Getting sick of people accusing threads of being fake

[vivarevs]

Why do people do this? I keep seeing it more and more. I don’t doubt there is some shite on here but if people doubt the integrity of a poster they could just report to MN instead of derailing threads. Or just don’t respond. It’s especially common if the op doesn’t immediately come back and update or answer questions….as if everyone spends their entire life on MN.

I thought troll hunting was banned on MN and this is pretty much the same thing.

Because increasingly threads are fake.

It’s rude to start a thread and then bugger off immediately, even if the OP does intend to return eventually.

Sticking around for five minutes is hardly ‘spending your entire life on MN’ 😳

Some of them are fake.

Fake threads should be called out. Nothing annoys me more.

I did say i don’t doubt some are. But how do we know for sure? Instead of derailing a thread that could be genuine, why don’t people just report it?

Because lots of threads are fake. Quite a few these days are so obviously rage bait AI fake, and despite numerous posters reporting them, they’re often left up.

A lot of threads are definitely fake. They always stir people’s anger on the OP’s behalf, and the OP never comes back, or else makes one or two replies before buggering off, never to be seen again. They’re often a totally unbelievable scenario too.

Because these people lack imagination. As soon as they see a viewpoint they struggle to relate to or even someone writing in a way that they don’t have the capability to match, they think it must be AI or a bot.

And failing that, other insults are at the ready.
Are you a daily reader.
Are you Nigel Farage?
etc
etc
etc

To be honest, these people embarrass themselves and show themselves to be somewhat thick.

There is a good thread on this explaining how to spot an 'engagement farming' fake thread. They are more and more numerous and I really wish MN would crack down as they're ruining the site. I hate seeing posters wasting their time engaging in good faith.

Unless it’s glaringly obvious that it’s fake then I would always reply in good faith or not reply at all. It’s annoying that there are fake threads but it’s also annoying that people are derailing threads and branding them fake purely because they don’t agree or can’t understand the OP.

Well I agree with you OP that if people think a thread is fake then they should report it. I do this sometimes. If a poster on a thread actually says they think the thread is fake then I report them for breaking talk guidelines.

I have to say though that reporting threads that appear to be fake is often a thankless task. I remember a couple of threads where the OP carried on their fake story in to second and third thread before they were eventually taken down. And I can only assume MN must have had multiple pp reporting them as dubious before they took.action.

It’s irritating to see posters wasting their time offering advice or support in good faith when a post is blatantly rubbish.

How can you tell it’s blatantly rubbish?

Why would MN want to crack down on something that is driving engagement on MN? For all we know these threads might be started deliberately by MN to boost traffic.

YANBU. It derails the thread.

Also posters who post 'You've posted this before' on pretty common scenarios, so something that can happen to lots of people and therefore there are lots of threads about it.

.

Also posters who can't conceive of something happening because it's so outside their own narrow experience.

@vivarevs

your thread is written to cause rage. Oh just like the fake ones!

Not sure how to answer that. Sometimes it’s obvious

It drives me mad too OP

Honestly OP, it's ruining everything, not just on here. As I see it, as deranged as it may sound, I feel like we are slowly being taken over by it and once you notice it, it's impossible to ignore.
I know I sound like a conspiracy nutter 😩.

“My DSIS always takes advantage of my good nature. She is a single mum and struggles financially so she asked me to pay her mortgage and all her bills, which I have for the past few years. I also look after her 16 DCs full-time, even though she doesn’t work. They sleep over every weekend. Now she has told me that she fancies my DH and wants to sleep with him 3 nights a week. I told her I’m not very happy about it, and now my DPs aren’t talking to me because they think I’m being selfish.”

Sometimes the scenarios are so completely outlandish and unbelievable that it’s obvious they’re fake.

Because they so obviously are. I have thought so for ages and am glad others agree. I can spot the fake ones a mile off now. I don’t post on them.

I thought troll hunting was banned on MN and this is pretty much the same thing

It isn't "troll hunting".

This is the utterly ridiculous term MN has chosen to describe what happens when MN users call out blatantly obvious dishonest posters and rage-baiting threads, which is a necessity because of the near non-existent lack of active moderation on MN.

"Trolls" are funny, amusing, but ultimately harmless. Rage-baiting, spreading lies, dumping goady content and then running is not "trolling", so it's nonsense to describe users who call it out "troll hunters".

I'd rather people pointed out the fake threads because there does seem to be a lot of them and people don't realise they are.