Why aren't trolls allowed?

[Moneysavvymam]

I bloody hate reading a thread and then half way through, when its just getting juicy, it turns out its been deleted for being a troll. Honestly the trolls are better than real life and I'm here for the drama anyway. Aibu? Lighthearted!

@Namechangehereandnow

Does my head in too.

I had a comment deleted, was labelled a troll - literally I said ‘the OP’s story has changed a few times, if this is true’ .. then my opinion .. how that made me a troll I will never understand. Mnhq would not respond to me and explain how this made me a troll, or why they were justified in deleting my very valid comment.

That's not branding you as a troll that's saying you were troll hunting which is against the site rules. You shouldn't post that on the thread but report it to mnhq

But, aren't we ALL trolls? I mean my real name isn't WeAre and anything we say on here that identifies us is flagged, so changing a few details here and there to make a story clearer or even posting reverses to see if you are being unreasonable seem fine to me.

The threads that are deleted after miles of great advice are real losses, even if the OP is a 'troll'.

@LouiseBelchersBunnyEars

I once had a post deleted for "troll hunting" (I had no idea that was a thing) because I expressed doubt about the poster's intentions

Trull hunting is Really fucking annoying though.
If you don’t believe it, don’t answer.

No one wants to read Miss marple sleuthing through the posts and smugly pointing out inaccuracies, ESPECIALLY going through pirated history etc.

People might just change bits and bobs to try and not be outing and not remember.

I didn't go Miss Marpling through threads - I expressed doubt about what the person was saying. And, yes, I will continue to do that.

@Namechangehereandnow

Does my head in too.

I had a comment deleted, was labelled a troll - literally I said ‘the OP’s story has changed a few times, if this is true’ .. then my opinion .. how that made me a troll I will never understand. Mnhq would not respond to me and explain how this made me a troll, or why they were justified in deleting my very valid comment.

You were presumably deleted for troll hunting, not for being a troll.

I also have no idea what "pirated history" is.

I wonder for the long threads that mnhq can change the title to add "fiction" type warning and then if they still get reports and people believing it all lock commenting but still let it stand for the enjoyment.
Or move it to the pp suggestion of creative writing board.
I can see the deleted message now

We have doubts about the ops posting history so we are just going to move this over to the creative writing/troll board

Trolls are harmful. A recent series of threads about an abusive husband was obviously a very badly written creative writing exercise. The OP garnered a huge amount of attention and sympathy. But fake threads like that make a mockery of serious situations when women are desperately trying to escape an abusive partner.

Even seemingly harmless threads (e.g., the tiresome attempts to invent “CF” behaviour) can be damaging. When half of all threads are exaggerations or pure fiction, genuine posters may be disbelieved. And don’t get me started on the people who say they don’t care if a thread is fake, they still want to know what happened.

I'm always amazed at some threads which are left to stand and others zapped. Some of the 'zilla ' threads which are left to run to 2 or 3 threads are ludicrous.

@Moneysavvymam

I bloody hate reading a thread and then half way through, when its just getting juicy, it turns out its been deleted for being a troll. Honestly the trolls are better than real life and I'm here for the drama anyway. Aibu? Lighthearted!

The fake dead babies and husbands are very dramatic. Shall we leave them too? The scammers? The fake domestic violence and rape ones? They're good for drama. (Sadly might stop women reporting their own rapes, but as long as you get your kicks eh?)

And no, you don't get away with shit by writing "light-hearted"

Sometimes people troll about sensitive subjects (child death, domestic violence, rape etc.) and that is so bloody harmful. It is sickening and leads to people not believing genuine posts.

There are also the pervert trolls that want women to share stories of certain things so they can use it as wank fodder. Repulsive.

I think the thread you were talking about was really interesting - about whether pressuring someone for sex in a relationship is acceptable.

Very Interesting discussion around consent / coercion / abuse.

I think that the thread should have been allowed to run because despite being started by a troll it was super interesting!

