Have you ever had a thread removed when you weren’t actually a troll?

[Yoghurtpit]

I always wonder this. Sometimes I comment on a thread then it’s gone as it’s ‘not genuine’ etc. But I wonder if sometimes the facts are changed a little to protect confidentiality and really the essence of the story is true? This happened to me many years ago now and I still remember feeling like I was at my lowest then that happened! Everything I had put was actually accurate but the situation must have seemed so awful it was unbelievable to some posters.

@bruffin yes but coming to an Internet forum for advice must surely be with the knowledge that it’s not the same or as genuine at all as seeking professional support? You have no idea who the posters are really. So whilst I think MN is a HUGE source of support for many, it cannot be the only place people turn when in crisis. It’s best for mundane questions or tricky relationship scenarios but not things like sexual abuse etc where obviously you need a safe and genuine place for support. Even with relationship advice I think you have to take it with a pinch of salt and it’s usually a venting exercise than anything else (which is fine of course).

The troll hunters get on my wick. They gleefully post that they think a post is fake, or make hilarious jokes about bridges and hairy hands 🙄. Or the one word gotcha that is "Reported!"
But troll hunting is just as much against the rules as trolling, so they're no better! Just report quietly FGS.

I haven't had a thread pulled, but have had a couple of posts deleted. One I've no idea why, the other was a personal attack. There was a misogynist wind up merchant posting, just to rile people up. Called him a cunt 🤷‍♀️

I suspect this. That ithere are a sub-group of Mnetters who proudly look for trolls and spend their days gleefully reporting them. From posts on here they proudly list their ‘signs’ a post is a troll. Their ‘signs’ include totally normal stuff normal posters do. Like giving details of what happened..🙄

This.

One of the signs apparently being that a poster has twins. I have twins but can’t post about them because it makes me a troll

My thread wasn't removed, but people were accusing me of being a troll. It was about my ex H and his behaviour.

The fact people assumed I was making it up definitely convinced me how bad he was...

Happened to me years ago when I posted under a different username. I described an actual situation that has happened to me asking for an advice. I was called a troll, a liar and many other things. Thread got deleted although every single thing I wrote was true and all I wanted was an impartial opinion from people.

Yes,I once posted about my sd who'd moved in with us and I needed help about her shitty and entitled attitude

I posted,got a few responses (which where bloody helpful) and fell asleep

Woke up to my thread had been deleted and I was blocked from my account

No communication from mumsnet to say why-i was just blocked and deleted

Still pissed off about it as I was being 100% genuine-I would never start a thread again

Yeah. Two I think. One where I said I love MN and you're all hero's. Woke up and it was gone.

Another where I was like where has Bluntness100 gone!!!! She's still not back lol

Yeah my first post . Broke guidelines and I needed to ask permission first or something

I think this is unfair. People might need support or an outside view for whatever reason - sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees.

Also, where does that poster say her first thought was to post about it here? That’s pure projection, and quite likely not the case at all.

Yeah, these are the ones I think are grim and should be deleted. I don't want to hear about your husband leaving shit stains on the bed ta, it's foul and grim, and does make me wonder about the mindset of these people posting this kind of thread. Are they trying to make others share their similar stories. Makes me wonder who's behind the threads, and I would never post on them.

Also, I could post a few things from my life that have happened/that I have experienced, and some people would probably call 'troll.' As they would just not believe them. As a pp said, some people can't see past their own life, and just because someone has not experienced something, that doesn't mean it has never happened to someone else.

LOL, how is @x2boys 'projecting?' What a weird comment. 😆 She SO is not.

Also, it IS every shade of weird to run straight onto mumsnet to post about your partner's disgusting and vile personal habits/personal hygiene. Who DOES that? Why would ANYone want to tell ANYone about that?! Weird. And as I said, makes me wonder about the motives behind it.

I haven't, but I do remember one when I was first starting to come on here. The op was in very premature labour and was asking for help and she was accused of being a troll and had her post pulled. It turned out she was in fact a real person and this was happening to her, and she was even later on One Born Every Minute! Poor thing was so scared and needed help.

yes I have. I regularly change my username, but changed my email address to because I was talking about something financial and didn’t want it tied back to anything I’d previously written. I was deleted as a troll.
Im in the process of leaving a really nasty relationship and it was incredibly upsetting for Mumsnet to essentially invalidate something that I was going through

That's very similar to some of the 'satanic panic' scandals in the 90s where some of the very strange things some children were saying during an investigation into organised/ritual CSA turned out to be related to a character in teenage mutant hero turtles.

Sorry, off-topic for the thread!

MNHQ will always make mistakes but I think that's something we have to accept, in return for being able to post on a forum that allows name changing.

Name changing or having more than one account isn't allowed on most other forums, and that cuts down on the amount of lies and bullshit, because their own posting history would literally out them.

Yes about vaping weirdly! Wanted advice on how to quit and the very innocent thread got deleted for being a suspected troll. Go figure!

Not a deletion but being called a troll and a liar once for saying I shave my legs above the knee

i was both 🤔and😂

still not over it

I have honestly never ever shaved my legs ... I'm quite blonde, and I've actually never needed to ... But is that unusual to shave your legs above the knee(s) then?

Not for me it isn’t but apparently the troll hunter thought it impossible

Exactly the same happened to me, I emailed Mumsnet to ask why I couldn't log in or reset my password, and was pretty shocked to read the reply saying they'd suspended my account. Apparently someone had reported me as a troll or that I had a fetish or something because I'd posted asking for girls underwear recommendations! I remember asking due to my daughter (who was probably about 8 at the time, this was a few years ago) having really bad sensory issues and struggling to find any underwear she found comfortable. She's autistic so it might even have been posted in the children with special needs section. I had some good recommendations in reply, but apparently someone reported the post and me as a user being suspicious or something Apparently I was always posting or replying about girls underwear! It was bizarre, apart from that one post, I may have replied on another thread at some point with a question or something, I can't remember now, but it would have been something very minor like where did you buy them / cost et! Whoever thought I was a troll for that and reported me must have been very bored and not very aware of ND children having sensory issues with clothes, yes including underwear!

MN did respond quickly and reactivated my account once they'd looked at all the info, I was actually a bit upset that it hadn't been looked into until I contacted them. If I hadn't, I may well have just been left suspended or banned forever! MN did apologise, hopefully now they review these types of reports faster and don't automatically suspend an account without looking at any evidence.

@Ivyy That's quite sad that you were banned like that when you were only asking about girls clothes/girls underwear ... It's quite normal for mums of young children to be asking about clothes and things for them...

Unfortunately you do sometimes get trolls on here that will try and get the mums on here talking about their little girls underwear, (bras and underpants etc,) So you were very likely reported because people thought that's what you were ( little girls underwear troll.) But at least mumsnet sorted it out and reinstated you. Even THEY make mistakes sometimes.

Personally I couldn't care less about troll threads, I think people who sit there reporting them have too much time on their hands.

No but I've had posts removed for misgendering people, and some other stuff.

MN relies v heavily on advertising so I think that drives some of the moderation decisions they make.

I personally think it's dreadful when posters pile on a person who seems to be going through a difficult time, telling them there's a troll, when there are zero tells that they might be.

But I appreciate it's a difficult decision. I used to volunteer for a crisis helpline and the number of men who'd call up to get their rocks off was surprising to say the least. There were a couple of repeat callers who I was taught how to identify straight away but there was one guy that I absolutely thought was genuine for about 4 minutes I'd say.

It's mad what some men get turned on by.