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!

I definitely think that "real time" posting is an indication of a troll on the relationships board specifically. (excluding things like the plate down the back of the toilet type thread!)

So anyone who is "I JUST found this [smoking gun]t & husband is out will be back later. What should I do?"

Then "husband back but cooked him dinner" type updates.

That is always ALWAYS a red flag to me.

There is a regular well respected poster on the board. If she hasn't posted in the first few pages then I think she knows it's a troll. I don't invest in the thread until I see her comment

I think that person has said thats no yardstick to go by. It could just mean she's busy.

Blu14

In three posts I reported this weekend MNHQ replied saying the posters were indeed not above board.

If they are not trolls then HQ makes that clear when they delete the thread by saying it had become a bun fight or the OP feels it it identifies them etc etc

What makes you think MNHQ know? I have over the years known 4 separate people in RL called trolls and banned by Mumsnet, all of whom were totally above board. In fact i don't think I have ever known a troll in RL

I think 'that' thread was a reverse more than someone trolling. The person was trying so hard to come across as a man but all the OP managed to do was make him sound like a wimp. . I even asked if the poster was a woman.

A lot of nasty things were said by people to others who were doubting the thread and had reported it. Their nastiness was quite un-necesassary and all the more-so we now know the doubters were correct.

I was accused quite viciously of trolling when I first joined the site and had a genuine dilemma. People were quite unpleasant; there's no need. As someone has already said, other people benefit from the advice too; why else would there be so many lurkers?

There's currently a thread running on the 'in the news' forum that had many suspicious posters on it. I reported loads and they had their accounts suspended yet when I had been questioning their posts on the forum people were up in arms. It does pay to report.

Well one of the easiest troll tricks on MN is to post as a man. Then anyone who is sceptical about the thread is shot down by posters claiming sexism against men!

A lot of nasty things were said by people to others who were doubting the thread and had reported it.

I wasn't on it, but quite frankly, and it's in the rules, if you doubt a thread, then report it, don't go on accusing people of trolling. It's nasty and, as mentioned, if it's not a troll it can be quite upsetting.

There is absolutly no way of knowing what percentage of posters banned and labelled trolls actually are, but certainly many of them are not.

I've worked on a similar forum, and even with all the psychiatrists in the world at your elbow, you are still just guessing.

The controlling wife one was written oddly, very like a woman. It was the first thing I thought when I read it. It's taken me 5 years to spot my first troll!

writing oddly doesn't make someone a troll

Lweji, it was reported.

You can doubt a poster without saying a person is a troll. And thats what happened. People were puzzled and asking questions because it just didn't read as it should have. He was saying Im a man, and I was thinking no you're not. I even asked at one stage if it was a same sex relationship because no matter how often the poster said Im a man - it screamed otherwise.

Blu - women are constantly constantly being told to trust their instincts on the relationships board, well this goes for spotting trolls too. I go with my instincts as do a lot of people. I'm not a genius - I'm crap at maths, my memory is shocking, I'm not always the best typer or speller in the world but I have good instincts. And HQ's responses seem to back that up.

the trouble with going with your instincts, is that your instincts may be totally and consistently wrong, and you would have no idea, you would just think you were right, and be even more assured next time, when you could be equally wrong, but still, you use these experiences to feedback into your confidence that you can guess right.

I have NEVER in real life known MNHQ to be right.

I have worked on a similar forum, and I know that it is all pretty much guesswork.

Thanks sije, well I tried my best and I just try to put myself in the OPś shoes when I think how to advise really.

About this one, I still am erring on the side of caution and am a big advocate for the whole ¨Innocent until proven gulity¨ thing. I do maintain it must be bloody hard to out someone as a troll or a fake though. As I´ve said, it´s MN not the FBI. Unless they have hackers at their disposal! All you really have is suspisions at the end of the day. And some people do write very oddly.

I even got a bit fed up with someone once cos she kept repeating herself like a robot to individual posters, saying the exact same thing every few seconds. And she had several threads. I didn´t think she was a troll necessarily, but then I didn´t really know the definition of a troll. It was just her writing style which wrangled. So people do come across very differently in their posts. I try not to be judgemental.

Cos of all the ¨like¨ this and that in the recent one, I thought he was about 20yrs but he said 27yrs! Saying ¨like¨ all the time is just a waste of a word typed imo, lol! And it´s awkward to read too. Stilted.

I don't know about size. A national organisation. I don't know if it had as many participants as MN. Different participants.

What do you mean you've never know mumsnet to be right?

Unless you know every troll from this site in real life, how can you possibly say you've never known MN to be right?

And why are you so insistent that there are no trolls?!

I get you saying to take care before troll hunting, but I don't get why you are denying all existence of trolls!

I mean I 've known 4 people in real life, called trolls and banned by MN, all of whom had spoken the simple straightforward truth about their situations in their posts.

I've never known anyone in RL, banned, who was an actual real troll