To be annoyed to learn a certain thread was not genuine.

[Canthisonebeused]

So the sports day thread where the child was victimised for being slow and adopted has been pulled and seems not to be genuine. Why would someone do that?

Can anyone remember the thread where the op was adopting her dead husband's sister's son who was half Polish? Her current husband was a gp and opposed to the adoption and her sister? had been bullying the little boy. It absolutely my heart thinking about what that poor little boy had been and was going through and although I'm glad it was a troll, I feel sad that somebody would make something up that's so horrible. o take everything with a pinch of salt these days and try not to get too emotionally involved.

I was on another forum, when one of the moderators posted a troll!

The girl (I call her girl as it turned out she was a school girl!) posted when "pregnant" had a birth announcement, went along to post birth meets but never turned up with the baby. Invited them all round to hers and although there were photo's of her with the "baby" the baby once again wasn't present, took part in gift exchanges.

Then something happened that meant 3 of them who'd met her twigged and when they turned up at her home unannounced, her mother answered and couldn't believe their story as their daughter was only about 15 but looked older.

I was totally stunned as it went on for over 18 months.

I've spotted another live one in AIBU. sigh.

I want to know about the garlic up the bum. Should be safe to google it?

I wouldn't Lady

A sort of "Troll Pen" is quite an interesting idea. I wonder if the people who responded sincerely would like it, though? And might it make sincere posters targets later?
On the plus side, it would serve as a good reference library for troll themes, memes, and styles - so pretty useful in some ways.

I think there are quite a few of these in Relationships. They start off believable (ex partner being useless with contact with the kids etc) then go on to become more and more unlikely.

I suspect an awful lot of people are called trolls when they are not.

it has happened to someone I know, who was very hurt and distressed.

Someone taking over your thread and saying "you are saying XYZ and I'm going to report you" doesn't mean you are saying XYZ, but your thread then is automatically interpreted as XYZ, even though that came from another poster or posters, not you. Some people get all fired up about the "prejudice" they see on a thread, ignoring the fact that the "prejudice" has only started with their own perception and interpretation. That has happened to me.

I expect the same happens to a lot of people who are called trolls. they are believed to be trolls because they are called trolls. It doesn't mean they were, or that the people who called them that were right, just that they have managed to get their accusations to stick, and go off congratulating themselves on their troll hunting ability.

The problem with a Troll Pen is it would become a kind of Hall of Fame, something to aspire to.

I name-changed for some advice and was called a troll.

It's not nice, to be honest.

And it was a fairly bland thing I was posting about - I only name-changed because I know that friends - who knew about the issue I was posting about - would quite possibly link me with my posting name, and I didn't want that. I like to be able to post with a bit of anonymity.

I really do recognise the scenario described by Luggage.

A "popular and well-known poster" came onto my innocuous little thread and just pissed all over it - for lols, I guess, and I think other people assumed that she "knew" something they didn't..

I had a lot of p.m.s sympathising and offering advice off-board.

It's amazing how much I still loathe that poster, though.

So, in short, I tend not to troll-hunt myself. If I'm suspicious, I contact mnHQ.

This is not directed at the OP, but at anyone who lets trolling bother them.

I think it's overdramatic to be "annoyed" by a troll. None of us should be emotionally involved enough in a thread that we get annoyed by trolling.

As Mumsnet says, only give as much as you're prepared to lose.

If you show sympathy, support and care towards someone, that just reflects well on you and badly on the troll. You can at least sleep at night knowing that you and many others respond in a human, caring way to people purportedly in need.

So you think it wastes your time if you focus on the troll thread and not on those genuinely in need? Then just be aware that it is an occasional problem on Mumsnet and make a decision to not "commit" all your emotional capacity to one thread. It really isn't that hard!

Oh I absolutely agree hedgehead I only use MN intermittently anyway tbh. I have posted an awful lot this past week. Hmm I do really need to get to work very very soon.

I don't think I invest any emotion in MN, it's annoying probably because I already know that I should be doing something more interesting and constructive instead but some times a thread grabs my attention and then yes it is annoying to find out it's not real. But I would say annoying is a fairly mild expression tbh.

Life was much simpler when we were able to 'Lola' on a thread - saved me a lot of time that i would have otherwise wasted reading rubbish threads. Was a sad day when those posts started getting deleted.

What's Lola?

Lola was the w e e t r o l l

And I don't mean small

Can't, people often wouldn't out and out accuse someone of being a troll, but they might instead post the comment 'her name was Lola...'. If another poster agreed they'd follow on with the next line, and so on until half the posts were quoting from the song.

It only really got stamped on quite recently.

Don't know the wee troll and I must of missed all the Lola..ing.

There was a famous "oh I didnt know I was pregnant just gave birth " troll thread poster on here a while back. The post came complete with pics. Went on for ages with donations and everything.

That was guff.

That wasn't the poster who was a student and gave birth without even knowing she was pg was it? She posted photos of herself when she had been unknowingly 7 months pg - typical student photos showing her clubbing etc.

Apologies if that was a genuine story. It certainly came with a lot of details.