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Original poster

AIBU Trollhunting is ruining AIBU

19 replies

Trueheart1 · 26/01/2018 22:47

I understand troll hunting if the OP is giving dangerous advice. However, increasingly every single poster is being grilled by troll hunters about every aspect of their post. It makes a thread hard to follow and really boring to read.

I don't understand why the troll hunters do it, there is an easy to use report button. I have read several threads in the last week where the OP was subjected to constant snide comments about the veracity of their post. I think if these troll hunters persist then people won't want to post at all.

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MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 27/01/2018 10:30

Morning folks. We just wanted to pop by as it seemed like a useful moment to clarify our position on all things hairy-handed.

We really do understand how irritating the trolls are and why it's tempting to call them out on it. It's definitely something that is on the increase - not just on Mumsnet but across many forums. Who knows why - maybe telly's got less interesting.

That said, we do look into each one and while, yes, we can never tell with absolute certainty that someone is making up porkies, we do have and use lots of methods that we really think weed out the vast majority. In all honesty, we get a lot of reports where everyone is convinced a poster is a troll and we look and can see that they've been here 15 years, posted 20,000 times and never put a foot wrong and have name-changed to ask about a sensitive situation. We obviously can never say who they are or give too much away, but when we say we think someone is genuine, generally we are happy they are. If we have any real doubts we'll always look into it further, take threads down and reinstate them if new evidence comes to light.

One of the reasons we ask people not to troll hunt is that it does encourage the trolls. The whole thing is self-perpetuating. Someone posts a pile of fiction designed to cause a row and get them maximum attention, posters call troll, they get masses of attention, feel they've made a name for themselves and it makes it worth their while doing it all again as soon as they get the chance. If they're simply reported and banned it's not nearly as enticing a place for them to return to.

But also there are plenty of times when we can see someone is being completely truthful and they are hounded off their own thread, which is always really upsetting. Particularly when it's on a sensitive subject, as we know someone else reading that will then shy away from asking for support themselves, lest they are also not believed. It's in that respect that troll-hunting really does do as much damage as trolling sometimes.

It really is just as quick to hit the report button as to post your suspicions on a thread and there's nothing to be gained and plenty to be lost by openly troll-hunting on the boards.

We know we say all this a lot but thought it just might be informative for anyone who hasn't heard it before. Hope it explains our thinking a bit anyway.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 27/01/2018 10:39

Just to add - Cote, no, we definitely wouldn't ban someone just for reporting 'too much'. We really do like getting reports - we don't patrol the boards so reports are the only way we are alerted to any funny business that might be going on. It wouldn't be in our interests to dissuade people from reporting.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 27/01/2018 10:54

Hi again Cote. We're can't comment on any individual cases on here - it wouldn't be fair - but we can confidently say we don't ban just for reporting too often. We wouldn't like to accuse anyone of lying about that but perhaps they misunderstood our reasons for banning them. We'd certainly guess there was more to it.

As we said, it's not really fair of us to talk about individual cases here but if you're in contact with that person and they'd like us to look back into it all and let them know what happened, do let them know to drop us a line. We'd be very happy to chat to them.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 27/01/2018 11:17

Again, just to clarify, although we don't people are pleasant at all times, and we do know everyone has an occasional off day, we do say at the top of talk guidelines:

'Our policy is to keep intervention to a minimum and let the conversation flow. That said, we're also here to make parents' lives easier, so where necessary, we will use our discretion to delete posts (or ban posters) if it seems to us that doing so is in keeping with this aim.'

'Making parents' lives easier' is a pretty broad notion obviously but being persistently unpleasant is one thing we might consider not in keeping with that aim.

Sorry - we realise that isn't really anything to do with troll-hunting per se, so apologies for the slight derail, OP.

MNHQ

DawnMumsnet · 30/01/2018 08:03

@Rufustherenegadereindeer1

I abhor the vacuum at work

Its one of the henry ones

I'm not actually working at the minute - was just reading this thread while necking a coffee and trying to get the kids off to school, but this did make me chuckle. Smile

MNHQ

DawnMumsnet · 30/01/2018 08:17

Also, just wanted to say (quietly, and with my civilian hat on) that some posters are very much missed.

But yes, the site goes on; and with a bit of good will there should be room for us all to shuffle along together.

