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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask about trolls

453 replies

HairsprayBabe · 16/02/2017 15:05

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?!

OP posts:
ZackyVengeance · 24/02/2017 23:43

wow really,
dd is all grown and an adult now.
that troll was an odd one.

WateryTart · 25/02/2017 09:25

Troll hunters are 100 times more annoying than trolls.

Just report and fuck off.

WannaBe · 25/02/2017 10:00

"Troll hunters are 100 times more annoying than trolls." I think it depends tbh. Certainly I don't think that going on to a thread and shouting "troll!!!!!" Is particularly constructive, however there have been threads over the years which would likely have rumbled on and on if someone hadn't actually spoken out on the thread and prompted others to question as well.

The thing is that with some of the vampiric trolls is that some people are afraid to even report just in case it's not a troll, and sometimes HQ can't prove definitively that it is.

With dizzymare for instance people had been reporting her threads for weeks because they were so full of inconsistencies and HQ did nothing. It was only after she'd "lost her twins" and was posting on mn in her heartbroken moments rather than being with her own child that someone actually had the nerve to speak out and suggest that people needed to be careful before becoming too emotionally invested. At this point an awful lot of posters agreed that they'd had suspicions but had been afraid to speak out. And only then did HQ ban her. She then joined a bereavement forum and trolled there with pictures she'd lifted off the internet until someone outed her and she admitted it.

And equally I think that people who e.g. Post pictures of babies etc which they have removed from the internet can be publically outed on their own thread. It can take hours for HQ to deal with a report, by which time the poster could have befriended people offline and moved away from the thread and be cashing in....

VintagePerfumista · 25/02/2017 11:07

Of course trollhunters are more annoying than trolls.

Go tell that to the bereaved parents who share their stories to these bloodsuckers. The ones on the Oliver thread for example. Who talked about their own dead and dying children to help a mother find some comfort.

It's a clever phrase to trot out though Watery... Invariably by the troll-hags who get taken in time and again by the fakesters but don't want to admit it.

Give your head a wobble eh? And try not to get taken in next time. Wink

flippinada · 25/02/2017 11:26

No, the really nasty trolls are far worse than troll hunters. Although some who take it on themselves to troll hunt come off as more delighted with their own self-styled cleverness than anything else.

Part of the problem, I think, is that MN don't always react quickly enough to reports and tend to err on the side of caution. I'm aware that they have limited resources and it's not an easy job but the light handed approach they take to moderation isn't adequate in the face of determined trolling. I'm not sure how the two can be reconciled though.

CaraAspen · 25/02/2017 11:42

Why would people invent a persona in the first place? Their real lives must really suck if that's how they relieve the dreariness.

NavyandWhite · 25/02/2017 11:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ProudBadMum · 25/02/2017 12:11

I have no sympathy for trolls that do it to hear people's heart breaking stories like faking a child's death.

The one which are silly are no harm and people spot it straight away.

I didn't believe that you wouldn't know you were pregnant til it happened to me last year. I found out when I was 6 month gone. No symptoms and no bump. I have a pic that shows me a week before I found out and two week after and went from no bump to massive once I'd been prodded and poked!

She was 6lb and late so explains the no bump I suppose.

WannaBe · 25/02/2017 12:38

If I didn't find out I was pregnant until six months plus I'd feel robbed. For me finding out I was pregnant and going through all the different stages etc was part of the fun of being pregnant iyswim. So if I ended up in agony one day and gave birth I'd feel robbed of that experience. Grin.

Maybe that's just me though.....

ProudBadMum · 25/02/2017 12:42

I had 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Going from been healthy and having a shit ton of energy to fat and in pain in a few weeks was not fun. I don't recommend it Grin

I went for my routine depo injection and found out. The appointment before I had to do a test as I missed deadline for when it was due and came up negative. Even though as it turned out I was actually nearly 3 month pregnant!

So now I do believe it can happen. Shes nearly 5 month now and she's alright.

