Agreed upon signal that OP is a troll?

[SinclairSpectrum]

I have been here a while but still get caught out by troll / goudy fucker threads sometimes.
I end up feeling a right tit when the penny drops.
I realise that a thread can be reported and the MNHQ sleuths then get to work but can't we agree on a universal 'heads up' signal to post that suggests all may not be as it seems?

I feel I do. I am really, really annoyed about this -
If I hadn't happened to open this thread I wouldn't have known I was being accused of trolling.

I did need some help with what I was posting about but so many people were giving me a kicking it was difficult - doesn't make me a troll, though!

I didn't think you were a troll at all until someone mentioned it upthread.

balletgirl sounds like our own troll,dizzymare

Good, because I'm not. Presumably GirlInteruppted'reported the thread.

Nah, no pinch of salt required. The "sordid" one was so blatantly obvious a troll. There's about 5 things that indicate troll to me and if they crop up on the same thread then it's bingo.

I'm not super clever or a psychologist or someone adept at recognising writing styles.

There is another board, on which people sometimes start talking about spoons. Interesting things, spoons.

As you were.

can someone please define what it means to be a troll?

I got called a troll because I used the word 'chums' re DS's school friends

Someone said - what the fuck do you think this fucking is, the fucking Beano?

Cool - someone who lies in order to get attention, sympathy or cash or who posts nastily in order to deliberatly hurt, upset or anger people.

I think people often post about factual inaccuracies "Gosh OP, I thought all the AS exams finished last week" type stuff. That isn't troll hunting and there may be an answer, but it should ring alarm bells.

Likewise dramatic stories which evolve in a paced manner and a lack of emotional consistency.

Urban dictionary says...
"The art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue. Trolling does not mean just making rude remarks: Shouting swear words at someone doesn't count as trolling; it's just flaming, and isn't funny. Spam isn't trolling either; it pisses people off, but it's lame.

The most essential part of trolling is convincing your victim that either a) truly believe in what you are saying, no matter how outrageous, or b) give your victim malicious instructions, under the guise of help.
Trolling requires decieving; any trolling that doesn't involve decieving someone isn't trolling at all; it's just stupid. As such, your victim must not know that you are trolling; if he does, you are an unsuccesful troll.

Signs that your trolling is succesful:
*Your victim screaming in all-caps at you.
*Personal attacks (Calling you a retard, idiot, etc).
*Being an Internet Tough Guy.
*Making a crude remark, before quickly logging off before you can retort."

This might be ok, although I do love vind's cobblers.

The big thread from last week was pretty easy to identify as a troll thread, though.

I guessed from the title. I didn't even bother opening it until it filled up so quickly and I wanted to see what was going on. I'm I was amazed it hadn't dropped like a stone.

I think if we're talking about things to look out for, unlikely language has to be one of the things to look for.

The word "sordid" in a thread title looks far more like click bait than the language of a recently devastated woman who just read disgusting e-mails between her husband and his mistress.

Likewise dramatic stories which evolve in a paced manner and a lack of emotional consistency.

Definitely...drip feeding to keep people posting sets off my alarm bells.

greytartan You've just reminded me of something else I find entirely pointless, when a poster on another board says something like "I wasn't brave enough to post in AIBU" or some variation e.g. "I got a roasting in AIBU". Why all the angst? I'm not belittling what is a great online resource but sometimes people just need to get a grip.

I read your thread with interest and to be honest I do admit that some replies you got were a bit wtf, but I'd also like to think you didn't lose any sleep over it.

HoneyDragon :) But I STILL don't know if a thread looks like a troll, walks like one or sounds like one (need dense emoticon).

Thanks for that.

In that case, I reckon there are various levels of trolling

Green) Made up thread - Not particularly goady, but a half decent story, can be quite outrageous and somewhat amusing. I know that some of the longstanding members have done this in the past and it's seen as a laugh amongst us all.

Amber) A bit like the 'sordid' one. Opened up a few emotional wounds for some who chose to relay past experiences, lots of people invested time and thought.

Red) Those who lie and manipulate people into donating time/efforts/money over a period of time.

There's probably a fair few levels in between, but the word 'troll' carries really bad connotations and to be outed as a troll in this community would have you blackballed.

and of course, who gets to judge? who gets the final say on what or who a troll is.

If you don't notice it's a troll, then you don't notice. There is no definitive list of things a troll does or doesn't do. Somebody on another thread said if it's too well written it's a troll. No, if somebody writes well, they write well. Sometimes what they write is the truth, sometimes it's the plot of a novel.

And you can't really mock the people who said they knew afterwards. They're not allowed to say anything beforehand and it's a relief to say 'thank fuck it's deleted'. How else do you think MNHQ is alerted to the trollery? That sordid affair thread was reported almost immediately by quite a few of us and that's why it lasted very little time.

who gets the final say on what or who a troll is.

The people who run the board.

I don't agree with your classification at all.

Long standing posters starting threads that aren't true as a type of in-joke is not good for the community as a whole. If it were a board I was running, I would consider that trolling and might ban for it. And I barely ever ban people.

I also think it is really awful to take advantage of people's kindness and willingness to help others through a trauma they're barely recovered from by inventing a trauma you know other users have experienced.

Sorry Bathtime, I am in no way saying that any of what would be classed as trolling is good. Far from it. But in terms of the effect it has on me as a member of this community I think it has varying degrees.

Wouldn't a universal heads up signal kind of defeat the object?
Trolls aren't just first time posters, some of them have been on here for years, they get banned and just come back in a different form.
Just report like HQ ask if you have reservations.

There already is one; it's called the Internet.

I always thought "Welcome to Mumsnet, OP" was the signal.

Is that just people being friendly then?

the general rule of thumb is to never share what you can't afford to lose.

I absolutely hate the emotionally vampiric trolls who prey on people who have been through tough emotional experiences such as child bereavement/premature birth/relationship trauma. but ultimately when posters share their own personal situations it is their choice to do so.

And ultimately there isn't always a definitive way to establish if someone is a troll or not. I have reported threads in the past where mn hq have responded that they absolutely agree the thread looks dubious but because there is no evidence to point to them being anything other than genuine they have to give the benefit of the doubt.

Ultimately, if people didn't post on what they perceive to be suspicious threads then the trolls would gain much less satisfaction from starting them.

And I think it's also fair to say that there are some posters who stick with long ongoing threads because they themselves have been sucked into the drama of it all. It's almost like waiting for the next instalment so they can participate a bit more. "just checking in," is a phrase which makes me cringe inwardly because it just adds to the drama in many instances, and tbh I apply that one regardless of whether I think the thread is genuine. Some people treat threads on here like their own personal instalment of a soap opera, whether that thread is totally fictitious and their posting on it encourages it, or whether it is actually someone's real life being scrutinised by those waiting for the next episode.

I say things like 'wow, that's an amazing update'. It's not troll hunting well I t might be a bit because if it's a genuine update then it is amazing

A lot of the identifiable trolls have threads who's storylines rapidly move on and which become evermore shocking. I'm sure that must happen in real life but if I see a 0 to 60 style thread then I usually think bullshit.

I think there are a lot of threads that are not quite true but are not completely made up either - there was a wedding one that I think falls into this category a week or so ago. A OP starts off truthfully then gets sucked into the attention and zeal from all the responses. It must be impossible for MNHQ to know if a long term poster is being truthful.