To not understand the point of a troll?

[minesapintofwine]

Seriously theyre everywhere clogging up the boards SHOUTING RANDOM RUBBISH and generally being a pain in the ass. What do they gain from it though? Apart from looking like big losers. This is not a troll hunt by the way stay away from this thread nasties!

They are sad little people with way too much time on their hands. I don't mind the random ones that pop up. It's the ones that draw you in with some huge sob story that piss me off.

what manic said

I tell you what they gain from it and that's the attention from most of the board.

When it's painfully obvious an OP is a troll, the thread still moves faster than a drunk at closing time.

If everyone ignored then there would be no point in trolling.

Having said that, it's too temping not to answer sometimes isn't it?

Are you for real OP?

It's one thing to attention seek and lie in real life where you might actually get something from it (e.g. colleagues feeling sorry for you so helping you more than they normally would, or extra care and attention from friends and relatives)

But to lie or mislead a bunch of strangers on the internet is just weird.

Ha ha mardy nope Im a right old under the bridge pixie me! hope MN spots irony and deletion does not occur

baby exactly. I just dont see what they gain at all. Weird.

They gain attention, which is what they want. Do as Worral suggests and don't reply. Let their threads sink like a stone.

Unless they're really entertaining of course.

just because a person doesn't have much time to spend here doesn't mean s/he is a troll!

There's an article on this on bbc news, they are calling it munchausens by internet.

I feel sorry for them. There is obviously something very wrong with them. Very angry/unhappy and sometimes actually disturbed people. I try to imagine what real life is like for such a person and it won't be nice. Imagine being the sort of person who trawls the internet to be stupid or spiteful. I don't imagine they're particularly well liked in life.

Of course, the effect they can have on others is awful and the bulk of my sympathy is reserved for those people. But I do feel that if someone is such a pathetic little sad sack, they deserve pity.

The people tend to be nocturnal too.

Yup. Saddus Bastardus is a nocturnal species.

oh, meant to say, I think that that's because at night, when you're all alone, it hits you more that you're an unloved friendless twerp and you like to try to upset others to make yourself feel bettr.

I noticed the one that only posted in capitals. Subtle.

I read about that Munchausen by Internet or something. And those people obviously need help.

The ones that don't have a big sob story and just post cruel rubbish that I don't get!

I'm a bit green at this, without giving actual examples that may breach the guidelines, how do you spot a troll?

Have I missed something? What's happened?

late night nasty troll spouting shit, apparently. I woke up to lots of 'message deleted by mumsnet'

How do you spot a troll, bigjoe? Depends on the troll. The nasty ones who join up and start spamming the boards or being verbally abusive are easy, but the other types? the gimmee your cash ones, the sob story ones, the living out a terrible tragedy in real time ones - you can't always and you can't really start calling troll just in case they aren't, because it's just too hurtful if you're in a terrible situation and you just want some emotional support and what you get is faces and troll cries.

Was the one last night the same as the one called Loreen? Someone on another thread appeared to have made a connection

Yes-they posted in CAPITALS. HRH

Hecate, thanks.