Page 3 | To wonder why people post troll threads

Dishwashersaurous · 2022-09-19T19:28:09+00:00

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?

OneTC · 19/09/2022 23:07

Some of the best posts on here are obvious trolling.

Most of the funny ones in classics are obvious troll threads

OneTC · 19/09/2022 23:11

And also it's much easier to do it here than on many other platforms. It's pretty much set up to facilitate it with the easy name changes

audeloquipalam · 19/09/2022 23:26

TrashPandas · 19/09/2022 20:48

Attention, entertainment, a fetish, so-called "journalists" who aren't capable of reporting real news, fantasists unsatisfied with their real lives, and traumatised people trying to come to terms with some scenario that didn't play out how they wanted.

I think that covers it.

This.

Also special mention for “Trigger Warning” and/or “Name Change” as fairly reliable indicators of fictitious screed to follow.

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 19/09/2022 23:36

Cuck00soup · 19/09/2022 21:49

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.

The begging threads piss me off. They post for 'help' with ideas to make money/save money, then proceed to dismiss any and every idea given to them. They NEVER have family or friends or anything to sell, and they have already tried the many avenues that other posters suggest.

Upshot is, they are hoping someone will send money.

Then you have at LEAST one muppet on every thread who says 'I would rather lose 20/30/50 quid than think a young single mum is going hungry.'

Mugs.

AbcMurders · 19/09/2022 23:36

@PearlWithTheGirlEarring ahhhh I came across
one like that but thought it must be legit as it’s so detailed … second guessing it now…

another poster made a good point about how it’s not even trolling in the traditional sense, wonder if there’s a word for it

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 19/09/2022 23:39

VanillaSpiceCandle · 19/09/2022 21:16

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?

The vilest one I've ever read on here, was the one who's husband had being killed in a crash after he got hit head on by a Truck and his car burst into flames, the way she described everything in detail and how she wet herself at his funeral. I still can't listen to Caribbean Blue without wondering how low someone can go to make up shit like that.

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 19/09/2022 23:40

@illiterato yes that's the one!!

Dinomummy2 · 19/09/2022 23:43

Is this why the smelling illness thread was deleted, was it a troll? I found that really interesting.and can't think why else it could be.

meatballsoup · 20/09/2022 00:06

I think it's a way to live out a fantasy of a life they want but don't have. Even if it's just mundane stuff. I actually got trolled in real life a few years back. Met this really nice woman at playgroup. She was smart & funny, nice kids I really enjoyed spending time with her. We would meet with & without the kids. I never met her husband, but her story added up, he worked away! Turns out she was the kid's nanny. I found out by seeing the kids at a park, said hello & had a very weird convo with their actual mum.

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 20/09/2022 00:21

HarpicHarpy · 19/09/2022 22:14

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.

OMG I think we all know/have known/have met people like this. Whenever some random fucker on a bus or in a queue, starts banging on about their life/their hernia/their childhood blah blah blah, they never EVER want to hear anything about you or your life. They are only interested in themselves. You try to talk but their eyes wander off, and you can see their mind working overtime, trying to think what bollocks they can bore you with about themselves next.

And yes to the holiday bores...........

HatThatWearsYou · 20/09/2022 01:35

meatballsoup · 20/09/2022 00:06

I think it's a way to live out a fantasy of a life they want but don't have. Even if it's just mundane stuff. I actually got trolled in real life a few years back. Met this really nice woman at playgroup. She was smart & funny, nice kids I really enjoyed spending time with her. We would meet with & without the kids. I never met her husband, but her story added up, he worked away! Turns out she was the kid's nanny. I found out by seeing the kids at a park, said hello & had a very weird convo with their actual mum.

That would really freak me out if I were in that mums place and found out about that.

I think there's been more incels trolling in here in the last few years, they seem to delight in trying to upset or gaslight any woman they can. The really obvious ones get thrown out quickly thankfully.

HighlandPony · 20/09/2022 01:53

If I’m honest some of my friends in real life do this. Mumsnet has a rep for being full of hoity toity “I would never do that with my child” women, sometimes a bit of a bitchfest and sometimes they post stuff to wind you up and get a laugh at it themselves. They screenshot some of the answers and put them on group chat.

