are you coming to the Christmas do or what?

yes but if a particular poster regularly posts offensive posts then people will eventually hide said poster, so the people who would ordinarily report wouldn't see the offensive posts to report them.

I don't think that last point is right, wannaBe. People report offensive posts because it's wrong to allow them to stand, not because they are personally offended. It's like picking litter up from the street or removing racist graffiti.

also more offensive posts would be left to stand because instead of reporting users would just hide them.

it relates because A, the trolls would hide those who challenged them, B, many of the trolls' supporters (and these dangerous trolls do have many supporters) would hide the outers thus meaning that it would be less likely to be believed if doubts were expressed over posters' authenticity.

as for wanting to ignore certain posters it really is easy, don't read their posts...

Oh, yeah, I thought it would help because of teh proliferation of trolls.

But that's only a side issue. I would like it anyway because I think it would IMPROVE the culture here.

I could really do with this now, MNHQ.
I'm feeling a bit stalked and goaded and if I could ignore that I'd be far happier...

I've kind of lost track now of how that relates to a Hide Poster function.

Nope. A troll. She may be ill, but still a troll and bloody dangerous.

I agree with your stance on trolls, fwiw, I wouldn't hide a dizzymare type. I don't post onthread anymore apart from a "wow, v dramatic, maybe seek proper help" and report, report, report until mnhq are sick of me and hide me I would keep them open to gather "evidence" that's how they are caught.

The abusive/stirry trolls are different. Report then hide. That way I wouldn't get dragged into a row with credulous fools and/or the troll.

Surely that's someone who's mentally ill, not a troll?

dizzymare joined just before announcing she'd discovered she was unexpectedly pregnant even though she and her partner had recently split. Lots of to-ing and fro-ing as to whether she should keep the baby, lots of support given. then she discovered it was twins, again, lots of support, then complications in pregnancy and lots of late night posts etc. Meanwhile she had befriended several posters, all of whom had, quite coincidentally lost a twin either shortly after birth or at some point, and others who had lost babies. Then she was rushed into hospital with bleeding and texted a mn'er to tell her this, which was then announced on here, twins were born early and died, and then she was back posting on mn as soon as she was out of hospital. lots of disjointed posts at the height of the drama, lots of things that didn't add up and inconsistencies in postings, etc etc. Eventually someone had the balls to speak out and say that they didn't think she was what she claimed and she was subsequently banned.

Subsequent to that she joined bereavement sites, posted suicide threats on fb (where she had a picture of her dead babies), and at some point down the line someone from another site challenged her on the fact that the pictures of her babies had actually been lifted from the internet and she admitted she'd made the whole thing up.

And the problem with these types of trolls is that they are almost never banned until someone speaks out against them. People had been reporting dizzymare for weekks and mn were powerless to do anything about it.

What did dizzymare do? Is she now banned?

I know some people do agree with your second para, wannaBe. But if that has become policy, Talk Guidelines and T&C should be changed so people know what's going on.

well, I think tbh it depends on the kinds of troll we're talking about.

I think the clearly wind up trolls should just be reported and ignored, but the damaging trolls, the dizzymares of this world should be called on their troll-worthyness publicallly - and yes, I realise this is against policy, however truth be told it's actually almost impossible to verify that a troll is a troll, and usually by the time mn hq have acted (if they even do act) the damage has already been done and vulnerable posters have been sucked in.

Another downside to a hide poster option is that trolls will just hide the posts of those who disagree with them, and possibly even encourage other supportive posters to do the same thus making it easier to troll on the basis of "if you don't like what I have to say, you can just ignore me"