To be more suspicious of disingenuous threads nowadays?

[HillyHoney]

I might be imagining this, but are there now a lot more threads along the lines of "AIBU to think that this [insert terrible thing] my [insert close relatives] do is actually not great? Just doesn't sit right with me, but maybe I'm wrong!" Tinkly little laugh implied.

It's usually qualified by a casual mention, as if not at all relevant, that the OP is saintly, moral and humble in various ways whereas the [terrible relatives] have also been in prison/are murderers/don't like puppies etc.

Are these increasing just to generate engagement and therefore ad clicks?? Who's writing them?! (Sorry, dont mean to be disingenuous there 🤣)

Or they come back with "This isn't something I've personally experienced, but it's a trend I've been hearing a lot about" or something equally vague.

And the AI list of 3 that it loves

And the "pithy" username created for that specific topic.

Despite their, "I just wondered what other people think about this" they always keep hammering away at the same point, not taking any views on board and, with every answer, slightly changing their angle and never replying to any specific questions.

A rather ironic post 🤣

Thr poster with SIL in hospital that got caught out lying finished me off (sorry can't remember details). It has got worse or we're better at spotting it, I'm not sure.

I know! 😁

The thread that sort of tipped me over the edge is STILL going, and people are so unbelievably invested, and continually replying in good faith. I know it's not my problem that people waste their time like this but I can't bloody help being annoyed, especially when over the years I've seen so many genuinely helpful threads and posters.

Or content for lazy journalists!

I noticed that one! And thought WTF 😂

What thread is it? lol

There’s probably a whole load of £££-making activity going on. Selling stories to journalists, advert funding by Ann Summers and the like, plus fake posts so we keep the momentum going… they have to make their money somehow!

But if you say something is fake, the comment is deleted. You’re not allowed to to say that.

Only so they can get away with leaving troll threads to stand (to drive traffic etc) despite people reporting them in line with the talk guidelines.

I agree and it’s because there are many posters that engage with the thread, where it then really takes off.

There’s a clever poster who I’ve noticed is derailing some of these threads by talking about something totally unrelated - I think maybe this is the way to go if you’re not allowed to troll hunt or Mumsnet won’t delete.

I like that plan 😁

I suppose I can't blame AI entirely - I mean, there's always been trolls, and you never know who's telling the truth and who isn't on an anonymous forum. One should maintain a sort of cynical caveat emptor approach in theory, but that's a tad depressing!

I remember trolls on the handbag.com forums many moons ago, but we didn't know what to call them then!

we had some with whole chunks of text spelling errors grammer errors etc back in the day and a few refused to engage so in some ways the old days were not better

I spend more time here these days than Reddit because I think there's MORE genuine human activity here than Reddit (also the humans are fellow adult women and not 20 year old boys 😂). But I'll have to be vigilant!

Oh God @Augarden, Reddit is an absolute binfire 99% of the time!! The first time I naively used it to ask a question about a skin infection, I had a message within 10 mins from a bloke telling me he was a doctor who could diagnose me via photo...needless to say, he didn't seem to need photos of the infection, just of me with no clothes on 😱

It's quite good for very niche subs though - there's quite a good one for my sector/industry.

Bonsoir suspicious ones! Just saw another of what I'm terming "Only the OP can win" threads, and thought of this one 🤣 hope everyone is remaining cynical in 2026!