Yes sorry, I probably do mean troll hunting. So can someone please explain what troll hunting actually is? To me it means someone actively going through threads looking for posters they recognise to have ‘form’ for deliberately misleading threads, or rooting through previous threads to find inconsistencies with the sole intention of bullying the OP.

Literally, all I did on a thread, after reading the thread so far, noticed OP had changed their story a few times within the thread, and things just didn’t ring true. So my response was to point out the changes which made the scenario in the thread a bit questionable, but then said, if the post is true then gave my advice based on if the thread was actually true despite it sounding odd. My response was helpful to the actual OP, despite not knowing if it was a true post or not, and despite it seeming to not ring true.

I don’t think what I did was in any way troll hunting. I genuinely get very confused when troll hunting is mentioned.

@Namechangehereandnow

Yes sorry, I probably do mean troll hunting. So can someone please explain what troll hunting actually is? To me it means someone actively going through threads looking for posters they recognise to have ‘form’ for deliberately misleading threads, or rooting through previous threads to find inconsistencies with the sole intention of bullying the OP.

Literally, all I did on a thread, after reading the thread so far, noticed OP had changed their story a few times within the thread, and things just didn’t ring true. So my response was to point out the changes which made the scenario in the thread a bit questionable, but then said, if the post is true then gave my advice based on if the thread was actually true despite it sounding odd. My response was helpful to the actual OP, despite not knowing if it was a true post or not, and despite it seeming to not ring true.

I don’t think what I did was in any way troll hunting. I genuinely get very confused when troll hunting is mentioned.

That is technically what it is. On here however it is thrown around when the Aunties who are busy on PayPal sending money to scammers or praying for pretend dead babies etc get arsey because someone says "come on, this is a troll" Interesting they never hold their hands up afterwards and say "yep, I was taken in my that one" They just say "troll-hunters are worse" I mean, just READ that. There are actually people, presumably intelligent adults who think SOMEONE POINTING OUT THE RAPE OR THE DEAD HUSBAND AREN'T REAL is worse than the person lying about being raped. Or about a loved one dying. That, IMO, makes them sicker if anything than the original troll

No, you can't just let trolls run rampant on a site.

MN is full enough of:

• obvious beggars (who have great success, judging by certain past threads - one poster once admitted to sending a scammer £100. Said scammer was posting about a very sensitive topic).

• perverts. Hey ladies, tell me about the times you've embarrassed yourself by having to piss in public (and hundreds of idiots fall for it to share their stories).

• journos fishing for article fodder. Tell me about your worst interviews!

• racists

• complete fantasists

• and so on and so forth.

If you want juicy drama, watch a soap. Otherwise, accept that threads will disappear and stop being so gullible.

The thread I commented on was nothing like that, nothing vile. Just normal mundane life .. mnhq deleted my post saying it was troll hunting, when all I had done was point out op said this, then said that, now says the other, so not sure what the true scenario is. If it is actually true, then this is an awful situation, can you do this OP, would this help OP etc. I never said OP was lying, and I still offered help and advice. I was really offended at mnhq calling me a troll hunter when I absolutely wasn’t - but interestingly, others said the same things as I did, some blatantly called the op a liar, yet their comments weren’t all deleted. 🤷🏼‍♀️

So I now understand what an actual troll is (I think) and that’s really horrible and vile. But troll hunting I’m still on the fence. Sometimes I see situations where they may be justified, but often I just see personal opinions being branded as troll hunting.

@LaBellina

Because you have to draw the line somewhere. The undisturbed presence of trolls can lead them to take it further and deliberately post stuff to wind up and provoke, basically turning this place into a complete bun fight. So I understand why MNHQ has a blanket no trolls rule in place.

Agree with this. I quite like playing spot the troll game and the anticipation of waiting for the delete message.

I think it's necessary because some people do believe everything they read, post really personal replies and get very upset when it's a troll. At least the deletions might make them a bit more wary next time.

The threads that are deleted after miles of great advice are real losses, even if the OP is a 'troll'.

Agreed.

