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?

if you know your posters, and there are pretty much NONE of the 'regulars' posting on it after the first page, its normally a good sign most of us/them think its dodgy and are avoiding like the plague.

or of course, you could just post one of these! lmao.

There were a couple last year, the politician one which I glanced at but I loved the gold-plated-nanny one. Not sure if it was a troll but I really enjoyed it! The one last week about the slut who wanted to shag in the OPs wedding dress was fucking evil as many people were pouring their own hearts out.

I think it's unreasonable to dismiss the "I knew all along" crowd as wise after the event. Clearly the thread was deleted because a bunch of people did spot it was a troll and did report instead of posting. You can't troll hunt before it's deleted apart from a cryptic "Gosh that's completely unbelievable OP!" It's hard to resist a bit of a gloat after the event after biting your tongue for so long.

And then there are the people who 'gloat' even though the thread hasn't been deleted and it wasn't a troll bitter

Doesn't anyone remember the original signal.
Hi op it's great you're posting on mn but just to remind you There aRe Other Life Lines out there
Hun x

I recently nearly posted for advice about a situation close to me. In the end I decided it sounded too incredible so I asked my quiche on FB instead.

Boy was I glad a day or two later when it escalated with suspected appendicitis and a dash to A&E. It would have absolutely reeked of trolling and touched on several hot topics that would have upset people.

So when people post incredible things I think back to my weird week and think "weird stuff does happen". And ultimately a troll thread is only as unreal as any other from this distance.

That said, I got uncharacteristically shouty on the prodigy/cancer/surgeon/birthday thread that got deleted. I'm not even sure what pushed my buttons so badly. It was such an obvious untruth, probably. Could try harder.

greytartan why the ?

I was on your thread on Fri- it's still up- if mn thought you were a troll, it would have pffffted

Discussing spoons could get v.confusing as some people with chronic illness / CFS use the spoon analogy to measure how depleted they are.

spinning mushrooms, cloud soup, Ford Camembertina, sunburnt coccyx

Am I the only one planning to use this to prove my credentials next time I name-change?

It's hard to resist a bit of a gloat after the event after biting your tongue for so long.

Perhaps that's the thing - if I think I spot a troll post, I just report and ignore the thread, it wouldn't occur to me to 'gloat' about spotting it to those who didn't as though taking someone at face value is something to be ashamed of. One of the reasons that trolling is so disruptive to forums is because it makes genuine posters feel taken advantage of, so pointing out to them that you knew when they didn't isn't necessarily helpful or constructive as you are only likely to be gloating to those who were fooled in the first instance.

It's not necessarily gloating though I'm sure it happens occasionally. It's like a debrief. People need to talk after a troll has been revealed. Heavens, in the past when massive troll deletion has happened, there have been thousands upon thousands of posts dissecting it. That's why you get threads like this and the one yesterday where the op was still struggling with the last big troll deletion. I know the last thing I feel is smug about the whole thing. I feel a bit sad, irritated, relieved and it's nice to be able to acknowledge that it's been dealt with.

So from now on if I see
welcome to MN, unbelievable post OP, don't forget about other life lines, hugs hun, I'm off to look for my slotted spoon
I will nod sagely and hide the trolly thread.
I feel like Yoda now

None of those mean it's a troll though SS. They probably mean that someone thinks it's a troll but they can still be very wrong, as greytartan will attest. I was on a thread the other day that rang no bells whatsoever for me but someone barged in and did some flagrantly tarnish trollhunting. It's at most perhaps a flag for you to have a more sceptical think about the Op's story.

I know, but GirlInteruppted was moaning about me trolling on here, and I wasn't!

Ooh I quite enjoyed the recent thread of the woman shagging the upstairs plumber after dropping her shreddies all over his garden. There are some highly amusing writers in mn and I loved it. Even if it did turn out to be Hans christian andersen it was great

But trollers who prey on people with false terrible tales are nasty. What makes a person do that? I mean there are enough true life dramas without making them up.

Pft.

I've been here for a few years and I have been sucked it so times. I never learn. Alarm bells never ring. I just can't believe people could be bothered to make up some of this shit. I always end up felling like an idiot when the floods of posters emerge after the fact to say how obvious it had been.

So yes please, a bat signal would be great. We don't have to tell anyone, just keep it between us

I understand why there can't be a 'signal' but what are the signs to look out for for a suspect thread? I just can't spot them and I've been on here for several years now.

1. Read the whole thread. Not just the OP and their own follow up posts, but ALL the comments. There will be people asking for clarification and therefore pointing out discrepencies in a non-trollhunting way. True, some of those questions will be from people who can't interpret odd phrasing or grammer, and havent bothered to RTFT to find existing clarifications, but some of the questions will be real Red Flags.

