Trolls

[SilverOldie2]

This is sort of about another thread, but not a specific one. AIBU to say that I simply cannot understand what people get out of coming on here and starting a thread which pulls on people's heartstrings when it is completely false. I've seen posters opening their souls on some threads where they are concerned for the OP and can't imagine how devastated they must feel when they discover that it was all a fake.

I'm not talking about those who post something so outrageous or funny, you sort of know it's not true and can have fun with it

Can there be any acceptable reason why they do it? Have you ever trolled and if so why? What the hell do they get out of it? I just do not understand.

Blimey what one is that ThenLater? The multi update ones ring my radar. The one about someone storming off at a night out keeps being added to with an arm and a leg.

I am really sad to read that the dead child thread was a trolling exercise. That is utterly dreadful and beyond sick.

I will never understand why people do it. I have been accused of trolling. I have three longstanding MN threads regarding my husband's affair and our subsequent ongoing divorce. I started posting one night when I think I had reached absolute rock bottom and didn't know where to turn. I didn't want to put any more pressure than I already had on over-burdened friends and family. My story is so utterly outlandish at times, albeit completely factual, that I can understand why people would think it. However, the accusations of trolling actually came from the OW in my case when she and my husband discovered my threads how, I will never know. She tried to have me prosecuted for contempt of court alongside my husband, they went to the police as "trolling is a crime" apparently and indeed, tried to force Mumsnet to take the threads down. She knew full well none of it was trolling, her anger was because she had been exposed and if she had seen it, who else had?! I did have the threads taken down temporarily while I checked my legal position, but was quickly exonerated of any accusations of "trolling" and they were reinstated. Thus, I will continue posting.

My lovely friend WellWhoKnew was also accused of trolling with her "Dear STBXH" threads. I might have thought it too had I not known her RL. Sometimes peoples lives actually are something out of a soap opera as there are no limits to the vagaries of human behaviour.

However, I continue to be pulled in by troll threads, am dreadful at spotting them and often over-invest in people who appear to be in similar positions to me, mainly because I like to think I can help! I guess I'd rather be taken in by the odd trolling thread than presume that every "off the wall" story is fiction, otherwise MN would not be the place it is for people like me.

I didn't post on it so hadn't realised it was deleted but I knew as soon as I read this OP that it would be the one with the car accident.

There are a couple of others on here at the moment that I am a bit sus about too. I really can't begin to understand why they do it, but I think they are probably as sad and damaged as they would be if the things they wrote about were true.

There are a lot of very lonely dysfunctional people out there and perhaps they repel people (or just get ignored) in RL so being on the internet opens up a whole world of possibilities for attention.

they are probably as sad and damaged as they would be if the things they wrote about were true

Yes.

Malinapalina..you mean the "Ophelia" threads? I think there were a lot of questions about that because she managed to fill about six in about two days. She has disappeared off the radar now as far as I can see. I haven't seen a post from her in a long time...

the alarm bells rang for me when she said she had lost 2 dc but only went on about the younger one

I thought that at first but then I re-read it and i think she'd just phrased it in an odd way that sounded like 2 children. She said 'my eldest child and my DS, who was three died.' She was just making the distinction that the one that supposedly died was the eldest of her two children and the boy. At least I think that's what she meant.

Has the thread about the 24 yr old with 48k been zapped too??

I was reading the child I car crash one earlier and told myself off for thinking it was made up.
I should listen to myself more often
Some people are sick.........

Actually leave , it was something along those lines. Now that you say it I remember re-reading and thinking ah, ok, her eldest and her only DS or something, they are one and the same child.

I wish the trolls would stick to the Mills&Boon type threads, full of romance and excitement. I like those.

The 48k one is funny.

leavemywingsbehindme you are alot more smarter than me and a very long name{grin}

Ophelia did pop up again recently to say she hadn't been back as she had been accused of trolling

laffymeal I'm feeling the same as yuo about the flouncy friend one. It's just all too "perfect" in how it's playing out somehow. I've stopped believing anyway

ChazsBrilliant can you give me a little tiny clue please? I want to know if anyone is getting the same vibes as me about the same thread.

I reported the thread when I read, "last month I found out I was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl". Unless she didn't realise she was pregnant until 18/20wks she wasn't going to know the sexes. It makes me sick that people make up such stories.

I thought OP said she lost two children then assumed that she must have meant to say that she lost her child ^who^ was the oldest.

I suspected troll after the update and I'm usually slow on the uptake.

This kind of trolling pisses me off. It's disgusting.

Which one Maryz the boyfriend with 500k or the 48k 24 year old?