if you suspected a poster of being a troll based on....

[omgnotsureaboutthis]

a detail you have read in a past thread which then makes you kind of doubt that they are telling the whole truth, or at least omitting something which might change the opinions of posters on a thread which has turned into a big bunfight, causing a lot of ill feeling between posters, would you report it to mnhq?

I have worried over this all evening after doing some delving. I know there have been professional shit stirrers which MN has identified in the past and banned. But I would hate to accuse someone and be wrong. I dare not raise this directly with the poster in question.

I will read responses in the morning, my head is too confused and tired to stay up any later!

If in doubt, report to MN. They'll be able to make a judgement call and the person you're unsure about won't ever know that you said anything. & MNHQ won't judge you! :)

Or you could just tell me & I could see what I think?

PM me and I'll tell you what I think :)

If you don't want to do that then tell MNHQ. From what I can tell they really try to sort things out without leaping to conclusions.

You follow the clearly stated MNHQ guideline.

You report the post which aroused your concern, and give the reasons.

You do not go troll hunting on the thread.

Well, I guess you keep in mind that sometimes people change details in order to preserve their anonymity, and that these may change from post to post depending on the reliability of their memory .

Then also take into account that omitting details or embellishing the truth to present yourself in a positive light is fairly common. I guess we all do it ocassionally and it does not a troll make.

If, after considering the above, you still believe the poster is trolling, then report to MN. Do NOT challenge on the thread. Have you seen what happened on poor michelleseashell's thread recently? Horrid.

report to mn or neutrally say to poster on the thread in question that you are confused because they said x, y, z on a previous thread and are now saying a, b, c which seems to contradict that and could they please clear up your confusion.

Report it, maybe someone else has too or maybe not maybe they are a known troll who has set up a new ac maybe not.

Having seen the fallout from some if them I will and report my concerns.

Thanks so much for all the replies. Thank god I slept on it because after doing lots of re-reading of the worrying posts (some of which are on past threads), I've realised that the particular detail of the post which bothered me was ambiguous and I could possibly have read it wrong. I was not the only person who read it wrong either, there was one other person who read it as I did and queried it with the person concerned (who didn't respond).

I have no idea whether you're still following this - am only just still following it myself. But anyway, I am glad and relieved to say that I think I was wrong and so haven't reported the situation.

It's always good to get opinions if you're not sure :)

Tread carefully or report, going in with all guns blazing is not always sensible.

Lots of peopel vary details on here to preserve anonymity and so it is not always a malicious issue.

You can always PM me your concerns though

OP, I regularly feel this about Big Stories from Regular Posters. There are some people on Mn that I cannot believe are held in such high regard, because they do lie, a bit, just a little, and most importantly if you poke them a bit to get them to explain themselves, they ignore you.

Though also some people change little details to stay pretty anonymous, so it might be that.