ZackyVengeance · 25/02/2017 22:50

the trolls have won on mn
I have been watching an obvious troll thread out. mn hq seem to be on board and involved. its sad

OnHold · 25/02/2017 23:39

I've watched troll threads. I've also watched people run posters off MN who they think are trolls. Now that's sad.

justagirl484 · 26/02/2017 00:04

OnHold Yes, I have noticed that too. Very much so. I remember an old thread where someone was accused of trolling- she was trying to share a story of how she had been through a sexual abuse experience as a child but didn't feel able to come out with so wrote it as a reverse. This person later admitted she thought it was her fault/was being stupid/overreaccting but knew if she said that then everyone would say "oh no you are ok" to try and make her feel better and she wante dthe honest truth as she really did doubt herself in this situation. So she wrote it pretending to be a friend of the abused girl with a lot of victim blaming , minimising statements. Statements that turned out to be the way she felt about herself- that she had deserved it. Then when she admitted it was a reverse was told "Oh I knew she was a troll all the way along." We will never know the real stories behind people's OPs on here but I know enough about MH and abuse to know it can do things to a person's self concept . Hopefully she ended up getting the help she needed. Sorry if PAATs are not allowed!

justagirl484 · 26/02/2017 00:08

Interestingly enough I recall that those on the thread who WEREN'T accusing her of trolling etc were actually the ones who had themselves been rape survivors- so I don't think even if her story WAS false (I don't think it was- seemed too typical a reaction to sexual assault to me) I really don't think it damaged any real survivors on there.

nancy75 · 26/02/2017 00:45

CVQ is the first one I remember, I was new to chat sites and amazed that people were believing her story ( but too new to say anything).
I love the t rexing husband, I don't care if that's a troll, the threads are funny.
The weirdest one I remember was a young girl who was a travelller, she had a little boy who turned out to be a teddy bear, most bizarre.

MadamePomfrey · 26/02/2017 00:46

On the whole I hate trolls in fact they led me to deregister for a while as seeing and giving advice on normal issues only for it to be bullshit takes something away from the site I think. However there have been a few crazy threads that have really made me laugh the 7 foot bride was one another was from a boss who was asking how to help an employee who was off sick as she was scared of the man down stairs after he made a comment to her husband I think peoples replies made me 😂😂

nancy75 · 26/02/2017 00:50

I think the key is to not get involved, I've been here years and just stick to chatting about rubbish!
There is one poster who is not around anymore that I think got away with being a troll for years and it really wound me up.

justagirl484 · 26/02/2017 01:44

My trouble is I can get way too invested in threads....

DelphineCormier · 26/02/2017 15:00

I do think some people have a weird fantasy thing with undetected pregnancies and Twins. Play it out online because it hasn't happened to you in real life kind of thing.

ProudBadMum · 26/02/2017 15:16

I just don't understand it. I've never flown a plane, but I wouldn't start threads declaring myself a pilot 😂

DelphineCormier · 26/02/2017 15:19

I really do think people think of the whole 3 week pregnancy thing as something that makes you special. They like the idea of the attention. Terrifying in real life, but people don't see that side of it.

Not a pilot? No problem, be one on the Internet!

ProudBadMum · 26/02/2017 15:22

Think I'd rather be a surprise pilot than find out I'm organ transplant at 37 week...

I'll take try to land a plane over that Grin

justagirl484 · 26/02/2017 15:47

DelphineCormier is right you can get licences to fly planes from the internet

DelphineCormier · 26/02/2017 15:48

Oh, pregnancy discovered at 33 weeks, baby at 36 weeks. Not that it makes it any better!

Avoiding outing myself here, I know of a primary school head who was suspended. One of the things being investigated, it was rumoured, was whether she was actually qualified. Another head with the same name in another part of the country and with some of the things she was suspended over, wouldn't have been a stretch. I'm sure that wasn't if, but it does make you wonder!

justagirl484 · 26/02/2017 15:49

I think some of the trolls may have illnesses like Munchausens or Cluster B personality disorders BPD, NPD etc But that would account for a small percentage of trolls on here though. Statistically those disorders are not common.

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