Trolls

[Throwingshade]

I know there was a thread about this just a couple of weeks, but just want to remind us all to think before investing time and emotion - and most importantly personal information and experiences - on threads in Relationships. Especially if it's something triggering for you.

This board is being infiltrated by trolls at the moment.

If the OP is over egged, if the OP is too 'bad' to be true, if it reads like a soap opera with convenient updates every couple of hours to keep people entertained, then it's likely not true!

MoominPie22 Oooh I agree. Please can I post my own trolly NN just below. I made the below NN to describe the threads that men join.

Hi MoominPie22 Check me out now!! What pisses me off more are the men that need to declare that they are a man and thus offer their opinion. They can do so without stating they are a man. Anyway back as you were little women!

LOL I would carbon

LOL you maverick!

What pisses me off more are the men that need to declare that they are a man and thus offer their opinion.

Oooh, yy, I hate that. "I'm a bloke and ..." "So, I'm a man, by the way"

No one cares!

Yeah, I stopped that quite quickly

you don't need to declare it though Ychromosome

I'm not describing the poo troll very well. IIRC is was quite subtle, people were telling her to call out for an attendant etc. It sounds far more dramatic than it was. The person who looked for her took gym gear I think.

I am a bit on the fence with trolls. I know if all my user names and threads were put together some posters would have screamed troll at me. ~But I am not obviously only I know that though! I did have a fairly long running thread (about 6 weeks) and in all honesty if someone had shouted troll at me, it would have devastated me. It really would have been the final straw. Now, it would be water off a ducks back, but 18 months ago it would have hurt. Really hurt.

I know some posters knock/mock others for posting on here and baring all, but for some of us it really is all we have at that time. I have said it before and I will say it again, MN saved my sanity and my family. I wouldn't have got through the last 18 months without MN. I really wouldn't.

I got taken in by the Step mother thread. But you know what, for me, so what if it wasn't true, it helped me to read that others had similar experiences to me growing up. Similar to other threads on relationships.

Even if the OPs of all those threads were trolls, it helped me to read other posters opinions and thoughts (unless ALL the posters are ALL trolls of course - AF included ) it helped me so much. MN has helped me deal with suicide, bereavement, depression, debt, homelessness, and so much more.

I really do understand the loathing towards the trolls on bereavement - and not sure if this will come out right or if it makes up for what they do - but the advice given really does help those of us who don't/can't post for whatever reason.

Hope all that doesn't sound too wanky. And I am certaqinly not saying troll threads should be left up but wanted to say advice doesn't go to waste even if it is a troll thread.

On a tangent I am more surprised and wish MN could do something (don't know what) about people offering money on here. I had a thread before Christmas (was just a whinge) but I received a dozen or so messages offering me money/vouchers. Obviously I declined them all. I am not a prolific/well known/regular poster and it did shock me.
On the one hand it warmed my heart how many good people there are around, but on the other hand, it made me realise how, with very little posting history, people will send you so much.

~Anyway, just my twopenneth worth.

Still love MN. Still think the support is amazing.
i am just glad that my life is now so boring that I am joining in with inane chatter rather than starting my own angst ridden threads

Moomin, it would be nice if MNHQ could bump threads when the op has posted, when they're in I'm On or something. Things stay at the top of my list because lots of people are posting, but the op hasn't. If they could just drop down until the OP posts again, it would be very helpful.

But bareessentials no one called troll on your six-week thread because you aren't a troll.

People only call troll when lots of different little alarm bells start ringing and red flags start waving.

Obviously people took you at face value because they instinctively knew it was real.

Of course people bare their souls on here - it's wonderful that Mumsnet can be and is often a life line for people in desperate situations.

No they didn't Throwing I just hate the thought of someone being called troll when they aren't. But a pp is right - I think the ratio of trolls called incorrectly to trolls called correctly (does that even make sense?!) are probably in MNHQs favour.
I was just trying to back up the often used line by MNHQ that even a troll thread can help someone somewhere. That really is true. In my case at least. Not that I think troll threads should be left to stand. tying myself up in knots here!

Ha ha I know what you mean!

Some people get very angry about trolls, some people think 'ach well the thread was interesting/helpful anyway', some people think something in between.

Out of interest (because my trolldar is clearly shit) I had threads (under the same name) that included suicide, death of a dcs parent, sectioning of a different dcs parent, homelessness, secret pregnancy, money problems, fostering, potential adoption, childhood dv, even posted when i slept in a car with my 3dc one night. How did people know I wasn't trolling?

Ok another one on Relationships right now. New one. The username for a start. The gender. The familiar use of language with a few dialect changes etc.

Bareessentials because you weren't trolling.

Ha thankyou Throwing I know I wasn't. But nobody else does.

This one I spotted! Quite possibly my first. Although they do have a writing style very similar to a recent offender. Although judging by my trolldar education of the last few days my username was a bad choice.

Yes very similar writing style DrE.

Bareessnetials but the point I'm trying to make is everyone else did know you weren't a troll because you're not. People feel someone is a troll when they are. The content can be similar but the style and the posts and a dozen other little things are different and trolls slip up more than they think.

DrE678 When I first chose my nn on MN I used my firstname and last name followed by my year of birth thankgod it was in chat! So yours is fine! A good lesson in getting a feel for the forum before posting I think

Mine is just my name and month/year of birth. I have neither wit nor imagination so it was the best I managed whilst on the sign up screen. I'll get to work on a new one. SirChenjin you are my inspiration!

Throwing you are lovely but really NO-ONE knew if I was a troll or not. Unless they were related to me. My sisters best friend joined and posted on my thread, I thought that would make it look dodgy as fuck. So I guess i am asking what made mine seem non troll like? I frequently updated in real time, whilst on the phone to organisations, I updated when no other poster had for a while - because it was my outlet. Is it my crap writing style?

Anyway, I think I am overthinking it. I don't like seeing people sucked in, but you lot have helped me so much just by me reading threads - whether they were troll treads or not

Bare!! I know no-one knew as in cold hard facts, or knew you in person, or had documentation to prove it!

I'm saying they knew because you are a genuine poster so you posted from a genuine place in a natural way with natural emotions. I'm not complimenting you by saying this, I'm saying it is fact.

Trolls are not posting from a natural place and they slip up in little ways. So people, possibly without actually consciously adding up the slip ups, instinctively feel something is off.

Thanks Throwing
I am slowly realising when people post "naturally" or "unnaturally" - I think that is a good way of putting it.

It's definitely a learned instinct. I've been on forums for 12 years now (not just man) and you just get to recognise the various formulas. Once I was watching a thread clock watching for the next juicy instalment and sure enough...