in wondering if some mumsnetters have an alarm....

[zippadeedoodaa]

....that alerts them when a particular subject comes up on a thread. It seems inevitable that every SAHM v WOHM will have a visit from Xenia, threads on religion or sex will have posts from SGB and anything on dogs will pretty quickly get input from DogsBestFiend and there are others who seem to have the same uncanny knack.
How do they do it? Do they have some weird alarm?? or are they psychic??

Klaxon.

They can smell the tension in the threads.

They lurk... like most of us do. Pointless posting on something unless you have an opinion.

Or maybe there's an insider at MNHQ who alerts them

Inner klaxon, like Chaos. Tried a proper noisy one, damn neighbour complained.

My guess is that they open the thread, see what the topic is about and then choose to add a response (either to the OP or to a specific person).

Much in the same way that you got the knowledge they always post on those threads.

It just seems odd.....you hear nothing from these poster for days/weeks and then whoosh there they are

Dog threads are not hard to spot. They're either in the doghouse section, where we all like to hang around or they are in AIBU and are three million and 12 posts long, usually all the same posts by the same posters. But we do have fun winding those posters up occassionally

Zippadeedoodaa, I feel your name is deliberately courting controversy after the recent Disney threads.

I know millyR would you believe that we actually went to Dinseyland Paris and returned just in time for all the Disney threads. It's a sign.....I am the annointed of Mumsnet

There are indeed ones that attract me like a moth to a flame...

they jump out from active convos, usually, with a big sign saying 'Wankers over here! Come torment yourself with their existence!'

or summat

from the other POV of course it's 'come be a wanker'

It's because they have nothing better to do are very dedicated to the cause.

Or they work from home and are procrastinating.

Do you remember that guy DominiConor who always popped up on threads about catholic schools? I'm sure he once let slip that he'd set up a google alert.

OOh I remember dc

blast from the past there!

Katie no need tow rok from home to procrastinate: we had our annual inspection today and yesterday I was so desperate for things to do that were not cleaning that I parcelled up some home amde ham tied with leopardskin ribbon and sent it to the bloke who owns the campsite we use

Surely that gets an award for dedication to the cause?

Zippadee, yes, I saw the threads just after my parents had booked for us to go to Disneyland Paris. And I do keep singing Zippadeedoohdah to the kids in an over the top manner at unexpected moments to try and whip them up into a frenzy of excitement.

I was most disappointed to read that such excitement is sneered at on MN.

I always get that 'oh its them again' feeling when I see the same posters talking about the same thing. I'm sure I probably read loads of posts by the same posters never realising its them in random topics, but once you notice that someone always comes on a thread about a particular topic you almost look for them on it.

I must be a tricky sod though because I only ever notice people that have the polar opposite views from me and think 'god, its them again', I never see anyone who always has the same opinion on things as me though - probably no such person exists

It's the Peter Tatchell principle. There are certain public debates where it's only a matter of time before Peter Tatchell pops up, and it's the same on MN (only probably without Peter Tatchell himself).

A subset of MNers have axes to grind favourite topics, and will turn up to post on any thread that is related - however tangentially - to said favourite topic, absolutely without fail.

Talking of which, where is LeQueen? I'm sure there have been some absolutely failsafe LeQueen-bait topics recently, but not a sausage.

pus porn threads. the same dirty perverts folks always pop up on those. even when there's no mention of boils in the thread title!

They just know...

No...no alert thingy.
I am just on here all day every day

As regards the pus porn, I think the pusophiliacs all PM each other when someone mentions zits