To wonder why people post troll threads

[Dishwashersaurous]

Just that really. In amongst the people cheering themselves up, asking for advice and sometimes changing their lives.

Why do you think that people actively make stuff up in order to get a bunch of strangers to comment?

Yes it would seem so! Once recently I started a thread, engaged with it for a bit then had to go to work when I got back it was good me! I assume people called 'where's the OP gone? must've been a troll'

@HereIfYouNeedMe @AbcMurders

the first one was coincidental- someone resurrected a zombie thread and there was a post by troll person on there and there was a massive inconsistency on the alleged age and number of her children on that thread and new threads. That person then did an advanced search and found many other inconsistencies. They called her out on a high trafffic thread and she just disappeared

the exercise one- not sure- she messaged another regular poster and said she was taking a break and the just disappeared. I do wonder if someone threatened to expose her. As I said she was harmless but clearly a fantasist.

Sometimes it is because they have a very sad and lonely life and they get a kick out of it or they like the rewarding comments that people give? It makes them feel better? They describe a fantasy world with men and children and what they did and didn't do - perhaps they actually start to believe this imaginary life. There was one particular troll on here who had posters involved and praising her for months on end.

That was a typo! Meant to say - 'when I got back the thread was gone!'

I also think boredom, something to do.

She was caught out when she posted a picture of a luxury hotel room and claimed it was her bedroom, but MN allowed her to name change and carry on.

I know who you’re referring to but she was tricky as she wasn’t really a troll- she just lied / exaggerated a lot, but a lot of what she did say was true. In some ways she was very identifiable- for example she had a real photo of herself on her profile.

So with the ‘London one’, when you look back, it was very obviously a fantasy. She and her husband had extremely well paid jobs that required much travel, and she had been to Oxford or Cambridge (she made claims to both) but her spelling was pretty questionable at times. She had two sons who were impeccably behaved, wore White Company clothing all the time, and would sit quietly colouring in while she and her husband worked from their one bed flat (they all shared one room.)

It was strange, you’d think the fantasy would lend itself to a mews style Chelsea property but it was a one bed flat. I think that she was very lonely and concocted a very close family. I suspect she was a nanny and based ‘her’ little boys around her charges.

So me are clearly just started for a laugh, I’ll never understand why the obviously “too stupid to be real” threads get deleted as they’re not hurting anyone

*some

I don’t know. I rarely post but was on a thread about the weather that got deleted.

I kind of understand the sicko trolls that make up stuff about deaths etc they’re just sick freaks with nothing else going on. I don’t understand the mundane ones - why would you start bullshitting about nonsense and boring every day scenarios?

@illiterato
Thanks for clarifying that, makes sense in regard to that one with all the inconsistencies. But I wonder how they make judgement calls sometimes in regard to other ones, as it’s not like they can go check on the poster irl to assess if they’re lying, if that makes sense.
@EbbyEbs
agree, I don’t get the logic sometimes, harmless funny ones are ripped down quite quickly but they sometimes let lots of racist stuff run for ages before reacting, and posters who are clearly just winding people up and detailing threads are also left to run riot - just seems a bit inconsistent sometimes

I guess it’s broken window theory- if they let the harmless ones go then it encourages it. There was an awful one where someone posted that their husband was an airline pilot and was so sleep deprived after the birth of their child that they fell asleep at the wheel and were killed on the way to work leaving her widowed with a 10 week old baby. Loads of people who were genuinely bereaved were offering help. Really sick.

Good point

and yeah that’s actually disgusting, it’s psychopathic - I’m always a bit weary when sometimes posts a huge sad story, but then feel guilty just in case they are true

Definitely attention seeking, loneliness, or insecurity, and it's very likely that their life has not turned out how they want - so they fantasise and pretend to random strangers they are very successful professionals with lots of wealth etc etc... ...

Some pretend they know famous people, or a famous Prince, etc, and a close family member works for someone famous etc etc. All kinds of crap. The very highly educated, very highly paid, living in million pound home claims are very likely mostly fake, and all lies.

The ones who have made threads up about losing a baby or a child, or having terminal cancer, and other devastating life changing things, and they're just trolling baffle me. There is something very wrong with them and they need help.

Then there are the ones who make up shit about their neighbour attacking them for not watching the Queen's funeral, and make up random parking, neighbour, work, relationship, and friendship issues that don't exist.

They usually drop themselves in it when they start posting inconsistencies, and people call them out. Then MN delete the thread, and say 'troll.'

But yeah I do think it's largely boredom, and loneliness, and feeling like a huge failure in their life, so they invent scenarios in which they have a wonderful, starstruck life with wonderful lovers, great beauty, a fabulous career, and great riches. Oh also, if they are not married, they always have multiple FWBs, they always travel extensively, and they are always upper middle class.

Much of this ^(possibly all,) is bullshit. A fantasy life created by a bored and lonely person who hasn't achieved much in life.

I wonder this too. Very pathetic people 🤷🏼‍♀️

There are of course people with mental health problems who sadly are unlikely to get the help they need from Mumsnet.

Then there are people wanting something; money, validation, attention.
Those on the wind up, looking to get posters frothing, journalists, people with an agenda looking for screenshots, people wanting to flog something.

Some of the wind up ones are amusing as are the more obvious fantasy uses. The begging ones less so, especially when they draw in people who perhaps don't have much for themselves.

I don't think that there are complex reasons for trolling. I think people troll because they can.

Too much time on their hands, idle hands etc with an added hint of wanting to be dick?

Anonymity emboldens people to behave in strange ways. But it's strange that internet 'trolling' seems to have shifted in its meaning. On MN, it now seems to have come to mean something as innocuous as a creative writing exercise that's clearly a crock of old bollocks.

In the older-school forums trolling had much more sinister, unpleasant undertones, comprising content that was clearly intended to cause maximum hurt and unhappiness to others. It still exists elsewhere online, such as the doxing, death threats and bullying campaigns conducted on sites like Twitter, or malicious sites with threads designed to persecute one particular person. On MN, most of it's silly stories seemingly written for the poster's own amusement, although there are certain fetishists (look out for threads about menstruation, personal hygiene and shit) which are evidently posted to extract personal information for the author's own titillation.

Weirdos. But The world's full of oddballs; no reason why the www should be any different.

Good old fashioned attention seeking. They're the same people that sit next to you on the bus and immediately unload their entire (fictional) life story. Or the people that visit the same holiday destination for 25 years and take great pride in knowing all the waiters names and think the hotel owner looks forward to their visit and sees them as family (he doesn't). They're sad, lonely, and want to feel seen and a part of something.

People on this forum are so gullible though, and Will believe any old crap.
i’m sure some people do it for a laugh.

They are pretty easy to spot though. The story ever escalating with each post. A cast of loveable characters brought into it, hot relatives, neighbours etc
the story always escalates at a ridiculous pace, from suspecting cheating to being half way up the motorway and leaving him within 12 hours. All designed to pull on the heartstrings and encourage the gullible who’ll will the OP on with their faux excitement.

tbh that sounds like a lot of the current active threads 😬

And special mentions for those dedicated to the medical profession that can research all kinds of drugs and Illnesses for their tall medical tales. Those kind I’m sure have some weird type of munchausens by Google or something.

@TrashPandas I remember them! I wonder if they’re the same troll that @illiterato mentions? Sorry if they’re totally unrelated - they might be different. I don’t want to mention their name directly, but it was the word you use for tiny little pieces of foods like bread or cake.