MNHQ

DawnMumsnet · 30/01/2018 09:28

[quote paxillin]Perhaps we could canvas opinion again on a no-name-change topic. @DawnMumsnet. As @Sparklingbrook mentioned earlier, we had this discussion two years ago, but I think it would be good.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2537019-Can-we-have-a-topic-where-name-changing-is-not-allowed?pg=1[/quote]

Blimey, paxillin, that thread is a blast from the past. So many familiar names. Rufus was posting on it before going renegade...

Will have a proper read of the thread now (it's 882 posts long so I may be some time). But it looks like there was a lot of support for such a topic and I shall raise it with the rest of the team.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 31/01/2018 11:53

Hey folks

Well, this thread has taken a bit of a turn. There are lots of useful and interesting posts further back, though, so we want to avoid deleting if possible.

We'll be having a further conversation off-board - we're keen to try and understand a bit more about what's going on. But as many of you have pointed out, pulling a fellow MNer into the spotlight by anatomising her posting history in order to prove - well, we're not quite sure what, tbh - is not in the spirit.

We know that lots of you are concerned about (for want of a better description) unwarranted unkindness - the stuff that isn't directly breaking TGs, but has the effect of making MN less helpful, less interesting, less fun. We're keen to keep a lid on it too, so do please report when you see it.

In the meantime, we are listening extremely carefully to all your various points about both trollery and trollhunting, There are many balances to be struck and we don't always get it right, but please don't feel that you are speaking into a vacuum - you're not.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 31/01/2018 12:50

Let's lay off the personal critiques and axe-grinding now please? Thanks all.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 31/01/2018 14:51

@Bluedoglead

Kate. And the rest of hq. There definitely are are posters who deliberately antagonise and snipe and carry on and on and on and glad at other posters to try to get them to snap and respond yet because they stay just this side of guidance they’re allowed to carry on.

We're working on this Blue - but we need people to report it, or we miss it. So please do when you come across it?

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 31/01/2018 17:48

Peas and love.

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 18:47

Hello all,
Good to see that this thread seems to have settled back into the brassica-based nonsense for which this site is rightly famed.

Please do feel free to continue exploring this theme, however we fear we must briefly drag the conversation back, just to point out that we have checked into the back end and every single accusation of who's-really-who and who's-namechanged-to-what has been plumb wrong.

And now, back to the veggies. Enjoy your evening!

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 19:22

Celeriac remoulade is a gift from the French gods and lady's fingers are basically snot, is that right?

How would we, realistically, remove place markers? People would have to report them, and we could only delete them, which might upset the OP more? Quite agree that it's not an ideal situation, though, with people openly using such threads for entertainment.

Perhaps it's a question of changing the culture a bit? How do you think that's best achieved?

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 19:39

Bluedogslead, so you want 'threads I'm on' and 'threads watching' on the same page? Hmmm. See what you mean... and you think that will solve it? We presume it's more something that posters see one person doing and then think 'Uh, okay, that's how it's done," and thus it might be more a cultural change required, maybe you guys pointing out the bookmark option etc...

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 19:47

Okay doke. Well we can certainly draw attention to this. If you've been on Site Stuff recently, though, you might already be aware that the Tech team are rather snowed under at the moment, but we can put it on our requests and ask them to have a think about how easily achieved it would be. (If we sound like we're hedging it's because we are... Tech are a law unto selves... )
We can but try, however!

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 20:23

Can we just let things that have irritated us wash over us, please? The thread is getting back on track, we've established that our finest trollhunters are entirely fallible, and we're trying to rebuild and make positive changes.

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 20:50

Oh, LtEve, I couldn't ask you to start a thread in Site Stuff, could I? Site Stuff is better dealt with in the day when the Tech team is around and while I've happily just written a plaintive request for the placemarking issue to be dealt with your request is very much their dept... is that okay? We can flag them from there to deal with your question.

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 31/01/2018 21:40

cheers my dear!

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 01/02/2018 09:43

@Bluedoglead

Well yes duck I saw that too but I also saw the posts saying that someone was banned for reporting the same person. Because that was against guidance. But if the same person is posting aggressively and you report them every time you do it then won’t you be banned?

I missed this yesterday - sorry Blue. Hmm - this is a myth that seems to have taken a verruca-like hold on MN's, erm.. foot.

No-one has ever been banned for over-reporting, whatever they might say. There has always been way more to it than that - for eg a couple have been warned multiple times and then banned for following their nemesis around the site and reporting them maliciously. Others had a massive history of goadiness, say, or of consistently breaking TGs.

So please don't worry that you'd ever be banned for reporting the same person several times - we'd definitely, definitely be in touch with you if we thought you were a wrong'un and you'd know about it well before it got to banning stage, honest!

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