MNHQ - why can't you leave threads which you have reason to suspect are trolling threads?

[silverfrog]

The recent AS/ADD/ASD one is a case in point.

OP spouts some nonsense about (in her opinion) 90% of AS dx's not being valid.

lots of people point out that this is not the case.

some others spout nonsense about dinner ladies dx'ing etc.

and then you come on, say you have reason to suspect that OP is not genuine (which a lot of posters had been saying all along), and delete.

which just gives the opportunisitc trollers - the ones who pop up when these threads start, wholeheartedly agreeing - the chance to quote the crap that was psouted in future threads.

why can't you leave the thread, with a nice big banner across the top saying that MNHQ has reason to believe all is not genuine?

what good does it do to now have posters, who believed the OP of that thread to be genuine, now able to say 'oooh, I heard form a therapist once that s/he thought that As was over'-dx'ed, so that proves it is a made-up condition"

Jux, please, no pooey smellorama! We have enough of that in our house already! (smearing issues due to bad parenting)

Agree with Silverfrog.

I've asked before to get a message in the place of the deleted thread to give some info, quite like the idea if 'bullshit' sitting next to 'classics'

Ammonia then, tallwivglasses. Something faintly unpleasant anyway.

LOL at exuding a smell.

Made me think of the coloured highlights which have had some other threads of late. Maybe MNHQ could tag a troll post(er) with that earlier light brown colour, and use that to mean 'troll alert, posts by this user should be regarded with some suspicion'.

All the better if the troll does not see this light brown, but the regular 'original poster' colour so they may carry on posting anywhere they want, oblivious to everyone else knowing they are a troll... and ignoring their comments completely.

Of course where trolls post offensive or potentially unlawful comments, MNHQ would have to delete those posts, but locking a thread and marking it in some way (visible on all versions of MN UI) would go some way to having the 'good' comments remain online.

Maybe the Tech bods could also make it work in a way that if someone attempts to post, they go to a special page explaining 'locked because of a troll'...

What about if you are your own sock, NrtworkGuy? All the best trolls have them and they'd see the different colour.

Yes, maybe so on the trolls having sock-puppets but it was just a thought.

I suppose the sp and troll might X^%$ off, but that would be wishful thinking.