Why trolls make up threads on here ?

[Happyone8]

I’m fairly new to Aibu and have been on two troll threads recently. One was about dating and was three threads long , where I took time giving lots of advice over several weeks . Ends up it was someone making it up and she/he had several other threads running too. Another thread from someone else has been shut down this morning for a similar reason .
Just wondering why someone would make stuff up ? It must be so boring and pointless! Also now don’t feel like investing time to freeing advice as feel that it’s all made up .
Is there a way to spot these people ??

Sad I missed it!

@babbaloushka

BronwenFrideswide The plot thickens...

Doesn't it just, guess some people don't like to be reminded of that particular event.

My favourite was when I first started on mn. It was a surprise pregnancy, by a uni student who carried on cheerleading throughout. She got a lot of shit for saying that she'd have sex under a blanket with her dd in the room. I think there was lots of drama then boom! Troll. That was my first experience of long form trolling.

I know a couple of people have already mentioned it, but I think it's worth saying this again.

Some trolls are nasty pieces of work. Other trolls are time wasters. It's awful that some people do that.

However, many deleted threads are not trolls. Someone reports the thread, MN aren't sure so they delete to be on the safe side. Sometimes it's because the OP has been inconsistent with details. But this can happen easily. It's happened to me. I never give 100% factual details about myself in order to maintain anonymity. Sometimes I forget what I said and it looks like I have made things up.

The upshot is, don't troll hunt. You might just really hurt somebody who needs the support. Just assume everybody is a troll and accept it. Report those you're suspicious of and never, ever give more time or thought or emotion than you can afford to give. To anybody.

I was horribly troll hunted on a thread I started . I had changed details so as not to be outed and posters did a search on me and started picking my story apart because of things I had posted about previously . It was awful and really upset me. Posters were still piling on even after MNHQ posted saying I was legit (obviously as far as they could tell) .

@medebourne very good advice.

Over the years (under different usernames) I’ve had two threads deleted as I was called out for being a troll.

The thing was, I fucking wasn’t! Admittedly they were both quite random and bizarre situations but every word was true and I was really looking for some helpful advice, and was really upset when the threads got pulled.

As an aside, I’m absolutely hopeless at spotting them. I think as I have ASD I take everyone at face value, I don’t lie so I assume others don’t. My threads I’m on list is usually a long list of MNHQ notifications about deleted threads

While some honest posters have been unfairly called trolls, I think that the far greater problem is that many, many troll threads are left to stand. Often they run to multiple threads. This simply emboldens the trolls and encourages others to try their hand at inventing the next saga.

I think MNHQ are in a difficult position. Short of driving round to the OP of a thread's house and checking it all out so to speak they have to make a judgement call.
Some posters assume that MN is a moderated site (like other sites) but the truth is if things aren't reported they will be 'left to stand' as MNHQ will never see them.
If you want to be involved with MN Talk you have to accept the way it works.

Off topic but does anyone remember the thread with the lady who had a houseguest who didn’t leave the bedroom she was staying in the whole time she was in this woman’s home which was for about a week or something? Was this a real thread? It reached its 1000 post limit and I don’t know what happened in the end. I still think about it

I wanted advice once but didn't want to say complete details as my whole family and friends know the real story, so i changed bits so it didn't connect to my real life but still got the advice I needed from the general story. Nearly had a heart attack when I read it in the bloody paper 😂 thank god I mixed up the story. Never done a complete made up one though, who can be bothered with that.

You can bet if MN started to be fully moderated 24/7 people would be whining about that then.

I love the 'Do you ever wondered what happened on this thread' threads. The answer is usually 'no' or 'it was a troll'.

@Koolandorthegang

Off topic but does anyone remember the thread with the lady who had a houseguest who didn’t leave the bedroom she was staying in the whole time she was in this woman’s home which was for about a week or something? Was this a real thread? It reached its 1000 post limit and I don’t know what happened in the end. I still think about it

Yes, from what I can remember, she was exactly the same on their return journey, they left to go home and that was the end of it.

When a long running trolly thread gets deleted after pages of deletions etc it's usually followed by a spate of threads one after the other saying 'What happened to the thread?'. I always think well if you were on it you will have seen the deletion message. So what's the point of asking.

Probably to keep women from reading some of the absolutely crucial and important threads about women and children’s rights.

Oh right. That was a mad thread. Your woman must be loving lockdown

There was a "good" one on here recently - somebody claiming to be a published Historian who apparently couldn't understand their Year 7 child's History homework! The minute somebody asked the title of their book, the op vanished!

My first troll experience on MN came in the form of a person (could have been a male..!) stating that they are feeling a baby move inside of them but had many negative pregnancy tests. The hospital wouldn't scan her so she had paid for a private scan and would of course update is! Bam! Thread down!

Did you refer to the crowdfunder and C&D, @BronwenFrideswide?

Could be all sorts of reasons... people may have mental health problems, or want advice on a situation from the past they can’t forget, or change so many details to protect their anonymity the details don’t add up. Then there’s boredom, loneliness, wanting to engage with people (lockdown means a lot of people are completely isolated, MN may be the only connection they have to society). Or imagination, like day dreaming out loud to see how it’s received? Or research for a novel?

Or as a distraction from bad stuff in their lives, like PND or an unkind partner.

Or posting when drunk/intoxicated?

I try to feel sympathetic rather than annoyed, not everyone has a firm grip on reality or trolls for malicious reasons.

loneliness and probably an underlying mental health condition!

I was very surprised to find the rainy puddles turned out to be fake.

It was clearly a troll from the start. I made a comment wondering how this was still going and was soundly rounded on by everyone insisting it was real and the police were involved etc. The obligatory “I know this person in real life - it’s really true” comment was made. Clear sign it’s a troll.

Other signs of a troll;

• Starts with “I’m new here”
• “Let’s call her xxx”
• “I’m going to talk to him at lunch time
• “laydeez,.....”
• Anything that encourages posters to post TMI about poo or periods or sex

If people are over investing in threads that is their problem but it is the reason trolls persist here.