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mn hq, can we have an explanation - jess - and maybe re other trolls in future?

999 replies

wannaBe · 20/02/2012 13:40

I am aware that you can't divulge the means by which you determine whether or not a poster is genuine, predominantly because if you make that common knowledge then posters will know how to avoid being detected in the future.

but jess (long ongoing eleven weeks abortion threads) threads have now been deleted for being a troll, and I was wondering if, given it's the site users who usually report these things, we could perhaps have a bit more by way of explanation?

e.g. when sassysusan was banned, mn hq confirmed that she had previously posted as washwithcare, and users were able to identify.

There has been some speculation that jess was dizzymare, and I wondered whether this was the case?

Also, these threads have been ongoing for over a month now. How is it that it takes quite this long to determine that someone isn't actually all they seem?

OP posts:
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LeBOF · 20/02/2012 14:11

Great idea, Agincourt. You are Vair Hillair Hmm

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CagneyNLacey · 20/02/2012 14:12

Surely just the thread titles were enough to make people Hmm

I know some people have sympathy for the type of sad act who trolls like this, but really they are just utterly worthless people.

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MardyBra · 20/02/2012 14:12

MaryZ on a warning? Bloody hell. Don't think I've ever seen you do anything controversial.

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wannaBe · 20/02/2012 14:14

I do agree re the deleted messages. especially when the op comes back and says "oh, wannabe you in particular were very rude to me," and I have a deleted post to my name even though I wasn't rude to her - iyswim.

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LittleMissGoodEnough · 20/02/2012 14:14

But why do they do it? Do they just get off on the attention, or is it more sinister than that?

I was lurking on that thread, and thought it didn't ring true, but how do you know? You can't just say to mnhq 'this is a bit dodge' can you? Life can be strange, just because my life is quite dull predictable sedate, doesn't mean that others with more exciting lives are trolls.

I've spent all weekend on mn (house of cold and sick at the moment), and there are a few threads at the moment that make me go Hmm. Should I be reporting all of them?

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wannaBe · 20/02/2012 14:15

"Surely just the thread titles were enough to make people
Hmm" obviously not. Even on the last thread there were people saying things like "you should all be ashamed of yourselves, here is a vulnerable young woman needing our support..." etc etc, when I would have thought that to anyone it was bloody obvious that it was a load of rubbish.

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Northernlurker · 20/02/2012 14:16

Littlemiss - yes I would report. SO much harm can be done by these emotional vampire trolls.

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BerryLellow · 20/02/2012 14:17

I really didn't know whether to report or not in this case.

There's another one I'm a bit unsure of cranking up now, but if I was wrong about it I'd be horrified as the subject is sensitive.

I think TSC is right about waiting for the next biggie...

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PurplePidjin · 20/02/2012 14:18

I always report suspicions. MNHQ won't know unless we tell them - whether it's a troll or a person in desperate need of RL support. Depending on time of day I generally just send Brew or Wine to ease the shift along. The mods know far better than me what to do with the information!

I always get a lovely email from MNTowers to say thanks.

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StealthPolarBear · 20/02/2012 14:18

You can and do littlemiss. But Tbh I reportedand after hearing nothing for a while, my suspicions went down a bit. Until the next dramatic twist anyway. So the time lag does lull you in to a false sense of security IME

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duckdodgers · 20/02/2012 14:19

Jess was a troll? I read those threads but didnt post, had a small suspicion and then thought I was being too cynical. Wonder how MNHQ found out?

To the posters who said she was posting all over the internet witht he same story how disd you find that out, was she daft enough to use the same username? Confused

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Pekka · 20/02/2012 14:19

CagneynLacey - I agree. I ignored the thread, suspecting it was a troll just by the title. I am an old cynic when it comes to internet forums.

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LeBOF · 20/02/2012 14:19

Just report them anyway. MNHQ do so love reading my paranoid ramblings, and politely dismissing them- I'm sure they'd like to spread some of that love around.

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Bohica · 20/02/2012 14:21

I wonder if MNHQ will give an explination?

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wannaBe · 20/02/2012 14:22

littlemiss yes I would report all of them.

The reason why IMO these trolls get away with it is because they choose such emotive topics, and it takes a certain kind of presumed unfeeling person to suggest that someone might, for instance, fabricate the death of a child... and so no-one wants to be the one to speak out, and so the posts go unchallenged...

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GetOrfMoiiLand · 20/02/2012 14:24

I read a few posts on the first thread, and didn't really think anything of it but I thought the thread title was in a particular 'style'

There was a thread a few months back where a poster stated that her DH wanted her to have an abortion at 16 weeks or whatever. Lots of suspicion around that.

Horrible, horrible to make up something like that about such an emotive topic.

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MaryZ · 20/02/2012 14:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hathorinareddress · 20/02/2012 14:24

I reported and reported and reported her threads, it was so obviously a pile of shite. I missed the deleting because I was out doing RL and now it's all gone poof.

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GetOrfMoiiLand · 20/02/2012 14:25

There are a couple of threads around at the mo which I simply do not believe at all.

I think those are perhaps our friends from the amateur writers club.

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HelenMumsnet · 20/02/2012 14:25

Hello.

As wannaBe says, we generally never divulge how and why we have come to the conclusion that a poster may or may not be genuine but, seeing as this thread's been started and so many people were involved in jess080990's threads, we think it's only fair to clarify things a little.

OK, so, yes, jess080990 has been reported to us many times since she joined MN, and we were watching her threads.

But, as we said to all those who reported her, there was nothing we could see about her posts or other stuff that made us think for sure that she was anything other than genuine.

And, mindful of the fact that, if she were genuine, she was a poster in need of huge amounts of support and advice at a difficult and vulnerable time in her life, it was clear to us that we should very much stick to our long-held stance of erring on the side of benefit of the doubt.

So that meant, when the trollhunting started, we did delete any suggestion that she was trolling - as our guidelines state that we will.

However, in the past few hours, it's become clear to us that jess080990 was posting about her situation on other forums. Nothing wrong with that, of course - we don't demand exclusivity! But, on one particular forum, jess080990 had arrived at a decision about her baby a full week before she started her first thread on Mumsnet, asking for advice about what to do.

We still have no reason to doubt the general facts of jess080990's situation but it's clear to us that her first thread on Mumsnet was started after she had posted on another forum that she'd made up her mind about her abortion. And that, therefore, means she was posting here in, at the very least, a misleading way.

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ShirleyO · 20/02/2012 14:25

at TSC

Been watching this one forEVER - just starting to play out now...

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SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 20/02/2012 14:25

I reported Jess, I was in at the beginning, and offered to meet. Thankfully in an open public place. Nothing came of it though. I gave up somewhere around the middle of the first thread though it was frustrating and sick and i was pretty sure she was not genuine. I'm quite impressed, my trolldar is improving! Im a little annoyed at how long it took though, bearing in mind, as I said on the deleted thread, she was starting multiple threads about as highly emotive and upsetting subject as late abortion on the pregnancy boards and many many people were sucked in. Sad

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OnlyWantsOne · 20/02/2012 14:26

terrible sad

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AmberLeaf · 20/02/2012 14:27

Yes what wannabe said /<br />
Delicate subjects that if you say anything doubting on a thread like that you would look a right bitch!

God knows why they do it, must be bored!

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CagneyNLacey · 20/02/2012 14:28

Yup, thread title style defo familiar - 'terribly emotive subject, I am vulnerable, guide me oh wise ones'. Oh do fuck off, troll, you tedious waste of skin.

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