Also threads that get taken down because people are debating and disagreeing on politics or issues. Why can't people get into it on here? It always seems to be when a woke particular point of view is getting destroyed in debate.

more "funny" is when people are questioning the troll opening poster on details (because their posts just dont add up) and are blocked bc of "troll hunting".

Troll opening posts are very inconsistent and when people ask obvious questions they are deemed as trolls instead of the opening poster. (I am sure Daily Mail correspondents do troll posts very often)

but as you said, its quite entertaining :)

and long entertaining threads are deleted bc of "to many agressive posts" or something.

The last good topic I read which was deleted was about a mum who invited her family to a pub celebration and was not happy with future DIL having 3 coctails :) It got like 900+ very balanced responses, it was very educational and yet, deleted.

One other post (about a guest who was invited to visit and then when wanted to bring a friend was charged for the stay) was "picked up" by some local newspaper.

It is interesting that troll opening posters are okey, but people asking any legit questions related to the opening post are deemed as troll hunters and are blocked.

If the troll opening poster wanted to do a research, for their column , wouldnt it be good to get some legit questions and reactions, to see the different sides and opinions? Or they do their "research" to get a specific result (so they can refer to the MN reactions and quote only what is supporting their initial quest?)

I wonder....

@burritofan

I don’t mind trolls being deleted but “the OP has real-life privacy concerns so we’re taking this down” when really it’s “the OP has had their arse handed to them and has run away crying” gets my goat.

Agree.

I think trolls and begging threads are normally fairly obvious so it surprises me when people try posting serious advice.
If you think it's a troll don't feed it. Let it grow bored and find somewhere else.
If it's a begging thread please don't say "I've got some X you can have... I've Pm-ed you" or whatever. It may feel nice and heart-warming, but really it's encourages others to beg, and also, more importantly, stops people who might like to ask for advice genuinely from posting because it comes over as begging.

@beastlyslumber

The threads that are deleted after miles of great advice are real losses, even if the OP is a 'troll'.

Agreed.

Also threads that get taken down because people are debating and disagreeing on politics or issues. Why can't people get into it on here? It always seems to be when a woke particular point of view is getting destroyed in debate.

That all sounds a bit "not racist but" Which "woke" issues do you have a problem with? Racism being called out? Sexism? Disablism? Feminism?

I reported a troll thread yesterday and it turns out it wasn’t a troll! (Well mn decided they weren’t). There’s just some right weirdos in the world.

I don’t think troll hunting is that bad. Sometimes people are giving serious advice or fighting with each other and you just want to point out they’re wasting their time getting worked up about something fake.

Occasionally I do want to see where the hell a troll is going with something eg the window cleaner shit in my garden (why? Just why would you think to come up with that?!)

@PearLime

I think the thread you were talking about was really interesting - about whether pressuring someone for sex in a relationship is acceptable.

Very Interesting discussion around consent / coercion / abuse.

I think that the thread should have been allowed to run because despite being started by a troll it was super interesting!

Was that the thread about the husband who turned into a sulking sex pest at 8:30pm? I thought it was legit and was quite upset at women having to go through crap like that Other than obviously outlandish stories, how do you know when it's a troll?

I’ve been taken in once or twice by trolls. I’ve learnt to avoid any thread asking about your teenager’s periods or anything poo related.

The emotional vampires are the worst. Many years ago a troll posted about the death of her twins which turned out to be completely untrue. How unhinged do you have to be to lie about the death of your babies?

They are allowed

About 50% of humorous classics are obvious trolling

Any time I post anything I"m told I'm trolling. It's bizarre. Some sanctimonious article declares that nobody would ask this/do this/be in this situation

Obviously the people who lie about having had a baby that died, wow, those people need help. What sort of vacuum do you have to be to only exist when you're getting a reaction. There are a lot of people like that though, to a lesser degree. To invent a story that your baby died though to gain something from the reactions that is really pitiful. The truthful people who share on those threads should not feel bad. What they shared was TRUE. They are the ones that make the thread have any value.