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.

Oh god, was the bereaved mother a troll? That post really upset me, which I guess was the intention.

Wow - I read the OP and thought it didn't ring true. I told myself off for being unkind.

Guess it says a lot about gut feelings.

I have no idea why someone would make up a post like that. Very sick sad.

the formidable Mrs C
Yes, it was the Ophelia one. You were giving her a lot of support, as were many others, and I just can't believe that she was a troll. Maybe she took him back....

To be honest once a thread has been deleted and MNHQ have officially called troll I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to discuss things openly.

Sorry, just saw the updates wrt Ophelia. What a shame. She got so much support and I wish she'd stayed.

Can I join you in claiming the 5th?

The no troll hunting rule must stand I was mercilessly accused of being a troll a few years back by someone who is very MN "royalty" will never forget her vile comments. I was going through a very difficult time and could have done without that.

I tend not to red threads on sad subjects but I do recall one very obvious thread about a romance which was far too Mills and Boon, which was highly amusing.

Of course Maryz.

yes Chazs too.

I also nearly reported....there's nowt as strange as folk!

Trolls are really sick people, I don't think they can help themselves, they thrive on attention.

I think it's probably a mix of boredom and attention seeking that causes people to troll. The enjoyment of people waiting for updates and maybe a feeling of power to be got from that.
I tend to be wary of the melodramatic emotional threads, they types of threads where people are constantly posting begging for updates and telling the OP they are thinking of them. Those threads are usually bollocks.
Give advice but don't get emotionally involved, or upset when the OP ignores all advice (often they are more genuine eg person posts about abusive OH, everyone tells her to walk, similar thread about abusive OH reappears a few months later). that way it doesn't matter if it's real or fantasy.

Casting my mind back a good few years now, I have known a core little gang of very well known MNers absolutely adamant that various new posters were all the same PBP and there were PMs flying about all over the place, some of which I was party to. I spent more time than is healthy quite a bit of effort advance searching all these people and cross-referencing them with whichever PBP there were supposed to be, and trying to see why said Persons X Y and Z were suspected of being the PBP and I could rarely see it TBH.

They would often call a poster out directly on the thread and a little pack of them would be like a dog with a bone, making all sorts of passive aggressive little veiled comments alluding to the PBP. Maybe they were right some of the time but I am certain they often very wrong and gave innocent people a really hard time.

Wasn't the OP of that thread a regular? Or am I mixing up different threads here?

Not that that means anything of course.

Sometimes trolls are regulars though. They often set themselves up with a a good long backstory, get their feet well under the table over a period of time. Softly softly catchy monkey.

I guess anyone could say anything, you could meet them in real life and they could say the same, would that mean it's true? Where would you draw the line? I think a lot of it comes down to self-protection and having to draw your own mental limits, realising that everything you read could be fake ... but clearly in certain emotive areas that's hard to do.