To NOT believe some of the threads posted on Mumsnet?

[NovemberMorn]

Some are far fetched, some threads ask for advice then the posters don't bother to respond when asked for details, some threads just seem to be started for provocation.
I don't mind any of the above...but I certainly don't believe they are all genuine.

I'm not a troll though, so I hope it stays up.

I think all threads on MN are made up. Including this one.

Cynic.

Someone wrote 3 posts, one after the other, a couple of days ago. All taken down. I find it bizarre.

It sometimes strikes me that a story isn't true yet most posters who respond are very trusting and lacking in suspicion so it will get hundreds of earnest responses offering advice and sympathy. I might be wrong of course, but...

There was one fairly recently where it seemed to me that the originator had cleared off after posting an utterly contrived get out cover story yet people kept posting for days afterwards entreating her/him/ to update and let them know she was all right. It just didn't occur to them to be suspicious of the (to me) very suspicious sudden and made-up ending. Another one the other day posted two separate threads with similar versions of the story. That was one unanswered mystery but there were other signs within the postings, such as a jarring response that didn't fit with the emotion of a supposedly distressing story.

There is no way the amount of shaking and crying reported on Mumsnet really happens in real life

Exactly.
There is an ongoing thread, many pages long, where the OP has not come back to update once....and the one post they did make struck me as untrue in the first place.

This. It can generate interesting discussion anyway so don't fret about it.

I'm always surprised when an op hasn't posted for like 2 weeks and posters keep saying thinking of you and hope you're ok. That is weird and overinvested

It's just grief vultures looking for their kicks.

Like the people who start threads about child abuse in the news and title the thread OH GOD WHEN WILL IT EVER END and hundreds of posters all join in the frothing. It's horrible behaviour.

I don't really care if some are fake, nobody can be surprised that on the internet some stuff is fake surely? Sometimes stories have several apparent holes in them, maybe it's rubbish, maybe it's because the OP is changing some details to avoid being recognised. I don't care either way.

What I really hate is the people who say they can spot a troll and spend all day doing it so half the threads on here end up being pulled - all so they can feel like some kind of superior being and boast about how they can spot them a mile off.

Unless it's someone selling something or completely obscene just leave it alone. I don't give a shiny shit if it's fake any more than I do when I watch a soap and get invested in their storylines.

Totally agree.

Some threads are so long and eloquently written I’m wondering how on earth do people get the time to sit out and write such long detailed responses when they’ve got kids!

And yes I also agree, a lot is of threads just don’t make sense and sound very far fetched.

Sometimes I do think truth is stranger than fiction.

Sometimes an OP is an unreliable narrator, which we can all be guilty of, and another person involved would tell the story very differently.

Sometimes a relationship is too complex to accurately capture in one post.

Often it's a troll.

Always best to assume a troll and post because it's funny or you're bored or your advice might be useful to someone else. Never invest emotionally.

It's a current fashion to proclaim every far fetched or badly written post is AI. They never read like they were produced by any AI tool I've played around with.

I think the most annoying common posts at the minute are the faux 'I need help deciding if I'm being unreasonable' when obviously they know they're not being unreasonable and nobody would ever think they are.

Like this one 😂

Cheeky. 😛

Be prepared for MNHQ to take this thread down. 'Not in the spirit', or something.
Is free speech not allowed on here then?
You weren't joking when you said you haven't been here long were you? 😂

No it's true.
And if free speech is curtailed in a way I find oppressive, I won't be staying either.
Surely a forum as big as this one should tolerate different opinions, as long as they are legal and not deliberately upsetting to anyone.

And "gotton".
Are they ALL American or Irish?

People do post for personal attention, for validation, for reassurance. They want to connect and people to focus on them personally rather than the actual topic; for example, a post asking how to lose weight or manage money when there are dozens of threads already with hundreds of suggestions as to how to do it. Posting can be very much a personal need and quest which is why I take it seriously.

AIBU is a useful source for those everyday personal needs and social dilemmas - and wider issues too while being the 'go to' or the last resort for people who feel in need of advice or consolation. I don't agree with some of the comments here, treating it as entertainment or just a laugh and trivialising it as all made up; if people want entertainment why not post that in Chat - or somewhere else, say, in News if it's a tabloid-like sensation or headline that they just want to emote or signal Isn't it awful? about?

You are never going to get useful advice in AIBU. Far better to post in the topic most relevant to the problem if you want proper advice.

On reflection, you have a point about relevant topics being better. But people do get useful advice in AIBU in the midst of some that may be plain wrong on subjects such as legal or medical or whatever. It might help if the mumsnet team encouraged people to post in the section for the specialist topic and keep AIBU for more general tea and sympathy and general life experience type of advice.

Well tbh how could it be unreasonable not to believe everything on the internet, it's not a question that needs to be asked 😂

It's the Internet op what do you expect?
People have to embellish and add and take away details to keep their anonymity.

Sometimes I've posted about stuff that's been very painful to me but in a humorous way to draw in the funny posters who will cheer me up and to get there I've got to take a lot of flack about being made up etc.

Does it matter.

Get a life!!

We had cakes burning once on Alfred king and we had panics... This isn't real it's not real.
We had Brian offering a yoni massage and people schreeking... It's not real it's not real.
We had a lots of stuff like that and the it's not real brigade Jack booting in like puritans to stamp. Out. The fun.

I agree @Gem359 there have been some harmless and at times very funny fake threads that got deleted. Usually just when I am enjoying them. I noticed a recent trend in usernames. A describing word, a colour and then an animals name. It has interested me because I wonder if it’s one very imaginative person? Or are lots of other posters following the same format? Or is some kind of bot generating the names? I probably spend too much time on here😂.