why do people make up stuff on this site?

[Fantabulous1]

In the last couple of days alone, I have come across threads where people have fabricated entire scenarios. I am truly baffled by this, why do people do it?

There was the girl pretending to be a grandma, usually random ones about partners cheating, being the OW etc etc. Eventually they all get caught out and the posts get deleted, but why do it in the first place? Life must be reallt dull to make up a story for mumsnet lol.

Shits and giggles innit. I can see the appeal tbh.

It’s a platform for attention-seeking. Especially prevalent on pregnancy boards!
Coincidentally, a memory popped up a few days ago from when I was pregnant with one of mine where I’d made a post praying for a mum on my birth board who’d delivered at 23 weeks, but then didn’t survive. There was nothing in any of her posts to suggest she was anything other than an expectant mother, until her story about life in NICU niggled at another genuine preemie mum and some digging was done. All fake. The board had started a collection and everything when her “husband” told us she had delivered, to go towards clothes, travel costs, or a funeral... nothing handed over! You do have to be VERY careful.

People like to Hold Court.

Ah yes I'd not thought of it like that but IRL I knew somonw like this. She would start off telling eveyone a story, usually exagerated bulled up and sometimes stealing others story. She had people enthralled at her story telling

So I supposed it's no difference online

Alternatively it could be that they are genuinely asking about something or exploring a senario in their minds which might be very relevent or pertient to them but not strictly true. Looking for different view points and so on? Its not always attention seeking or trolling.

I can understand bored lonely people making things up for attention. They always get lots of responses, never mind how unbelievable or peurile their post is.
It must encourage others to do the same.

I worked with someone like that @Oldraver, she was an absolute nightmare!

I have worked on mental health helplines and we had many ‘false callers’. Often we’d be supporting them for weeks before someone became suspicious or the story unravelled. I often got taken in by then but this was ok for me. People troll hunt a lot here, I think because no one likes to feel they’ve had the piss taken, but for me these people were communicating a need in a totally dysfunctional way. I still think they were people who needed help from us. People have mentioned ‘attention seeking’ but for me, just like with children, I think ‘connection seeking’ is a better phrase. Some people have had a shit time and just want to feel cared about and important to others. They want reactions that make them feel interesting and valued. Many of us get that in healthy ways in happy relationships and are very lucky, but some don’t and the need is still there, so they go about getting it met in odd ways.

That said, some of the trolls on here are pervs or kids or bored people too for sure, I doubt they are all vulnerable people.

But how do you know it’s made up?

If I said, I appeared in movies, tv and cinema, as well as adverts, I’d done some life modelling, I was currently part of an exhibit in an art gallery, I’d been to the arctic circle and seen the northern lights, I used to be a swinger, I was arrested for prostitution because an evil ex wanted revenge when his wife found out he was a total scumbag liar and seeing two women at the same time, I used to be a civil servant, I’ve hand fed lions, tigers and leopards, I’ve met a few of the Osmonds socially, Jimmy and Donny, on a few separate occasions, as well as hundreds of other ‘celebrities’ I used to have 9 cats but never considered myself a cat lady, I’ve done fire juggling, I used to date a guy with a super yacht, I speak two other languages and I’m estranged from my parents and my brother which of those ‘facts’ is a lie and which is real...?

Because I can’t always tell the truth from fantasy when it’s on a social media account.

@CatSmith well that’s just it isn’t it? You don’t know what’s real and what’s made up, so things should be taken with a pinch of salt because you can’t be sure.

Theres nothing more annoying than giving advice/sympathy etc on a thread and then the next time you look at it, it's been deleted! I find it so infuriating. There was one a couple of weeks ago about someone who was convinced that they were pregnant but had been told that they wasn't. I felt really sorry of the OP and checked back for an update and... you guessed it, it has been deleted!

@GotOutOfBedOnTheWrongSide the one where she had the private scan on the Monday?!? Yes I was invested in that too, but looking back it was BS! She clearly did it for the attention - no matter how many people told her the blood test could not be false (including me!) It just went on and on didn't it?!?!

I'm sure she will be back at some point with a different story.

There are some posters you can read quite well though. They have a 'tone' and follow a certain style. Just as you can read people face to face, and sense when something is off.

The posters seem to lack a self awareness which if they had it would give them a heads up as to how they are perceived.

