..to start to disbelieve an awful lot of stories on here...

[BratFarrarsPony]

honestly some of the stuff you read you think ..awww how awful...and after about five pages of posters doing their best to give advice , MN steps in and zaps the thread...
Often and more and more I read something, start composing a reply and then thing no fuckit its a troll.
Obviously trollhunting is offlimits, but really?

[TheUnworthy]

There's been times when I've gone to write a post about a recent event and thought...nope no one is going to believe that has just happened!

My life is trolling me

[SpunkyMummy]

salty

I know that's going to make m sound horrible, but sometime I'm just kind of upset that an entertaining thread is gone, it's sometimes really like a soap opera. A few cases I've been relieved thinking that it probably wasn't true. And yes, a few cases I have been invested and was like, nooooo.

But I'm pretty new here on mumsnet, so, that may obviously still change...

[TrickyD]

SoupDragon , sorry I think you are right. You get told on 'threads you are on' not on 'watched'

[SoupDragon]

Damn! I thought they'd fixed it. I don't know why it doesn't show a deletion message on Watched.

[SaltyBitch]

I don't think it makes you sound horrible at all Spunky. You are human and enjoying stories is an incredibly human trait!

[FatOldBag]

Yep there was definitely some poppy cock I read earlier. I think just roll your eyes and move on. It is annoying. I'm sure people have many and varied reasons for posting nonsense from having some kind of agenda to just being a complete arse, or having some pathological need for attention. Meh.

[MaddyHatter]

a lot of its bollocks, which is why its best never to give out anything personal that you wouldn't want anyone else to know.

Be kind, give advice, but don't get emotionally invested, because you don't know the person or the validity of what they're saying.

[JellyBelli]

YANBU. I sometimes wonder if they're bored and sad for attention, or if theres some kind of psychiatry experiment going on

[UnGoogleable]

I love a troll thread and I have excellent trolldar. If anyone knows of any at the mo, please PM me so I can come and join the onlookers...!

I do get upset when I see people over sharing or getting massively invested in posters who I'm convinced are trolls. I've tried warning people before (via PM, I'd never troll hunt) but it hasn't gone down very well. So now I don't bother warning and just wait for the inevitable deletion message and hope people learn their lesson.

[UnGoogleable]

Some trolls are clearly there to try and coax information/stories out from others as wank fodder or some other sick desire. Those are the worst.

[Lollollollol]

I think a lot of threads are 100% bollox but there are probably more that are mostly bollox but with an element of truth, that can make them trickier to spot.

Trolls are just bored weirdos who like to cause a bun fight. I think some are actually ill. The ones I dislike the most are the ones that are touting for handouts.

[TheUnworthy]

I have a general tolerance for trolls if they are entertaining/amusing.

It's the abuse/anything involving children or sickness that gets my heckles up.

[avamiah]

TheUnworthy ,
I'm with you on that 100percent.
There was one a couple of nights ago,it really got under my skin.
Of course it got removed but it's not the point.
There are some weirdos and sick people out there.

[IPityThePontipines]

It's the abuse/anything involving children or sickness that gets my heckles up.

Yes, there's one I've just read and made me feel sick inside.

There some very sick people reading and posting to this website.

[PleaseNotTrump]

I think some of these trolls must have psychological problems rather than just being bored.

[thatdearoctopus]

The moment you catch yourself thinking, "who behaves like that?" is the moment at which your troll radar should be pinging.

[ManaFleet]

I've been wondering a lot about this trolling business. I agree that their lives must be so bloody dull if their idea of jollies is to create a mildly diverting scenario to see what happens. Surely, if you're going to do it (and I wish they wouldn't), make it big! It's so bloody pointless.

[QueenLizIII]

There were about 3 threads that seemed so similar lately involving a mother being beaten up by a child of theirs and they wanted the child gone.

One was a teen boy but one was a 9yo girl who had begun to be so clever as to hit her mother just hard enough to not leave marks anymore.

The threads cropped up on the same day I reported them but they stood. Maybe genuine but such extreme subjects and so similar within the same day.

predictably the OPs have never posted before and fucked off abandoning the threads. So many posters asking where they were, what they were doing, were they ok, asking them to check in. People like that fuel trolls. Get far too involved in it.

[ShowMeTheElf]

Trolls only deny genuine posters advice and support if we let them. If we have advice to give we can just give it and move on. If we are suspicious we can report.
When people start posting sarcastic trollhunter posts (whether overt enough to be pulled or not) it does prevent genuine posters from posting next time.
If I've given advice and the thread gets pulled then I feel my time was wasted but it is the internet: not real life. I do worry that we allow the many trolls on here make us too cynical to/prevent us from give(ing) genuine posters the help they may need.
That is why the anti-troll hunting moderation stance on MN is so good. Report and move on, allowing those that need it (even if they seem extreme) an available forum to share stories and ask for advice.

[Lollollollol]

I posted the following on the thread in SiteStuff on the plethora of Im skint threads, I think it's a good idea and I was wondering what other people thought. Obviously it's MNHQs site and they can do whatever they wish and, to be fair, they are probably better at working out what works...


I think there should be a blanket policy that posters don't send gifts or money to OPs. Obviously it would be impossible to stop them doing it off board but a blanket ban would surely help reduce the scammers

It would mean that posters could be a little more sure they were dealing with a genuine OP and weren't wasting their time giving advice and support to a scammer

I also think it would mean that OPs who are in genuine need of some support and advice would feel more confident that they could post a thread without getting accused of being a scammer

Finally, it would hopefully save the more gullible posters from sending money to scammers. There are 'safer' and more effective ways to give to needy people than sending stuff to anonymous randoms from the internet.

[lalalalafunk]

How do mn know for sure it's a troll though?

[bummymummy77]

What happened to the council house thread? Didn't see much after the start of it. Did it get nasty?

[Lollollollol]

LaLaLaLaFunk

That's the problem, unless it's obvious then MNHQ can't know if someone is a troll or not. Some genuine real life stories sound made up and some convincing threads have been proven to be trolls.

[LouisvilleLlama]

Honestly I don't take anything on MN as 100% real it may start out real but as people dig it gets altered to suit the way the threads going. I attempt not to comment on a lot of threads because people get involved and you don't want to be a dissenting voice and in a way hope your right so someone's not going through it but also right so posters aren't getting too attached for no reason.

[LouisvilleLlama]

Also it's November that means NaNoWriMo so some maybe testing out their stories credibility