to not give a flying feck about troll but to find the troll spotters irratating

[chevre]

all this 'interesting first post 66mumtodaisy?' followed by the obligatory ghastly eyebrow emoticon. is driving me fecking nuts.

It gets on my nerves too. I get that trolls can do damage, but I think the endless troll spotting and finger-pointing is a million times more irritating.

In a recent incident on mumsnet, I was a victim of a troll. Got sucked right in. Spent three days advising, supporting and encouraging this person. But when the thread went sour, it was the comments from the over-zealous troll-spotters that were the most upsetting. So I don't even see the benefit to be super, super alert to trolls all the time. If you think somebody's trolling, email mn and leave the thread.

Agree chevre and other posters.

There have always been trolls or whatever you want to call them on MN Just as there have always been people tutting about influxes of them too.

They seem to be harking back to a rosy era (that doesn't exist) when no-one posted anything provocative and are mad keen to be first to blow the whistle like demented school prefects.

You could call just about anything on here trollish if you wanted to analyse it in detail I suppose.

snigger @ demented school prefects

Right, well fuck it. I for one shan't bother letting anyone know if I think someone is trying to cause trouble. You can all look out for yourselves. But if you do get sucked in and hurt by someone who is faking some awful distressing story, I expect the ensuing fireball of emoticons will be much brighter than the random that pop up at the moment.

Maggie, I see you're now willing to acknowledge that it was a troll? What was it that changed your mind...or whom, should I say...and would you rather they hadn't, and allowed you to go baring your soul for days and days unaware of whatw as going on? Because without people actually working at sorting the trolls from the genuine posters, nobody would have told you. You seem to take that for granted, and I know it hurt but would you really rather not have known?

It is awful when people bare their souls and go offboard/meet up with people only to find out that they're trolling.
I only stood up for Lola on a thread and now I feel , but I'd rather keep on doing that and keeping my distance from suspect threads rather than just vetting any new posters or being suspicious of everyone. I can see why people would get like that though, it must be very hurtful.

i would never give my personal details out though to other people when i have no idea who they are, that is just playing with fire.

giving advice is different though as even if the op does turn out to be a troll (god i hate that word) then at least there will be a whole thread of advice ready and waiting for someone else who may have the same problem.

i would much rather give advice to someone who may not be genuine than post a whole load of faces at a poster who may well be needing some comfort in what seems like a far fetched situation.

I don't vet new posters. I also don't post on the thread with my concerns. I simply email my friends if they are getting involved with a thread I believe is not genuine, and we report it to HQ and that's that.

I really, really don't see anyone's problem with my doing that. Throwing insults around about people who actually care about other posters especially on vulnerable-making threads is just nasty and quite ignorant.

As I said before obviously there are a few people who go overboard on the detective stuff, on board and in a crass way - this ought to be discouraged - but how much do you know about the work going on elsewhere to establish whether members are at risk...you don't tend to see most of it.

I'll leave you to get your feelings out though if it makes you feel better - just please be aware that you don't know the full story and this thread makes unattractive reading.

Surely the answer is to post in a measured and considered way on serious issues, and keep the rest lighter?

That way, you're not sacrificing anything of 'you' and there's less drama all round.

Trolls happen - personally, if it's a bit of a 'misery-lit' thread I tend to post whatever advice I can that's pertinent then scarper, but there can be funny ones that I think are better dealt with in good humour.

Oh, , forgot.

That post wasn't aimed directly at anyone, btw.

Good

Oh, and a (because it seems en vogue atm) too

Thanks Lizzylou

I must just go and post about some TIGHTS now...

Go, do it, do it!

Jumente, none of the troll hunters looked out for me to the extent of doing a bit of detective work to send me a warning mail (wouldn't have been impossible, have the emails of a few people on MN)

I would have appreciated a headsup 3 days earlier as I did get too emotionally involved and I've admitted that.

The first I knew of it was 3 days later, apparently people had had their suspicions. I'd 'overshared for 3 days' as somebody correctly said before I saw the word Troll.

Whether this makes any sense to YOU or not, it was the people yelling TROLL at the end of the thread, and turning what HAD been a collection of good advice and support into a detective hunt that upset me, at the time anyway.

The cruelty of one poster was almost chilling. She set out to kick me when I was down. Don't care now. Couldn't give a shit, but you live and learn.

And despite what I've learnt, or maybe because of it, I'm sick of troll-hunting.

Email MN if you've concerns, or email the person you think is being sucked in..... Otherwise let the thread go on, just in case it's genuine.

And we still don't know that SP wasn't genuine. Who really knows?

Maggie, thanks for putting it so clearly. I do understand to an extent.

If I had 'known' you I would have emailed you, but I'd never noticed your name before and didn't connect it with your previous incarnation (which I now know of course) so my hands were tied - how could I have warned you without posting on the thread? I'd have been shouted down for doing that.

On one hand you are fed up that nobody told you, and on the other you are - justifiably - fed up about the rabble rousing at the end, which I too found distasteful.

However I believe people will and do get very angry re troll threads and naturally wish to express that somewhere the troll can see it - if troll it was - so I think that was almost inevitable without a strict clamping down on 'outing' in situ as it were.

I wish I could have told you at the start but I didn't know how to and had I done so it would have been at the risk of animosity in private - another poster I told privately was incredibly angry with me for even suggesting I had suspicions. That was highly upsetting.

But as you say, we still don't know and I for one am none the wiser from what you have said as to what I honestly ought to do next time I find myself reading some codswallop that people are being drawn into. Apart from emailing HQ etc etc etc. which goes without saying.

No worries! Maybe MN should have e-mailed me!!! They certainly have my email address. They were keeping an eye on the thread but they didn't email me to say, Maggiebee, before you overshare for another 3 pages, a lot of people are suspicious of this SP.

But oh well, I will try not to get so involved again. Although it is a shame. I plucked up the courage to leave my horrible x cos of "random internet sprites" and I had that feeling of wanting to pay it forward. That feeling's all used up now, and the chances are I wasted that energy on a bored teenager (or if not a bored teenager then somebody extremely weird, weird with knobs on)

This sounds like I'm taking another pop at MN (heaven forbid!) but if private messaging were free it would help. I suppose MN have to make some cash, although I wouldn't say they make loads out of CATing!
Roller.co.aster an Irish forum has a much smaller pool of posters, so they'd get less money from advertisers and yet private messaging is free there...

So no offence mumsnet hq, but I blame you lot!!!

Right - well I now give a flying feck about trolls because I think I've just been accused of being one

just say "fruitshootfanjonorks" and the cave door re-opens!

troll hunters are getting right on my left tit. stfu about it will you.

I don't find trollspotting or trollspotters annoying. I fond it quite entertaining. I think to be on MN anyway, you need a pretty thick skin so I don't imagine it would put that many people off. MN is not the only website in the world where people might come for advice.

If someone points out something that doesn't seem right and it stops genuine people from being taken in, then I think that is a good thing.

find

HG - I agree (about preventing others from being drawn in) however, Troll Patrol also means genuine questions are or can be, treated with suspicion - which is what just happened to me.

Trolls themselves are to blame of course - can see why people become suspicious but I wish they wouldn';t jump on every tiny thing that doesn't seem right to them!

I agree, who cares if it's a troll. I am find the paranoia and race to spot a troll rather off-putting.

I think those people who get emotionally involved and hurt rather foolish. I view them as I view people who "fall in love" with people they have met online but not in real life.

I've been accused before as well, but I wasn't really too worried. I managed to convince most people I was, erm, me before having the thread pulled as it was really embarrassing and I kind of expected the response.

I'd have been more worried if everyone had thought it was normal tbh!