Has MN changed - more and more trolls?

[BringontheSunAgain]

I've been on MN for around 15 years. I used to see it as supportive and some parts of it still are.

However, I think MNHQ are not on top of trolls and I also wonder if they allow 'Trending' (but fake) threads to continue as (being cynical) it brings more traffic/clicks to support their advertisers.

I've reported thread that look fake (and many posters were saying the same on them) but it's rare for action to be taken.

I admit I shouldn't be so invested but there were threads asking for 'help' with family type dramas and health, and I got sucked in trying to be supportive.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/reddit-ai-persuasion-experiment-ethics/682676/

Here's a recent scandal where researchers from the University of Zurich used mass-scale AI bots on Reddit to observe if they could change people's opinions. Reddit and MN are extremely similar so I absolutely believe that something similar could be going on here. Especially considering that MN has better defined demographic with mostly female users from the UK.

Interestingly, one of the topics that the AI experiment explored was opinions on listed dogs, pitbulls and their owners. There was huge uptick on MN last year on listed dog threads with very similar, slightly controversial titles, clearly designed to provoke debate.

MN have no incentive to stop threads because they generate traffic and ad revenue. And to be honest, this sort of thing has been going on for decades. Back when people used to read magazines and newspapers, virtually all the "Agony Aunt" questions and "Embarassing Stories" were all made up by the editorial team. I used to do the Q&A section for a magazine and was explicitly told to come up with questions that could be genuinely useful for readers and then just answer them.

I do find it irritating that calling out a thread for being potentially fake (troll hunting) is an automatically ban-able offense. They should at least let the comment stand instead of forcing people to do it via the report button which, as you mentioned, usually doesn't result in anything. Statistically, MN obviously has trolls and AI postings so there is a 100% chance that some threads are not real. But experienced users who are adept at spotting patterns are essentially forbidden to mention this to other users who are essentially being duped into sharing very personal stories or advice to a troll/bot.

I was on a thread the other day where the OP asked AI to write a good opening post for Mumsnet and they were good! They really hit the mark. I didn’t used to care if they were real or troll but now now they are just so many of them and people are frothing at the mouth.

I’m finding the same with all my social media though. Most of the stuff doesn’t exist.

That film doesn’t exist, that sports result doesn’t exist. I watched a true crime video on facebook yesterday- didn’t happen. Itbwas made up.

@User867463 I know about the 'agony aunt' Q&As as I have friends who used to write those too.

However, what I've picked up lately, simply by joining in one trending thread, was that there are clearly a lot of posters , sadly, with some kind of MH issues, who create 'Eastenders' type drama over their lives but if you look at their other posts it can't have possibly happened.

I think all it's taught me is to spend less time on MN as a lot of threads are complete fiction.

Occasionally I will report one of the myriad threads I believe to be fake. I use the "not a genuine poster" option on the report button. MN acknowledge the report - but then nothing.

They are clever, these bots. They always seem to know the issues that will get the site frothing! But long threads with lots of clicks and posts are valuable to MN so ... they stay. It's sad and off-putting.

Yeah, but it's not always bots, it's often sad people who concoct a load of nonsense about their lives for attention.

I agree that we should be able to call posters out on their threads because at the moment the balance is too far the other way 'genuine' unless MNHQ say otherwise and they rarely do.

I think often if mumsnet don’t definitly know it’s a troll, they’ll leave it up, even when it’s obvious that it’s fake, because such threads give them a lot of traffic. I presume they have weighed up the amount of posters they attract, compared to those it puts off posting, and have come to the conclusion that leaving the threads up is worth it.

Don’t get too invested in anything online.

You need to find somewhere to discuss troll threads OP. There are places. 😉

Really? Where is that?

Absolutely. This place is riddled with clickbait and falsity. I sure as heck don't trust anything on the rest of the Mumsnet site as over here in the Talk area they are either incapable or don't care about what nonsense is poured down the throats of their users. I'm using Talk less and less. I'm tempted to leave entirely and have my data deleted but I've saved a bunch of useful and/or funny threads from before this place went to the dogs.

I don’t think it’s allowed to be mentioned on here, I know any reference to it has been deleted previously. I can PM you if you want.

I am very much of opinion MN knows and maybe even behond all the fake posts.
Inconsistent deletions, ignoring popular thread by the windup AImerchant etc but deleting another as PBP.
It was the same "to think" poster! So either it is pbp or it is not.

It's not even trolling imho. It's either Reddit 2.0 issue or engagement tool.

Ah, automatically hidden because I mentioned the Reddit sub! Interesting!

Certainly the number of journalists ( lor wanna bes) which probably amounts to the same difference.

I'm far less bothered by the fake thread kind of trolling than the posters who are nasty for the sake of it. Yes, MN has always had posters with a very "direct" manner but the unpleasantness is a feature of almost every thread now.

MNHQ do auto-hide certain terms, I think, like c*to currency related ones

There are plenty of posters who write things like “interesting, this seems to contradict with your prior thread” or similar, or give a general “remember you don’t know who anyone is on the internet” kind of warning. Those aren’t often deleted, IME.

Omg I totally misread😂 i wondered

I forgot that if I put three asterisks in a row it would just bold one asterisk!

The reason I asked was I was on trending thread and out of curiosity looked the OP up for their other threads and posts (as the trending post was hard to believe.)

Their other posts were also hard to believe and many posters were querying what the OP was saying (and very openly saying she was a t...l.)
The posts still stand and I used the Report button- 'being looked into'.

I know the site is really 'entertainment' but it does promote itself as place for parents to get help .

If anyone is still reading this thread who doesn't understand how a fake thread might look (trolls/fake it's all the same to me) there is a thread in Trending right now which was started less than 2 hours ago, already has 300+ replies, has the word "drama" in the thread title and was started by a poster who has only been around 2 days. The OP is very long - this is also a bit of a giveaway for what I suspect to be AI posts just now.

And the number of ‘well populated’ themes in threads, that are started and the OP never returns.

There have been some recently where I've been tempted to comment that the quality of paid staff to set threads away has dipped significantly ( to about age 13, in some cases). 🤔