Given up believing any of these posts!

[loveyoutothemoon]

This is happening far to often recently (troll posts like the 'mortified' one).

Is the post 'Scared to say the wrong thing' in Mental Health a fake post? I only ask since it seems to have been ignored by everyone.

Atenco that was a troll?? Thank God for that! Although sadly I imagine that behaviour very much goes on in some families

TomHardysWilly haha laughing at your name

There have been threads I've been convinced were fake but gotten away with. Not sure what you mean by "Mumsnets bread and butter", I'd have said the AIBU threads were the most popular!

The name changing does make it easier to troll, but to my mind the ones that come in making a load of crap up aren't really that much of a problem. A lot of the time it's obvious they're fake, but even if you don't spot it, it's no great loss other than maybe feeling a bit silly. It does seem like the better trolls are good at treading the fine line of things being just about believable, but then they do tend to get more extreme which is a dead giveaway.

The trolls which do serious harm are when they build up a persona over years. I'm on another forum where someone did this and for probably the first couple of years they were completely normal. Only then once they had developed what seemed like good relationships with people did they start the trolling and attention seeking (cancer scares, family issues etc etc). All of it could easily happen to someone so wasn't like most of the trolls here who do it for the instant reaction. It was only found out because of inconsistencies that people began to pick up on.

Also worth remembering that it happens in real life too. A friend of a friend has so many dramas she would be the most unlucky person ever if they were all true. Unfortunately my friend can't quite believe that she would lie to her face like that. I know from bitter experience that people can and do.

I am so stupid... Never thought anything was suspicious... I just answer with love to everyone.
Naive me...

So because nothing "extreme" has happened to you somehow we are all safe from it? I wish. Your friend with the string of dramas could be me.

I'm not sure about only registered members being able to view threads. I imagine reading some of these threads can help others who perhaps are in similar circumstances but are unable or don't feel brave enough to post about their own situation.

Was that talking to me violet? If so I'm not doubting just because of how extreme something is (obviously some horrendous things can happen to people). But in any case that wasn't the point - trolls exist in real life as well as online.

I would and have posted about truly awful things happening to me. I haven't got any rl support, so online support is invaluable. It's the only way I've made it through the last few years.

And I am not a troll. I no longer tell my whole story on one thread anymore, as it's something that at best, people find hard to relate to, and at worse some people enjoy digging in and causing unnecessary hurt for their own motivations.

It's a sad truth that for some people, it's more comfortable to believe people's lives don't really fall apart in the way mine did. It's easier to believe someone's telling lies than that life really is that random. It's also more of a comfort for others to try and find what I did wrong to cause fate to dump this shite on me. I've had people in rl asking all sorts of (intrusive and rude) questions to try and prove their assumption that somehow everyone is completely in control of their destiny and therefore they are immune to the bad things in life. They get very uncomfortable if I answer their questions and they still can't find a way to put distance between them and their clever choices, and me and my err, oh, shot just happens even if you're prepared. If something bad happens, it must be avoidable for 'people like them' and their has to be a story of blame somewhere.

It's one of the unexpected kickers that accompany real tragedy. Alot of people edge away pretty damn quick.

I hope other people don't put their troll radar so as to disbelieve anyone who is having a really hard time, and going through real tragedy.

I hope the bar is set higher than that. It's not so much about 'no one would post rl serious issues' and perhaps more about taking a moment to think 'how, when and where' would this poster be posting during a serious rl issue as its unfolding. And how neat the story is.

Real life is messy and complicated, and people tend to stop posting whilst something is unfolding, then post later that day/ evening. Or post when they most need support, or at times when they can fall apart a bit. Real life tends to be pretty unrelenting even when something bad is happening, so rl tends to intrude on posting ability, and not be around to focus on the pace and reveal of a situation.

I've only ever got caught by one troll and in that case I got a flood of PMs explaining what was going on, and that it was a previously banned poster.

What's a troll? I've noticed that there are some real bitter people-bashing types on MN just lately. Is this what a troll is?

I hope other people don't put their troll radar so as to disbelieve anyone who is having a really hard time, and going through real tragedy

Miscellaneous, maybe some comfort to you, the reason MNHQ has a policy of no troll hunting, is because it's impossible to be 100% certain that a seemingly " unbelievable" situation isn't true, no matter how far fetched people feel it is. It's the modern day scourge, not being able to be believed without people prodding and poking, when all you are needing is support because you have none in RL.

To my mind, there but for the grace of God go we all.