To ask how to spot a troll thread

[Teacakeandalatte]

I'm sick of wasting my time on threads that get zapped, how do I spot them? I know about the poo troll and the toilets in schools one, but give me some tips on advanced troll spotting.

I often find it’s the ones who has tons of outing details eg they are at a wedding and the details are so specific eg its a Scottish castle, the reverend is a blind woman, a bridesmaid is on crutches etc. Why post something SO obviously identifiable. Plus, these sorts of posts are ‘live’.

Another sort is one where the OP doesn’t seem to want advice - it’s storytelling. There seems to be little interest in the advice and questions offered.

Actually these tips are quite helpful, I do have a tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt which I shall have to stop.

And god help you if you accuse somebody of trolling though. Mnhq are very weird about that.

Anything discussing their child’s puberty is normally someone’s wank fodder. Doesn’t stop numerous posters oversharing on the internet though.

Most troll spotting is common sense.

I think some posters, the ones who begin with a cast of characters and 'let's call them Mavis, Susan and Dominic' aren't actually trolling, but are practising their creative writing or trying out ideas for a terrible novel.

The grief trolls, the serious illness and bereavement trolls should all be hounded off the internet. They stop genuine people getting support.

I agree that troll threads seem to have lots of live updates, specific 'odd' details and the troll posters have a particular type of username - I'm a total newbie, only being here a year, so I'm still learning.

I agree that the paedophile trolls - tell me about your toddler masturbating/what underpants your 5yo wears/should my 6yo DD wear a cropped top - need to be highlighted because people ALWAYS engage with them.

I agree absolutely. I sometimes wonder if those engaging with them and pouring out all sorts of what should be private information are trolls also. Cos they sure as hell don't want to be stopped!

If it's a troll thread that obviously everyone is going to disagree with, the first post is normally littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical and other errors to maximise the number of reasons other posters can berate them with lol

I think some posters, the ones who begin with a cast of characters and 'let's call them Mavis, Susan and Dominic' aren't actually trolling, but are practising their creative writing or trying out ideas for a terrible novel.

At least they get names. I hate long posts with Friend A, B, C and D and A said this to D and B got upset and C overheard and told D and now A is not speaking to B and D got involved and has fallen out with C and B and A are both furious but only with C. It makes me feel like I have to solve a maths problem and there will be a question like "How many times was A hurt?" at the end.

Doesn’t stop numerous posters oversharing on the internet though.
Quite.
It's worth thinking before posting anecdotes about your own child: "could a creep online use this as wank fodder?"

Things written with a bit of unnecessary flair as if they are a creative writing project

And all of this is exacerbated by the increasing tendency of posters not to read the thread. So if anyone has posted any kind of warning, they simply don't see it.

I've been sucked in by troll threads, often quite surprised that they are trolls (apart from the revolting obvious ones). As a poster above said, I usually give people the benefit of the doubt.

However I was suspicious earlier about a thread concerning dinosaur T-shirts being not suitable for a girl. I thought that was weird (but I was the only one who did).

There's one I'm particularly thinking of but don't want to give a direct example

But think of a woman going through something incredibly tragic and writing about it in a really off / odd way using terms that no one in that situation would use.

There are repeat trolls and their pet topics so you know what to look out for. But posting late at night, twins, frequent updates especially with infidelity (as PP have said, thread goes from finding something dodgy to binbags on the step at rocket speed) and frequent updates from hospital beds are also a bit suspect tbh. As are any from posters who lack any element of life (eg money) but can't do any of the suggestions from posters to obtain the missing item.

When you can see other posters getting sucked in it is either frustrating or funny, but anything other than a gentle warning is troll hunting and some of the references (Maui) are too subtle for newbies! All you can do is report and ask questions in the hope of catching them out.

You have to be on the thread to get the deletion message which doesn't help either, I'd love the ability to reply to the deletion message!

the action always moves on too fast.

When I discovered dodgy texts on my ex’s phone it took me 3 months to confront him. On MN, it’s all done and dusted in 20 minutes.

Theres the my child/sibling is violent what should I do, troll.

Usually starts off with 'namechanged because'

There was one recently where someone posted about a friend being neglectful towards her kid, awful dirty home conditions, kid ignored etc etc then a couple of weeks later posted about the same friend wanting the children of the pair to be friends and going to the same nursery, copying everything, no neglect issues. Someone canny linked to the original post saying 'wow your friend got her life sorted out really quick, long standing life issues sorted in 2 weeks, amazing!', OP was like 'yeah all sorted' . People carried on posting advice though.

What about the threads apparently from a woman but all the language reads like a bitter man imagining he's writing as a woman / classic MRA language. They're often not genuine and seem to be trying to get women to share really personal or intimate anecdotes

@U2HasTheEdge *99% of any 'Cheeky Fucker' threads are created by trolls.

Threads which end up being 3 threads long are usually started by trolls too*

I'm sorry I disagree with your percentage! You can't possibly know that.

There's a second thread going on now (nearly full again) by an OP in a horribly distressing situation that I cannot fathom being a troll - aside from anything else, she's included a fair few photos all but proving the situation. She's really quite distressed by the whole thing and I'm staggered if she's a troll

*I'll be staggered I mean

Please don't label all shocking threads as trolls ......

I left MN about 3 years ago after having my thread about a very serious, awful thing that happened to my daughter when she was a baby whilst I was in hospital, pulled due to me being labelled a troll as it was so unbelievable. I got told to"get to bed little one" & "sicko" and the email sent by MN "Sorry for the mass mail everyone, that troll appears to have gone back under it's bridge and has now gone"

I was utterly, utterly devastated - that anyone could think I'd make something like that up. It was my reality and I was already struggling with the guilt of it. After that happened on MN I was nearly suicidal

I have posted this theory before.

I think some "troll" threads are people who are posting about something that happened to them in the past, that they never got closure or support for.

When my ex-h left me I thought he was having an affair but he denied it vehemently. After reading MN I think I was right. If I was still hung up on him (I'm not!) I could imagine describing the whole break up, he said, I said etc, as if it was actually happening now, but really just to get my own opinions validated. I must stress that I never have done this!

When I posted this theory on another thread, someone pm'd me to say she had done what I had said, to make sense of things and so had a friend of hers.

I see this in a number of types of thread. From time to time someone will say they think they might have been raped but are not sure. They get lots of advice to not shower and call the police immediately but don't take it to the other posters' immense frustration. I think this is because they can't take the advice, as the incident happened years ago.

I think the premature twin "troll" might be someone who lost premature twins a long, long time ago. Nowadays they might have survived but back then there was no chance, and she didn't get much support or sympathy, and she is reliving it in an attempt at coming to terms with it.

@Hurryharry33 I was just about to post about my bladder issue which is becoming a reall issue. I'd better not! I'll be labelled a troll for that too!!

Copycat topics.

I remember about 5 years ago (when it were all fields etc) - or maybe more - there was a spate of threads in Relationships that were all fundamentally similar. Single mum about to get thrown out of rented accommodation. I got quite invested (as a lurker) on the first thread, but once there had been several copycats, it did make me wonder if the initial one was true/troll.