Troll threads should stay up

[jobwantednotneeded]

Not a TAAT.

I genuinely think they should stay up. Other posters are having fun replying and are generally far more interesting than most of the boring threads on mumsnet.

Aibu?

People put effort and care into replying to posters who turn out to be bullshitting.
Bollocks to that!

Agree. We don’t have the faintest idea whether any threads on here are ‘true’ or not.

Some of the threads recently greeted with great general hilarity on here strike me as dull and over-straining for comic effect — like the one about the neighbour climbing over the fence to attach some kind of awning to one of the OP”s trees, which read like someone trying out their ‘suburban comedy’ chops. All MnHQ can do is establish whether a poster was previously banned, presumably.

I’ll be interested in threads that interest me, in the full recognition that the author may not be a distracted SAHM in Surbiton who has just discovered her MIL in flagrante with the vicar, but a lonely 60something male HGV driver parked in a lay-by in Norfolk looking for kicks.

🐦‍⬛ caw caw! Disappointing when it's a good one though.

Yeah let's leave up those posts from fantasists who claim their child has cancer.
Such LOLs
And the scamming beggars
totes hilaire

That one was hilarious. Obviously whether it’s funny or shit depends on the person. Just leave them up and people can scroll on if they want to. There was one day over Xmas I went onto the ‘I’m on’ on mn and 4 out of the last 5 threads I’d commented on had been deleted. This makes mn boring af. What’s the point in engaging in anything at all 🤷🏼‍♀️

But you’re at liberty to ignore them. There’s been a spate of suicidal posts recently, from what looks like the same poster claiming to be a teenager, which I’m pretty sure aren’t bona fide, but I don’t need to engage.

Anyone who thinks everyone on the internet is posting in good faith needs to wise up, just like conspiracy theorists need to learn that ‘someone’s Yourube channel said it’ isn’t a credible source.

People here strike me generally as being very trusting and I see threads which appear to me to be made up or at least questionable which yet receive several hundred earnest replies from people trying to be helpful.

It's not as if I haven't been taken in too on occasions that I know of and probably others that I don't know of but recently I've been seeing a lot more that I think are dodgy and I'm left wondering why others aren't picking up on it too. I dunno...maybe I'm wrong and they're right.

Some of my favourite ever threads were troll threads. I still read the super soaker one from time to time.

Classics is full of troll posts

Mumsnet wouldn't exist if it wasn't for sock puppets and trolls

😆uh-oh. What did you do?

I wait every year for the 'we're at the in laws, they don't celebrate Christmas but insist we come every year, they only eat one jam sandwich a day and don't allow anyone to go shopping what shall I dooooooo' threads because they're getting increasingly elaborate.

I doubt anyone believes them really, but they're fun to get riled up about. As for the two piss heads having a dry wedding and announcing it with ten days notice, I despair of people's credulity.

I forgot about that one! Just tried to find it and I can’t 😂

The issue with a lot of the ‘conversation starters’ is that they often encourage conversation that demonises a particular group ie step-mothers or neurodivergents. Nothing helpful comes from that, it does more harm than good to perpetuate certain stereotypes

The thing is that posters don’t half encourage it either. There was one a couple months ago (probably still standing) asking about their ‘son’s’ penis, mentioning the words ‘penis’ and ‘erections’ too much in the post to be normal. People lined up to talk about their teen sons’ penises, and reporting to MN did nothing.

YABU they should get to fuck. There's a creative writing topic and a just for fun topic if they genuinely wanted a laugh with people rather than attention.

@TinkerTiger funny you should mention that, I've just seen a very similar one taken down in the last hour so maybe they've made a connection now. 🧐 Sometimes I think they're waiting for more evidence, as frustrating as it is while people just keep feeding obvious trolls in the meantime.

Mm. I'd disagree. Not that the purpose of some OPs isn't to demonise certain groups, I agree sometimes it clearly is. However I've never seen a thread that goes all one way, and the attempts to malign and stereotype are usually roundly and very effectively challenged by other posters. Which I think is very useful. Certainly I've had some of my own preconceptions challenged while lurking on some threads and reading opposing views.

The name changing, the accepted "changing a few details so I don't get outed" and the anonymity and the general nature of the entire internet means that anyone that you'd just be better off believing it's all creative writing. Agree with gap though that doesn't stop it being potentially interesting

Very occasionally they are funny.

Mostly they are just boring: posted in the middle of the night about a scenario just real enough to get some people frothing back at them. Then pages and pages of posters being whipped up into a frustrated frenzy, all over a made up scenario.

It's honestly got to the stage where I hide most of them because just coming across the same old shit over and over again and being suspicious about almost everything as a result, is damaging the mn experience for me.

The MRA posts are actually a great example. I've yet to see one where the MRA came off better than the posters challenging them. If anything shows MR activism up for the nonsense it is, its got to be posting on MN and being annihilated by the reason, facts and evidence presented by its opponants.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_classics/569630-super-soaker-etiquette-at-parties?page=8&reply=11636348

here you go!

3 💩threads started tonight.

I agree. It's so weird how people like to control other people's version of fun online. One can simply leave a thread instead of wanting it shut down and deleted.

I don't believe most of what people write here anyway but I post, leaving space that they may or may not be true. Also, I'm a serial thread hider, a lot of the "interesting" threads are boring to me. Horses for courses.

If it's not anything bad or -ist, I see no reason why some people can't have fun amongst themselves with "silly" topics, even have a lighthearted go at the OP while OP is being a good sport about it. These are usually some of the funniest bit of mn... until the prefects, fun sponges and reporters win, that is.

Thank you so much! That’s me busy for this morning. Was looking for it in classics yesterday but came across the angry Santa cactus and was sidetracked for the whole afternoon (thoroughly recommend if not seen) 😂😂😂 see how it’s weird how some troll posts are allowed. Like the op actually needed 13 pages of advice on how to remove a piece of material from a cactus? It was pure nonsense but side splittingly funny

I think it depends on the actual content. If the whole thread is light hearted and funny then I see no harm in keeping it as the majority of posters are aware. Then there is the issue of the main post/er not being real but the following posts contain very helpful and informative links that could help others in a similar situation. There's been many a time I've saved a post to read later (regarding abuse or divorce for instance) but the whole thread has been deleted so all that information has gone. Maybe MN could just add - Troll to the title so nobody is fooled.