not to want to be all lighthearted and forgiving about the troll invasion?

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

I don't get the 'fun' of invading another site and causing real upset to real people. I trust people on mumsnet and respond genuinely to them, and now I wish I hadn't - and that has upset me.

I'm sure this is going to get me labelled a humourless sourpuss over on CUK - but then I reckon I am already one of the "...rampaging horde of offended lardbuckets..." they refer to, or perhaps one of the ".... small clique of salad-dodging, vindictive, manic-depressive yet very vocal inadequates..." who is "...likely to go blubbing to the Admin if anyone does not treat them with kid gloves?..." (not that I did go to Admin, but hey, why spoil a good insult with facts).

so i missed that thread...

what was the consensus. were you being unreasonable? our cat food is £50 a bag...kids should be so bloody lucky.

"you have to remember I was a bloke pretending to be a mum"

Er, yes, I have been able to keep that fact in mind so far. Since you only told me half an hour ago. But thanks for reminding me.

Vicar, no, I think someone sweetly reassured Tina that it was the sort of thing that could happen to any of us.

the point is she was quite random and I was going to make her more so. Make her swing alarmingly from one point of view to another. On day 1 she took the piss out of CoCo and by day 2 she was defending her. Next day she was going to take the piss again and so on. If we had managed to keep it going she was going to be a wine soaked nutter. She never really got started.

PSML, MadamDeathstare

Oh FFS YABU OP. It's not everyone else's responsibility to have no sense of humour on the grounds that some extra-sensitive person might get upset by a bit of silliness and there have been plenty of funny troll threads on MN, started by MNers in the past. And some unpleasant, mean-minded, moronic threads, also started by MNers with the intent to upset and bully others. From what I can gather, the geeks came over for a bit of a laugh not specifically to persecute fragile flowers - they didn't all invade the bereavement threads pretending to be mediums or anything.

Is it very bad of me that a small part of me wants them to try it on with the bounty gals?

Having missed all of this in my innocence, could someone give us a list of which threads?
I posted on a scarily nutty AIBU the other day and really hope it was a windup.....

Ditto what SGB said but a little more gently.

There have been some really nasty trolls in the past (and probably in the future too) who have upset people then disappeared into the ether leaving nothing but hurt and anger. At least the CUK guys have stuck around, taken the punishment thread well and donated a big chunk of cash to Reality's walk.

Admittedly board raiding is a little childish but they're IT geeks and being married to one and friends with a lot more, I can tell you that that is par for the course I'm afraid.

It could have been a lot worse!

When I started this thread, I was feeling genuinely upset at what had happened, but I did calm down as we got to know some of the CUK chaps (who seem to be going native and may never leave, and who seem like very nice chaps). SGB - if you'd known where my head was at by 1.15am, I hope you wouldn't have implied I was an oversensitive fragile flower. Actually, by 1.15am, my head was asleep, and dreaming about kittens.

I still don't 'get' why board invasions are fun - but that's just me - there's plenty of other good stuff I don't see the fun in, and I expect there's stuff I do that others wouldn't find amusing either - so each to their own.

Ooops - I also meant to say that GoldenSnitch, you are right, and the CUK guys have taken their lumps like gentlemen, and have been very generous in sponsoring mumsnetters.

I tend to trust people wherever I am, HopeForTheBest - I've been on other forums too, and have been honest about myself, and have assumed that others are too - I would have thought that was more naive than multiply-shocking, though. I tend to believe people are who they say they are, and respond to them on that basis - and I'd rather do that than suspect people, but that's my choice, and if nothing else, this has taught me that if I trust people and get hurt, I have to take some of the responsibility.

My child actually does have a penchant for cat biscuits and would absolutely get stuck into the Felix if I let her...

I like the raid things because they make me feel all superior when I've spotted them Also, I think there are some live trolling threads at the moment which are in a completely different vein. The CUK chaps didn't venture into any areas that would obviously be sensitive from the outset.

Does your dd have a nice, glossy coat and shiny whiskers, BelleDame?

One of them had this on their signiture

Trolls can be costly in several ways... in a group that has become sensitized to trolling ? where the rate of deception is high ? many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations.

• Judith S. Donald, Identity and deception in the virtual community in Smith, Marc A.; Kollock, Peter; Communities in Cyberspace p.45

Along side hints and tips on trolling

STDG - I do attribute her lovely hair to the cat biscuits!!

I think it takes a bit of time to get to know people and work out who you can trust and be able to tell when they are being serious and when they are poking a bit of fun.

Obviously harder on the internet where you never really know who people are.

By the way, who are the bounty gals?

Bounty

I'm in link heaven!

But can we give you lessons on how to talk like a laydeee first?

Cos really Coco did let herself down by sounding like a panto dame....

I reckon the CUK ones were pretty inoffensive compared to a lot of the trolls we've had. They didn't try to con anyone out of money or sympathy, didn't give dodgy medical, financial or legal advice, didn't try to befriend vulnerable young single mothers, didn't pretend to be victims of rape or abuse to get their kicks out of other people's dreadful experiences. Heck they didn't even go on about their DPs weird eating habits, incontinent daughter, and arguments about which DC would have to sleep in the boxroom .

Quite tame for trolls....