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.

Did you put any link in your post @Fightyouforthatpie ? Sometimes they get automatically hidden if you do.

I got a thread deleted and was banned! After nearly 20 years!

As PP said you're not told you're banned, it's only when you try to log in it says password/user not recognised.

I was genuinely really really upset.

I contacted them and was told off in a Head Girl manner, I just apologised and was reinstated.

Still stupidly really upsets me though. I don't think I deserved it. Such different times :(

I got a TAAT deleted when the first thread was mine.
It was written by a very goads poster who tried it with another couple of threads over about a week and then disappeared. The writing style was very hairy handed recognizable.

The subreddit is insane. They were convinced a poster discussing her daughter's illness and eventual death was a troll, but then the death notice was easily Googled.

*goady

Troll hunters are often just as annoying as actual trolls - more so when they're relentless and looking for any glimmer of hope for personal glory, like the nosey parkers irl who peep through their net curtains, just so they can tell everybody that 'her at number 41' got a delivery from John Lewis or forgot to put her bin out.

I get that there are real trolls, but if their pathetic 'work' means that a whole load of genuine people are falling out and accusing each other of any and everything, they're kind of unintentionally doing the trolls' 'job' for them.

I also hate the way some people will hurl the 'troll' word as a gotcha at people who start hilarious, harmless made-up threads that don't hurt or upset anybody but just give us all a great laugh that we remember with fondness for years later.

They do get it right often though. Stuff pops up there and ends up deleted here all the time.

They're particularly good at spotting begging threads and bereavement trolls. The latter are the lowest of the imo. Genuinely bereaved posters relive the worst times of their lives in solidarity with them. There was one a while back, a dead pilot (his 'widow' claimed to sleep with a pillow shaped like her dead DH with a phone playing a video of snoring sounds under it) - MN Trolls spotted it immediately but it took days to be taken down. The sickest thing about it was it was based on a true story the poster had clearly read in a newspaper. I hope the poor man's actual widow never saw it.

It's also very telling that there are some people with very tiny, safely dull lives, who cannot fathom that other people somewhere in the world might be going through much more challenging experiences than they have ever known.

To bravely post about something immensely harrowing in a desperate attempt for support and advice, and then to be told that your actual current lived experience is all a big lie - that must intensify the pain unimaginably. Ironically, that's exactly the kind of thing that your everyday troll would also seek to do - so in the end, it's all fine and lovely for everybody, except for those for whom life is very much not fine and lovely and obviously don't matter...

Not a thread but I've had comments on posts deleted which has really annoyed me because I don't say anything abusive, it just may be a comment others don't agree with, but isn't that the point of an advice forum, to get different opinions?

One recently on a thread about a parenting issue between parent and teen, most comments were in support of the parent and criticising the teen, my comment was that I thought the parent should reconsider their approach but to me it sounded as though the teen's actions were a direct result of their parenting style. To me, that was a valid point for them to consider, but my comment was deleted as not being in the spirit of supporting the poster.

The bereavement trolls are awful, I've reported a few in my time.

I recently had my account suspended as they were convinced I was a previously banned poster with several accounts!? 🤬 I was fuming. After many emails I sent it finally got reinstated. No explanation at all! Wtf?

Yes. It turned into a big fight and was pulled for not being in the spirit of the site.

I was happy about that because I wanted an intellectual discussion about a difference and not the aggressiveness that it became.

That was the one. That poor woman and her family. I wrote a post about it just before you, and it has always stuck in the back of my mind.

It's awful when you do get sucked into a scenario by a troll, I think the first one I remember totally being taken on by was a mum posting about her child with suspected leukaemia and it was all made up.
Even now when I read posts thinking that sounds a little bit far fetched, I give the op the benefit of doubt (in my mind) and generally watch the thread to see if it was deleted or those reasons.

Agreed.

Pretty much all women are aware that for whatever reason, women could on occasion piss or shit themselves or have a heavy period in public. So if it happened to them, they already know they're not alone.

No-one needs to hear other people's tales of when it happened to them.

And, I'm sure some people will object, but I think it's weird when some MNetters post pictures of their genitals or what came out of their vaginas.

No-one on MN is verified as medical professionals so it's just very strange to post pictures of genitals or what came out of them for 'MN advice'.

Google, or more helpful, make an appt with a medical professional.

I made the mistake of posting on here when I was at my lowest. DH had been rushed into hospital and after life changing surgery was on ITU. He had sepsis and peritonitis. We all thought he would die. I couldn't visit as was during covid.

I had lots of support but also the 'this is a troll' posts. I sent a photo of DH in ITU to MNHQ and they verified I was genuine. I was accused of being 'hazy' with details ( I didn't want outing).
Then someone said I was mentioned on a Munsnet bitch type forum ( all I did was type in my username) and the vitriol was intense. Apparently I was evil, had multiple sock puppets and people like me should be drowned at birth as I took away the horror of folk in a real situation.

I was on my own .

I fell apart. MN had been the only place I could say how I actually felt. I couldn't say stuff to our adult kids or my elderly parents. I couldn't say I was at risk of being a widow in the next 24 hrs, that my beautiful strong husband was quickly turning into a frail old man and if he survived would never be the same.

I asked MNHQ to remove me from all posts. I disappeared for a while. I hated MN and how it made me feel. It did the opposite to what I thought it would do.

I now lurk a lot. Try not to say anything controversial, keep schtum.

MN trolls Reddit - that was where I found my thread being torn apart

Was it about m+s or bisons in the water????

I hope things are better now, ColinRobinsonsFart.

I remember a few years ago someone asking for advice about a very sensitive situation which involved another person. She had changed various details to preserve anonymity, but people picked away so much at the 'inconsistencies' that in the end it became clear which details had been changed.

@ColinRobinsonsFart hoping your husband made a full recovery?

Yes but I could understand why & I quickly regretted posting!

Just because something was deleted, doesn’t mean it was actually a troll.

As mentioned in this thread, many threads are taken down on a hunch from MN and nothing more. A thread being deleted doesn’t serve as proof that it was actually a troll.

(As many posters have mentioned, threads are frequently deleted without contacting the OP or any sort of behind-the-scenes investigation)

Years ago a friend of mine started a thread about John Lennon and the controversy around him. We were together having drinks at the time. People went absolutely crazy defending him and it was deleted due to ‘concerns about the poster’! We were stumped.

Look

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4852052-to-think-this-is-weird

Real or troll? So much shite ('scuse the pun) gets posted that it just spoils it for genuine posters. The trolls are the people to blame. Not the cynical people fed up with it all.

If it makes you feel any better I can’t bear John Lennon 😆

This was evidently a troll, though. They posted about ghostly wotsit fingerprints and pissing themselves at 'DH's' funeral, among other things. By the end the posts were veering into a sort of surreal sick comedy. It was horrible.