BadNomad · 20/09/2022 03:59

The feeling of power, control and superiority by being able to manipulate many people. Plus attention and amusement.

NippyWoowoo · 20/09/2022 08:35

Nameless3 · 19/09/2022 20:47

Because it's easy to troll MN where loads of posters believe them. Because troll hunting is not allowed. Because name changing is allowed.

this perfectly sums it up. the troll hunting rule means that many people are unable to spot the signs or a classic troll, and continue to get sucked in by future posts.

while trolls may think that they're unique, most have a lot of tell-tale signs that give them away.

TrashPandas · 20/09/2022 09:32

illiterato · 19/09/2022 21:03

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.

I'm using the MN definition of troll (which as you and MarieIVanArkleStinks say, is not the definition the rest of the internet uses). MNHQ have deleted plenty of threads and banned plenty of users who were lying, but this one is protected for some reason.

WagathaChristieMystery Yep, that's the one!

OneTC · 20/09/2022 10:03

AbcMurders · 19/09/2022 23:36

@PearlWithTheGirlEarring ahhhh I came across
one like that but thought it must be legit as it’s so detailed … second guessing it now…

another poster made a good point about how it’s not even trolling in the traditional sense, wonder if there’s a word for it

Using the internet

mamabear715 · 20/09/2022 10:15

I'd probably fall for them all, lol, & my memory isn't good enough to post anything that's not true!
Can they be found out by IP addresses, or don't smartphones have those? (I'm old, lol, bear with me!)

lickenchugget · 20/09/2022 10:15

Insignificant people trying to feel significant

FiveShelties · 20/09/2022 10:19

Most of them are really obvious and stupid posted by stupid people. They are fine, it is the ones where poster says they have terminal cancer or similar tragedy in their life which I really hate - they are evil. I have no idea what their objective is but to get sympathy from people about something they have made up is awful.

OneTC · 20/09/2022 10:24

A better question would be why you all care though.

I read stuff other people write on the internet because it's a chill way to pass some time. I've never felt "invested" in a thread because the random, very likely fictional, wittering of strangers in the internet means very little to me beyond that. I don't care if they're real or not, it makes no difference to anyone.

Even the stuff that might be real is the presentation of one side of the situation who already feels uncertain enough that they need the validation of strangers, in a community where name changes and some details being changed in the story to hide ID are all accepted. So even the stuff presented in relatively good faith is biased dramatised nonsense

10HailMarys · 20/09/2022 10:26

It's all sorts of reasons I think.

Boredom and loneliness and general desperation for attention/sympathy/praise/whatever
They like inventing scenarios and characters but don't have any other outlet for this, such as a creative writing class
They like winding people up, like a child who pulls other kids' pigtails in the playground
They want to make a point about a real issue, but don't actually have a genuine personal example so they make one up
They have some kind of psychological or psychiatric problem, akin to Munchausen's or an obsessive disorder of some kind
They have a fetish and want to induce people to talk about the thing that excites them
They want to 'expose' other posters by eliciting an extreme response from them - eg they might post something under the fake persona of a racist, to find out how many people post in agreement and thus expose them as racists

Eyesofdisarray · 20/09/2022 10:32

Makes me think of Walter Mitty

PrincessofWales · 20/09/2022 10:35

illiterato · 19/09/2022 20:34

There was a persistent and actually reasonably convincing troll on here for years. She made up this whole life where she and her husband lived in a one bed flat in zone 1 London with two perfectly behaved children and she had this amazing career and still managed to run 10k after work every day. She was v vocal on weird things like eating really late and the children going to bed at the same time as her and her DH. She kept it going for years. I can only conclude that she wanted that to be her life and possibly even almost believed it herself.

I'm interested to know how you knew she was a troll and it wasn't real?

PrincessofWales · 20/09/2022 10:37

There's also a big difference between being a troll and just having a differing opinion to the majority on a thread. I think Mumsnet is too quick to delete and block posters who are just expressing an opposite opinion if that's done in a respectful and polite way.

georgarina · 20/09/2022 10:40

Just entertainment, same as when kids used to do prank calls

On the other hand I've posted really mundane threads in the past where posters have picked up on random details and decided there's NO WAY it could EVER have happened and accused me of being a troll/journalist.