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!

I don't see that troll hunting is against the rules at all. Post something slightly controversial and then multiple posters check your posting history and get abusive because you don't agree with them. Mumsnet HQ have no backbone and delete threads just because people are 'upset'. Pathetic.

@EarringsandLipstick

I didn’t actually use that description in the post

Well, I can only go on what you tell us you said 🤔

please explain what is ‘goady’ about it?

As you describe it here, it sounds as if you are suggesting that ways of grieving can be potentially linked to race or national identity. There's a valid discussion to be had about cultural norms about grieving but based on your description there's a strong possibility that there was stereotyping based on nationality or race, which can be both offensive & racist.

Then again you say you didn't post what you said you posted so who knows.

What's 'geographical identity' anyway?

No I wasn’t stereotyping at all. I don’t want to go into too much detail but I was noting a difference in how people grieve in my home country versus what I had observed in the U.K and thought it was interesting this difference was purely down to what was expected in different parts of the world so, I guess cultural norms do come into. I thought grieving was the same everywhere. But how does any of these shout ‘troll’ to you?

@mocah

Why don't you answer my question?

You are describing what your intent was. However based on your own description in your other two posts, I explained why it sounded goady, and hence may have had the thread taken down.

I didn't see the thread; I don't know what you really said.

I am commentating on your own description which includes a really odd (as yet undefined phrase) and I explained why based on your description it could have been goady. I'm not sure why you keep asking me to repeat myself.

@EarringsandLipstick

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 That's exactly troll hunting. So deletion was merited

Just report, citing the issue you feel makes it troll thread.

If it's a troll thread, the absolute best thing to do is not post & report. Trolls want the attention, and to be trending. Don't give them the attention.

I wasn’t troll hunting though .. I merely pointed out differences in the posts that meant it wasn’t reading true, but still gave advice in case it was true. My message was deleted - many other similar posts were not deleted, the thread still ran and was not deleted.

I don’t think I’m voicing my point/thoughts effectively.

I merely pointed out differences in the posts that meant it wasn’t reading true

That's the troll hunting bit 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not all posts will be deleted - they are deleted of reported & MNHQ decides they are troll hunting. It can be inconsistent at times.

Yeh I’m beginning to understand what is meant by troll hunting - I genuinely wasn’t though which is why I felt so aggrieved 😆

@Namechangehereandnow

Yeh I’m beginning to understand what is meant by troll hunting - I genuinely wasn’t though which is why I felt so aggrieved 😆

If you express any doubt about the veracity of a post or poster, which pointing out inconsistencies within a thread does, then you're troll hunting as MNHQ defines it and if someone reports your post, you'll likely be deleted (as indeed you were).

Thank you very - clear and concise. It seems nowadays on mumsnet you can only post if you absolutely just agree with the OP.

‘Blimey OP, did someone really park on your drive? .. CF, I’d block them in’ - easily construed to calling the OP a liar 🙄
My post wasn’t this obviously, but it was equally non offensive and non troll hunting 🤷‍♀️

@LaBellina

I always wonder that too *@Moneysavvymam*. For example some threads are fairly obvious like a first time poster opening a thread about stuff like poo.

But does anyone remember the ‘My neighbours puddles saga’?
Apparently that was deleted after several full threads because the OP was a troll. The story sounded very legit to me and I also wonder why it could continue for so long and how they eventually found out that the OP was a troll. Fascinating.

I seem to remember with the puddle one that the OP may have tripped themselves up with a name change fail.

@Namechangehereandnow

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.

The MNHQ teams don't read all the posts on all the threads. They wouldn't have time. But they do rely on us lot to report things so they read posts which flag up as reported. So maybe someone reported your post as being troll hunting, but other similar posters didn't get their comments reported to MNHQ so their posts were left standing.

@Namechangehereandnow

Thank you very - clear and concise. It seems nowadays on mumsnet you can only post if you absolutely just agree with the OP.

‘Blimey OP, did someone really park on your drive? .. CF, I’d block them in’ - easily construed to calling the OP a liar 🙄
My post wasn’t this obviously, but it was equally non offensive and non troll hunting 🤷‍♀️

Nonsense. You mustn't be reading many threads if you think you can't disagree with a poster.

You can't doubt their veracity by posting this on the thread. That's what the report button is for, and it's not complicated to understand how & when to use it.

Thanks @waybill. So no MN HQ superpowers were involved, just a troll not being quite careful

@Namechangehereandnow

Thank you very - clear and concise. It seems nowadays on mumsnet you can only post if you absolutely just agree with the OP.

‘Blimey OP, did someone really park on your drive? .. CF, I’d block them in’ - easily construed to calling the OP a liar 🙄
My post wasn’t this obviously, but it was equally non offensive and non troll hunting 🤷‍♀️

Well not quite, of course you can disagree with posters (MN is Bunfight Central after all). But if you posted something like "Really, OP? First you said the sky was blue, then in your later post you said it was pink and now you're saying it's green. Hmm...but assuming this is true then I'd do X, Y and Z" then you could, if reported, be deleted for troll hunting because you may as well be saying "I don't believe a word of it and I think you're an obvious troll but I'll play along anyway on the 5% chance this is real."

I'm not averse to the odd questioning of a thread's authenticity sometimes.
I mean there is some proper twaddle posted, I can't be alone in thinking it's horseshit?

The awful thing is that because the site is trolled so much, it means that genuine posters may not be believed. Posters may be hesitant to ask about personal stuff such as worries about periods, (just one example) because it's a topic that is regularly trolled.
And worst of all, posters end up sharing their true experiences whether of bereavement, miscarriages, abuse and numerous other topics, with trolls who are just entertaining themselves by starting such threads.

@CharityDingle

The awful thing is that because the site is trolled so much, it means that genuine posters may not be believed. Posters may be hesitant to ask about personal stuff such as worries about periods, (just one example) because it's a topic that is regularly trolled. And worst of all, posters end up sharing their true experiences whether of bereavement, miscarriages, abuse and numerous other topics, with trolls who are just entertaining themselves by starting such threads.

Exactly. This is why trolls are so awful.

Two threads on my watch list have been deleted tonight for concerns. Both about loved ones who have died. Trolls are definitely not harmless, some of them are downright disturbed.