Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why do people troll???!!

121 replies

KnackeredHag · 07/08/2020 21:46

Why oh why do people do this?! Genuinely struggling to understand why someone would post such a heart wrenching post and appeal for help just for kicks, only for it to be some sick joke. I just can not get my head around this level of psychopathic behaviour. AiBU to ask for other people to tell me why individuals troll, as an anonymous on a forum, not even as themselves?

OP posts:
DontBeShelfish · 09/08/2020 11:53

I'm still crushed that the Sistine Chapel thread was a fake, I totally bought into it.

I'd never give money to someone online but I have given advice to people who I think are genuine and then turn out to be fake. It does hit you on some level. I think for me mainly it makes me worry that I don't have the necessary level of discernment to realise I'm being taken for a fool.

As for people who post on memorial pages, that's seriously depressing.

PhilSwagielka · 09/08/2020 11:55

@ThickFast

Yes phil. That Alex Jones is an awful person, isn’t he. I don’t get the scammers thing. I don’t even give money to people I know let alone a stranger on the internet.
I give money to people I know and trust, emphasis on trust. There are some people I'm iffy about giving money to. The woman on the forum I mentioned would beg for money but then post about video games she'd bought, which made me think Hmm
Verity35 · 09/08/2020 12:36

Can someone pls tell me what sistene chapel thread was about? I

Redhair23 · 09/08/2020 12:46

@AlternativePerspective

I read some statistic somewhere that 85% of deaths reported on internet boards (i.e. such and such a user has died) are fake.

I used to moderate an Internet forum as well and we had one who trolled over the years, she would create a persona with major health problems, depression, looking for friends, and it was a board where others shared her afflictions so she made friends easily. She would then get very close to people, only by email but close enough to talk of meeting up etc etc and then out of the blue she would commit suicide.

After I banned one of her persona’s (the last one, having discovered who she was,) she kept that one alive on twitter for almost a year before killing it off.

And the worst of it is, I know who she is in RL. I don’t know her personally but I know people who do. And she stands as an advocate for disability, has a decent reputation in her own right although is known to be difficult.

It’s fascinating isn’t it? I have worked out who a prolific troll is in real life, she is a fantasist and liar but I imagine her friends have no idea about her trolling.

One parallel I do see is that she craves attention and likes creating drama around a situation that most people would shrug off.

She mods my local FB group and has trolled here and elsewhere.

Nikori · 09/08/2020 14:44

@Verity35

Can someone pls tell me what sistene chapel thread was about? I
The OP claimed that on holiday, she became so overcome with emotion at seeing the Sistine chapel that she started wailing and crying prompting several people to ask if she was ok and causing her husband much embarrassment.
Paintedmaypole · 09/08/2020 14:53

Boredom, nastiness and to take a bad mood out on someone else? They certainly aren't happy people

DotForShort · 09/08/2020 15:35

In addition to the above, I suppose one attraction must be having an ever-changing audience of gullible people to interact with. As soon as some people figure out the most obvious signs of trolling, another group will take their place (and be taken in).

Though having said that, I am constantly amazed that some Mumsnetters never seem to learn. I am thinking in particular of certain regular posters on the Relationships board who always seem to participate in troll threads, seemingly in good faith.

On my current "Threads I'm watching" list, there are a few obvious troll threads that will no doubt be deleted in time.

Verity35 · 09/08/2020 15:54

How did you all figure out sistene chapel thread was a fake? I’ve just googled it and found out! It’s titled something like “husband thinks I’m too sensitive”

I haven’t read it all but I would have been taken in by it too.

daisychain01 · 09/08/2020 16:28

@Verity35

Can someone pls tell me what sistene chapel thread was about? I
It was obviously a piss take from the start but it was allowed to run as a thread because apparently people found it hilarious. A bit like the over-acting you see in Panto, with the OP describing how she gasps, wails and has the vapours when she sees beautiful works of art.

Yeah right, only a complete attention seeker would actually stand in the Sistene chapel surrounded by other tourists, crying and gnashing their teeth. But the OP made out it was genuine emotion and she couldn't help herself. Whatever.

It was "funny" if you can set aside the fact it was utter tosh, I suppose....

daisychain01 · 09/08/2020 16:33

I'm mystified by the link between trolling and having twins. Does anyone know what that's about?

If it's to taunt people who can't have children, because "look at clever little me, I can have two!" then they're even more pond-life than I thought, but maybe I'm reading into it too much?

RonaldMcDonaldio · 09/08/2020 18:33

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

RonaldMcDonaldio · 09/08/2020 20:52

Oh.

I was just explaining that the reference to twins, @daisychain01, was simply that it's a common theme to troll posts, that's all - frequent dramatic updates, things moving fast, outrageous developments, and often having newborn twins.

I know why my post was hidden, sorry MNHQ. Blush

BubblyBarbara · 09/08/2020 21:00

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Redhair23 · 09/08/2020 21:05

@BubblyBarbara oh don’t they will be wetting themselves with excitement at a mention!

RonaldMcDonaldio · 09/08/2020 21:13

FFS I thought my oblique reference to that is why my post was pulled...perhaps not then, but I didn't say anything else controversial. How odd. Confused

SweetBillie · 09/08/2020 21:40

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Redhair23 · 09/08/2020 21:43

Oh the innocence Grin

daisychain01 · 09/08/2020 21:44

@RonaldMcDonaldio thank you for giving the explanation and sorry it's put you in some difficulties - that's really weird!

Lelophants · 09/08/2020 21:46

I think they find the stories really interesting.

The nasty stuff probably to do with their own insecurities.

That supply teacher should've been reported :(

ThickFast · 09/08/2020 22:03

PhilSwagielka that’s really weird to ask for money and then blatantly spend it on video games. This thread is making me doubt all the threads I’m following now.

PhilSwagielka · 10/08/2020 19:33

@ThickFast

PhilSwagielka that’s really weird to ask for money and then blatantly spend it on video games. This thread is making me doubt all the threads I’m following now.
What really got me was that she was begging for money and a place to stay on a forum with lots of teenage users. We had people asking their parents if some random woman off the internet could stay with them. As if any parents would say yes.
New posts on this thread. Refresh page