Quite like some of the 'I can't understand why...' type posters, who adopt a faux naivety, and whom one might suspect of protesting too much.

@Fantabulous1

In the last couple of days alone, I have come across threads where people have fabricated entire scenarios. I am truly baffled by this, why do people do it?

There was the girl pretending to be a grandma, usually random ones about partners cheating, being the OW etc etc. Eventually they all get caught out and the posts get deleted, but why do it in the first place? Life must be reallt dull to make up a story for mumsnet lol.

I think some people get a kick out of folks responding to them. It must be a power trip for someone so obviously impotent in their own life.

@Fantabulous1

That's the one! Grrrrr how annoying!

@lughnasadh yes and you can often tell if there are inconsistencies or unlikely details - their DS turns into a DD, OP doesn’t have a job on page 1 but suddenly does on page 5, they view a house one day and the sale has miraculously gone through 2 weeks later...not everyone can keep track of their bullshit!

I know two women who post in here and nothing either post is true, even down to boring stuff like posting on clothing threads saying they always wear a suit to work when I know they live in their dressing gown for weeks at a time and have never worked, bar about three days in a local cafe.

The other has posted parenting advice saying how well behaved all her kids are but I know they can’t even be left alone for a second without fighting and she can’t take them out anywhere without being embarrassed.

Peoples online personas are weird. 🤣 All down to low self esteem really.

Just been looking at one now

Cough MIL cough

I genuinely believe these are plants from MNHQ designed to drive up traffic on the site to keep the advertisers happy

The Box Room troll... what does anyone get out of going on and on and on about which rooms people sleep in?
And the plimsoll troll...just why?

I think some people get a kick out of starting threads just to provoke a reaction. Mumsnet isn't a place I consider to be particularly objective or where a lot of the users have any real sense of perspective, so it appears to be a place where it's easy to just rile people up with minimal effort, sit back, and watch the results.

Read the 'skorts' thread. It features at least half-a-dozen distinct individuals ranting and raving about 'paedos/paedophiles' despite demonstrably having no idea about what a paedophile actually is.

In short, the reason Mumsnet attracts so many trolls, is that it's ridiculously easy for trolls to get a reaction on Mumsnet.

I don’t think they tell people what they do in real life. And would probably try to pass it off as a joke if someone found out. But trolling is a thing. Making stuff up, assuming false identities, abusing random strangers, people do all sorts of weird stuff.

You even see small snippets of it every day “I’d tell them to fuck off” “I’d be fuming, and do this outrageous thing” or I do any manner I’d aggressive shit and you just know in many cases it’s a friendless introvert whose never told anyone to fuck off in their lives, never mind done something out rageous.

There was a thread the other day asking foe rhe best revenge stories and a bunch of people posted the old urban legend ones saying it was them, I sewed prawns in the curtains, that sort of shit. When everyone knows they didn’t.

@StormBaby you've just described my kids (and pretty much every other kid in the world!). I am always at a loss when I read posts where it's every other child who is feral, destructive and pretty much bonkers!

You can tell those who are telling the truth a mile off from those who aren't...Good luck to them, hopefully they get whatever they want out of it. I just wonder whether they do it in reality too.

"you just know in many cases it’s a friendless introvert whose never told anyone to fuck off in their lives"

@Bluntness100 how rude and presumptuous you are about introverts, if you were here right now I'd give you a peice of my mind!

@Bluntness100, like I said if I had £1 for every prawn in the curtain/hem/under the carpet comment, i would be rolling in the money!!!

I can't believe how many forceful m.i.l there are, who just barge into homes etc.
Or how many people text a neighbour who only moved in yesterday. Where do they get their numbers from? Do they just march up to them as they're carrying their furniture in and demand they hand it over?
As in..
My new neighbour moved in last week and has been constantly doing d.i.y. AIBU to have text him to ask that he stops banging in the evening?
Or blue lighted to hospital. From posting about being unable to breath, to blue light, to being put on oxygen. All within the space of 30 minutes complete with a blow by blow account.
Those type of threads always make me think the op is trolling.

I dont know, maybe to give to give the subject more weight or because they are a bit sad and have too much time on their hands?

I dont have the time myself due to running my own multi billion fashion house and with the IVF sextuplets that I exclusively BF and carry all in baby slings at the same time.

No one knows who anyone is on the net basically. We could be anyone.