to not really understand the whole troll thing?

[ihatecbeebies]

I'm fairly new and have heard the phrase 'troll' used a few times but am quite clueless.....do they just start threads to cause arguments, I don't really understand the whole point of it?

They are twits who are incredibly bored and enjoy winding people up.

Quite easy to spot (and ignore) after a while.

Yes,they either start threads designed to cause arguements or it can be a bit more sinister,someone coined the term "emotional vampirism" which I quite like,for instance someone starts a traumatic thread and turns out to be a troll (I idiotically got sucked in offering advice/my experiences on a bereavement thread recently).Some can be quite funny and harmless but others can be quite upsetting and cruel.

They are usually a bit inadequete and pathetic. However on a forum like this were everyone is up for a fight and the same issues are argued over and over it's a beacon for trolls - incredibly easy to get attention and reactions.

It might be a little more interesting if they were actually original. It seems they only have a few select topics that they use

I recently read an article about a woman who was desperate for attention so joined a forum and pretended she had died and then created a pretend account as her 'daughter' to read everyones upset comments....I'm guessing it's pretty much the same idea?

Never a week goes by without MN having a troll thread.

I believe there are psychologists researching the patterns and behaviours of trolling. Be an interesting read, issues are apparent and obvious.

Its a forum thing ,they all have them

Are you sure you hate cbeebies? You could be indeed be a troll?
I would enter into a fierce debate about that channel. It keeps me sane!

was einsteins thread pulled??

yes it was pulled , I'm sure he will pop up again ..hes like an annoying fly

hahaha yeah I definitely hate it, I used to go to bed and have all the songs stuck in my head driving me round the bend! Luckily my son is kind of growing out of it but is now obsessed with dvd's....well just one dinosaur one in particular that if he had his way would be played over and over and over and over again!

not seen sweetgilly back again...she was amusing!

I had read einsteins thread about council houses and thought it was hilarious that someone was actually daft enough to think like that, glad it wasn't real though and was deleted as I can see how it would upset people.

I'm sure there must be regulars/members who also start threads knowing that they will cause offense or start an argument....

Such as the "I can't understand why other mothers wouldn't do...such and such like I do.." type of threads.

Maryz - that is horrible, at first I thought they just started arguments but that is really dark, especially if there are a few of them who would agree with each other to seem more believable to people.

I'm apparently a concern troll.

Decided against starting a thread asking what the fuck a concern troll is!

a guide to trolls

OP, when I first joined MN (about 18 months ago) there was a lot of anger and sadness here about a poster who had posted a long-running and emotionally draining story about her awful situation. I had never belonged to an internet forum before, or heard of the word 'troll' in that context, and I found the whole situation completely bewildering. I found it so weird that I did actually post 'Why would someone do that?' - and got much the same sort of response that you have found here.

Since then, I have seen a few posts from people that I have thought a little, errm, strange. I have ignored those threads, but I have never reported any, just because I think that other people's lives can sometimes be strange (= different from my own life). And, as others will say, even if those strange-sounding posts have come from people who are indeed trolls - discussion of their so-called problems might easily help out people who have the same sort of problem but are too shy to actually post.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying - don't take everything here at face value! But do pitch in and offer advice and/or words of comfort if you can. That advice/those comforting words will help somebody, even if you are not sure who they are.

Oh - and don't forget that there are fun threads here as well! It's not all doom and gloom/life and death, etc.