A. You may eventually note user names whose questions seem perceptive to you. You can private message them to ask their opinion. B. You may also discover there are people who intensely dislike others, and seem to follow them around specifically to harass them. Annoying.

1. Assume trolling. Even on subjects that it would seem pointless to troll, like on the pet owner boards. Or cruel, like on relationships. Because trolls are like that.

1. If you are feeling it very strongly, give it a while before commenting. Go do something else. Check back and see if the current discussion seems on track. Not always a clue, that oneover the weekend moved fast and began a second thread.

Last year I actively avoided seeking help on mumsnet because I knew the situation I was in couldn't be described in a way that wouldn't have loads of people picking apart my OP and calling troll. The situation started off horrible but simple, but evolved rapidly and got very complicated.

Seeing a story involving domestic abuse, rape, serial cheating, threesomes, drugs, drink driving, credit card fraud, drug debt, colleagues, ex girlfriends, prostitutes, and a new mother to a few-weeks-old baby with nowhere safe to go would most certainly have gotten a lot of posters either reporting me or posting fake and overt sympathy in order to give others the heads up.

The reason so many of the more dramatic threads nowadays are started by trolls is because so many genuine posters have been put off posting because of troll hunting. The balance has shifted precisely because of these signals and phrases that people use to make sure they can call bullshit whenever they please, potentially crapping all over someone in genuine need of a sounding board.

There are some that are obvious but some which are just suspicious IMO.

1. threads that are posted in the heat of a drama, especially when it's a first time poster. And by heat of the drama I mean while the drama is actually happening: "I just had a fight with my boyfriend, I'm 23 weeks pregnant and I'm lying on the floor with agonising stomach cramps, meanwhile my boyfriend is standing outside the front door with a crowbar just waiting to beat it down. please hold my hand. Oh, I'm a regular btw, pom bears, nace ham, penis beaker..."

1. threads which run into two/three/four posts rapidly with gradually increasing drama while the op conducts themselves in a totally undignified manner, and where, as a rule, the op doesn't contribute to any other threads but their own even when being encouraged to do so by other well-meaning posters.

1. Where op's writing style changes according to the level of drama. so, eloquant and then lapses into incoherence to illustrate their distress. so e.g. dizzymare was generally fairly well-written, until she "lost" her twins, and then she was posting in the middle of the night with no punctuation, with scrambled letters and words etc...

while the op conducts themselves in a totally dignified manner.

Wannabe - agree, but ssssshhhhh! Don't feed the trolls and don't tell them how to avoid being obvious!

Just assume that at least half of the stuff on here is shite.
It's easiest really.

And anyone who posts 'I'm a regular - penis beaker..' is likely to be a twat so ignore anyway.

Hi gang,
We'd love to tell you that there was a definitive way to spot a troll from your side of the technological fence, but there isn't, not really. We see the reports, and a lot of the time we can see that people posting The Most Outlandish Tales are long term posters on a name change and in fact everything they're saying chimes with previous posts under other names.

So, you might see people saying 'we knew all along' when a troll is revealed, but only HQ can see the eleventy million times they've reported people who actually turn out to be their bessie mates in disguise.

We hope that we at MNHQ strike the right balance between benefit of doubt and righteous fury when threads start to get a bit whiffy - we're beavering away here in the background trying to make stories stand up or fall down, but we are utterly reliant on you all not publicly troll-hunting to do so. And, sadly, we would ask you all to not give more, whether that be emotional support, practical or financial, than you can yourselves afford.

So, we guess what we're saying is... no signals, no... it doesn't work. Not even Cheshire scumbag.

5daychicken I take on board your point but I do add that not all trolls are to the detriment of the site.

There have been troll threads that offered an opportunity for others to access information or links that they may have otherwise been unaware of. In effect, it was to the benefit of someone somewhere.

I said at the beginning of this thread that the main thing is to avoid getting over invested. I can't even be bothered to go troll hunting or whatever. You see for example, the recent troll thread on Relationships who even set up a 'sordid' sequel. I can't find it in myself to think she was being ridiculous because a lot of useful information was shared on that thread and also that troll got what she wanted because there is now a joke thread about her trolliness. Just not worth the effort from both sides in my book.

I do assume a lot of stuff that sounds made up is made up. But sometimes it isn't and maybe if someone has changed a few details so as not to be outed in real life it can make the story sound odd, but they do genuinely need advice. I always just answer any question as best I can and even if the op is made up it can still be interesting to chat about the subject.

Nobody can tell what's true and what isn't. How can you tell it isn't made up? i assume everything is fiction generally.