To ask about trolls

[HairsprayBabe]

NOT a TAAT - just inspired by a certain one

Tell us about your fave MN troll

I liked the woman who had a dead husband who hand painted the childrens bedrooms, and now she was remarried she wanted all of her stepchildren to sleep in one room so that her children from her first marriage wouldn't have to give up their bedrooms even for one night!

Surely IANBU to ask what your favorite troll on MN has been?!

I feel like there needs to be some troll history written somewhere so people know what signs to look out for, and some of them are weird and funny like shoe troll, boxroom troll and curry troll but some are leeches who can damage legit posters emotionally and in some cases financially.

Does any one remember the strange thread before christmas where a woman was complaining about going to this specific wedding then the bride or someone close to the bride found the thread and it all kicked off! And it turned out OP wasn't even invited to the wedding in the first place!
Was that trolly or sock puppety or just bad luck on the OP's part?

Poorly I remember Amy from the NM boards. It was so weird how no-one was ever allowed to mention her name again. That must have been a few years ago now.

My trolldar is non-existent. I was completely taken in by Oliver's Army and by the one with the little boy found at school with the jumper around his neck. Although both posters are clearly sick people, I'm glad the children involved were made up.

I also remember a thread from a woman who had premature triplets and wanted help with naming them. She posted a photo of the babies and then another poster outed her as she'd discovered that the op had posted a random photo of triplets that weren't hers. She confessed and said she had lost her premature triplets and just wanted to carry on as though they were still here. I couldn't work out whether that bit was true or not.

Wasn't there a grocery troll as well? Multiple virtually identical threads about judging people's shopping at the supermarket checkout?

Stuff like 'AIBU to think that old people don't buy vegetables?'

Quercus But that is so boring! WHYYY!?

I think the idea was to start a fight. There would always be some judgement about 'old' or 'fat' people

I believe the troll claimed to be a personal trainer or similar. Man this is testing my memory!

What saddens me is that there is often good valuable help given in these threads and that is lost when the thread is deleted.

What I would like HQ to do is lock the thread, put a note at the top saying 'this op is a troll' and put it in Troll Corner. That way the actual useful advice is still there, and people don't end up asking about now vanished threads, but no one can feed the troll anymore.

But old people buy loads of veg, like my PILs.... To ensure there's still something there after they've boiled them for 5 hours before serving....

Desolate The could call it "the cave" or "under the bridge"

Fenella My grandmother cooks like that, with a lot of boiled mince too we refer to it as "war food"

The Oliver's Army one was really awful. Well meaning posters children were posting get well pictures to him. How was she discovered? Did a few brave MNers start calling her out on her story?

I for one reported it I'm sure many others did too.

They are all sick weirdos.

I recall that responders to the grocery troll thought old people didn't buy vegetables because they grew them on their allotments instead

I think the problem with having a Trolls Corner is that it also becomes a How To Avoid Detection Guide for trolls. And people who have been taken in and posted in good faith about a sensitive subject might not want their pain (or their gullibility) preserved for all eternity. I laugh about Wedding Dress Troll now as it was so OTT, but at the time women who genuinely had been betrayed by their husbands/partners were posting with support and advice from their own experience. That's what's so long-term damaging about having been suckered in by the emotional vampire kind of troll - once you've been caught, it makes you far less likely to open up again and so the next genuine poster to come along in need may get nothing like the help they deserve because people are much more wary and suspicious.

I think it's vital for posters not to get carried away with a hero or saviour complex. The message board mantra of "give only of yourself what you can afford to lose" - be that financial or emotional - is so importabt to remember. I try to restrict myself to signposting OPs to the right resources/organisations, and/or offering a virtual handhold that doesn't cost me anything emotionally but may help someone genuinely in need. And often I steer clear of the boards, or certain ones for long swathes of time so I'm not tempted to start getting over-invested - particularly because my trolldar is so shit!

That is a really good point 404

I agree a Troll corner would not work. It would become a hall of fame for them and something to aspire to.

They were mentioned on the first page,

The one that read like a Danielle Steel novel about the wife being so calm and composed in the face of her husband shagging his mistress (her best friend) wearing her wedding dress!

There was then a spoof thread

There was one poster who wrote at cringing, gushing length about her amazing DP (serial shagger, still married, she'd been OW but obvs he'd now be faithful as he'd met The One), the lovely wedding they were planning, and how unfair it was that his teenage dc hated her.

She initially appeared just to have the empathy of a brick, but at some point the writing style changed dramatically, she adopted a cod northern 'accent' and she got called out as just a creative writing project. Was fun, though.

Does any one remember the fake drugs troll she was about recently, always posts a blurry photo of a pill and claims to have found it in her DH's bedroom drawer.

When asked anything she always came back with "no he is perfect we have a beautiful son he wouldn't hurt us I won't leave him blah"

I've had a think about this, thinking is hard for me. But anyway. The best troll threads to me are the non starters, op comes out with something mad and with lots of troll buzz words/topics. All the responses they get ignore it and offer advice. Sometimes I think I can actually hear the sound of the troll deflate.

There is currently someone trolling MN. Starts multiple threads, same writing style. Often involves a twin pregnancy.

I can tell her writing style from her very first post.

Oh yes. HeadElf was the latest incarnation of the twin troll, I believe..... always a mistake to use the same twins photo for every troll thread, I feel! 😆