trolls - what can we do about them??

[StripyMouse]

More and more often innocent threads about interesting topics, often close to people?s heart and feelings, are hijacked by trolls on websites - and I am really worried that Mumsnet is following this worrying trend. Custy?s recent thread about her feelings towards her wonderful children is a case in point.
I am just wondering what, if anything, can be done about it? I realise it is pretty impossible to stop those one off posters who are just there to cause trouble - they just need ignoring. However, the ones who really really annoy me (and plenty of others I am sure) are the few regulars who have some kind of ongoing problem with individuals and deliberately change their name to have a go and upset others out of spite.

I am not asking here to name names as we all know who we suspect over the last few weeks - is it just me or do others feel this is a problem that is getting worse unchecked?

Tech - do you ever intervene and work out when a regular has changed their name on a contraversial thread to "hide" ? Do/should people get warnings and be asked not to post or risk being "publicly revealed"? I don?t know what the answer is, just wanted to share my frustration and annoyance at this nastiness. This is a site about shared experiences and mutual laughs and support - we don?t need anymore worry and concern as our chidlren can provide all of that for us by themselves!

How about a new thread titled 'Troll Alert', then when someone spots a troll, they just post the trolls name on the thread. When others read it they will know to ignore the troll.

I wish I was self disciplined enough to ignore trolls all the time. Never read their postings, never reply to them. I usually read their postings, and occasionally reply.

I hazard a guess that quite a lot of mumsetters do the same as me. So the trolls posts are widely read, even if most readers don't post messages after. So does reading but not replying still count as ignoring - probably.

I like jj's idea, and Rhubarb's too. I really don't know what the answer is.

Another idea: If it's not too much trouble for tech, could the worst of the troll posts be followed by an standard cut and paste message taken from mumnset etiquette on talk. And could the same message be automatically mailed out to the troll poster's email address?

I find it really sad to think that regular mumsnetters are changing their names to take a personal dig at other mumnsetters. Not in the interest of debate, but purely with the intent to hurt. I have no idea if this is really happening, and haven't a clue who is doing it.

I think the new contact a mumnset member device is a very good anti troll tool. Mumsnetters can offer off-thread support to victims of trolls, without having to post on the infected thread itself. The troll gets ignored. The victim gets supportive messages. IMO a very neat way of getting round this problem.

Do the words Mountains and Molehills conjure up any well known phrases??

I'm with SueW. Ignore them! If you don't recognise a "controversial" poster, search on their name, see what/if they've posted before and you should get a fair idea if they're a troll or not. If you think they're a troll reply with the message "You're a troll foll de roll" and leave them to it.

The Serephina/Serafina one was tricky because the controversial poster had a similar name to one we (well I) recognised. Auntbessie was so obviously a troll so ignorable. There are worse trolls than Aunt B and her mangled tits

Lol soupy. :Like the rhyme.(goes off muttering it)

We could quite easily add the number of previous posts after a person's nickname if people feel that would help.

Changing nicknames: people don't generally change nicknames to cause trouble so we don't stop that. What people can do is trot off to hotmail, set up an email address then register again with that one to get a second nickname. We can see sometimes that this has happened.

The best thing to do is ignore them really.... if you see a dodgy comment by a new name, try to ignore it. We can ban people by nickname or IP address but we try to do that sparingly. These things go in waves and usually blow over as people get bored when they don't get the response they want.

tech, I wouldn't be massively keen on having no. of posts after my name since it would be an embarrassingly high number. I suppose it would make me post less though, might be good for the cleanliness of my house...

Instead of posting the number of posts how about a star system (or smilie faces). One star/face for newbies going up to 3 stars/faces for serial posters. These could be carried with the user what ever name they chose to use so that anyone who changed name to insult someone would show up as a regular and not a newby. People who get warnings for trolling could get a in their line up to alert other posters to their behaviour.

Haven't been around to really get riled by recent events - but if people are changing names in order to cause trouble, and tech and co are able to see who they "really" are, then I think they should be warned off by email. Three strikes and you are out maybe? This is a really lovely site - most of the time - and its founders don't deserve to have to watch it disintegrate just because some bored old cow has nothing better to do.

Personally, I wouldn't want anything that shows how "new" or "old" a poster is. Especially after the ridiculous "new V old" discussions we've had.

Trolls are generally easy to spot. Everyone spotted AuntieB and showed her the mangle

A 'warning email' is definitely the best route to go down I think. It keeps the anonymity for genuine users and may be enough to scare off trolls.

Well we'll keep an eye on things and see how it goes.