This might turn into a bit of a ramble and a bit of a rant. This is my first posting for a couple of months and my first lengthy spell surfing the site for almost as long. I'm puzzled at the way some of you seem to deal with trolls or perhaps I should say suspected trolls. I read many commercial and non-commercial newsgroups and I cannot think of a single unmoderated group and only one moderated group where trolls don't post. But what I don't see on these other sites is such a tiny sub group so grossly over-reacting to trolls. On Mumsnet the same few people seem to post their suspicions and then "run to teacher" (where teacher = Mumsnet HQ) again and again and again. But if you read other threads on Mumsnet people fairly overwhelmingly express negative views on these "troll hunters" but the hunters just go with their campaigning. Why not just accept the majority view on this matter?
Eg, other posters have explained clearly, calmly and well exactly what the dangers are in the "automatic suspicion about a first posting" reaction. Talk about falling on deaf ears . People might turn to Mumsnet in a moment of crisis only to get savaged by this tiny clique. For clique it is.
If you are not happy about a thread ignore it. The rest of us are big boys and girls well able to make our own decisions on veracity, participation or boycott or whatever. If one genuine poster runs away because of your antics or if one useful thread, even if started by a troll, gets terminated because of your obsession with trolls then the community as a whole is the loser. I find your actions both selfish and unwanted.
Flame proof underwear is now in place