To think that we only encourage trolls by replying to them, however angry their posts make us....

[MooMooFarm]

I don't know why but it seems to me that just lately there have been more and more posts trying to whip up an argument for no good reason.

Thinly veiled racist or in some other way bigotted comments, supposedly about personal experience.

So my point is, when it is so obvious that they are trolls, why does anybody bother to reply and argue with them? Surely if we all just ignored them they would bugger off somewhere else?

Can we try it - please? Because I'm getting a bit sick of MN becoming a bunfight.

i wonder about that too. often read first couple of lines and think, well that's clearly mad, so just ignore it.

First of all, how do you know, for sure, they are trolls or trolling??

Well I suppose you can't be sure, but if somebody in the street stood there with a megaphone spouting off remarks that made them sound like someone from the BNP, would you engage them in conversation or would you look right through them and keep walking?

I just think it would make MN a much nicer place if more of us did that 'virtually' as well as in RL.

I agree totally, also I don't understand why people even read the threads who's titles are guaranteed to enrage, never mind post and keep them high.

Why justify yourself to an idiot?

I mean the ones that say things like: you are a crap mother if you: struggle with your children/formula feed/put them in Nursery/ever want a night away from them, etc etc.

I see these thread titles and never even open them but am always amazed by the number of postings - WHY engage in debate with the clearly total idiot who started it?