Anti-Religious Trolling On Mumsnet

[DioneTheDiabolist]

I get that not everyone is religious and that some people are very anti-religious (some with good reasons).

But some MNetters are religious, others are simply curious. So how come so many threads are allowed to be derailed by anti-religious trolls? Today a thread about Good Friday was deleted because a troll came on. FFS, it's Easter! Threads about Islam are regularly derailed by Islamophobes. On a thread seeking information on Judaism in the Philosophy & Religion topic, a troll has posted LMFAO. Ok, serious question, why does the Jewish God make all men wear a funny beards? She continues venting for a few posts before eventually exiting the thread saying that she is on drugs because It's Easter, party time.

She is a MN regular, like most of the anti-religious trolls here. I have reported her posts but they still stand.

Trolls are not interested in knowing what other people think or believe. They have no desire to discuss the point of actual threads and rarely start threads of their own regarding their issues with religion or belief. They just derail threads in the hope of driving all talk of religion and different beliefs off MN. And they are succeeding.

Why are MNHQ allowing this to happen? Deleting threads instead of dealing with posters? Allowing blatant anti-religious trolling to derail threads that people may find supportive or informative? Is MN a religion free zone? Because if it is, that's ok. I just think that religious posters should be told. Then they can go elsewhere if they wish to discuss their beliefs.

Bertrand - if you can't see how people were not trying to derail the threads I linked to then that's your problem. And I can find plenty more besides. It is not only me who has noticed it happening!

I think that when someone starts a thread and asks for people to please debate on another thread so as not to derail theirs then the polite thing is to do that. To carry on blundering just makes you appear belligerent.

Thing is I don't think this thread was started entirely to have a go at you, ducky, more of a trend the OP had observed. A reference was made to a 'troll being present on the good Friday thread but then since it was deleted anyone who had not seen it would not know it was referring to you. If you had not defended yourself if probably would never have been picked up upon. The good Friday thread. I don't think was started to bait people with your opinions like yours, either. From what I saw it was just a chatty what will you be doing? It does sound like you got greatly annoyed on that thread and there were arguments, which sadly happens on MN ( or happily if you enjoy that sort of thing - not you ducky I know you have said you don't)

I didn't see the Good Friday thread so I can't comment on that, personally.

Bertrand I agree that some religious beliefs should be robustly challenged and in particular actions taken by people who then justify their actions under the guise of whatever religion they follow.

However, on a lightweight general thread where religion in general terms is being chatted about there is always at least one poster who comes on and says something along the lines of:

"Justify to me why you believe such nonsense, prove to me that your God is real and I'll sit here and mock you whilst you do so and then accuse you of having no sense of humour when you take offence."

There is one who tried it on the Good Friday thread that is currently running and after having a post deleted retorted that "people with faith are very touchy". Why should posters have to justify their belief, it's very arrogant of the posters asking that to assume that they have the right to demand that of other posters on a thread quite clearly catering to those who believe and wish to share their experiences of Good Friday.

You've made over 70 posts on this thread! It's too much, you aren't defending yourself you are shouting people down.

You are repeating yourself. You've made your point. You are shutting down debate and making this all about you, which is incredibly trollish behaviour.

This is just getting silly now.

Op: I agree with you.

< I'm out of here >

I think it would help if posters were generally encouraged to be respectful towards other posters - I mean, encouraged more. And discouraged a lot more from having sweary usernames. Which in themselves encourage a culture of rudeness towards fellow posters. I know some will disagree, but I do think this is true.

I think didyouwrite makes a good point. Even if a poster doesn't choose that name seriously it certainly can appear a certain way on a heated thread where people can see only the words written.

If you start getting upset by someone's username, when it is pretty obvious that the username has absolutely nothing to do with the thread then I would suggest that mumsnet is possibly not really the place for you. We swear here. We always have sworn here, it was always part of the site's ethos that it was a place for grown ups to hang out, and that sometimes grown ups like to be a bit rude and sweary. There are plenty of other sites that have very different ethos, where people are I am sure much more polite. Of course there is a line between robust conversation and putting the boot in and on the whole MN manages that very well.

When I get to 70+ posts you are welcome to tell me I am doing the same as you.

This glitch with the reporting at HQ is getting silly now!

Swearing in a post is fine but is it really necessary to have a sweary username? I feel it could inadvertently inflame. That's just me though. I'm prepared to accept I may be wrong.

I would have to disagree that being rude to others is part of the MN ethos, however

It wasn't always part of MN's ethos to have sweary usernames, nor to be rude to other posters.

This thread is really saddening, such anger and nastiness. It makes new site users like myself have a very bad impression of the place.

It's evolved into a rather unedifying pile in against one poster. Odd.

Honestly bibbity, ducky has explained herself over and over again because new posters are coming on and criticising her all over again. Yes, it IS tedious. Why can't people STOP referring to the Good Friday thread? Even the op from that thread has been on again complaining, mistakingly thinking ducky is having a go at HER so ducky has to explain AGAIN that she ISN'T... It's like Groundhog Day.

Hi folks, we just wanted to pop by to see if we can get this thread back on track and clear a few things up.

We certainly don't think you are a troll Ohfuckaducky but we did think that the misunderstanding and ensuing spat meant the original thread got a bit derailed, which is why we suggested a new one was started. We've just dropped you a mail actually if you want to check your inbox.

We also don't think this thread was started as a TAAT or was aimed particularly at anyone. It's a question that comes up a lot and is something we will have a discussion about again at MNHQ.

We'd really like to draw a line under all this now. We're very happy for people to continue to discuss the original OP and what is and isn't offensive and should or should not be deleted, but if it continues to be a bunfight we'll have to suspend posting on it, which would be a shame.

Whether you're religious or just a fan of peace at any price, could we maybe all just take a deep breath, and crack open the chocolate 12 hours early if that's what it takes? Thank you ever so much.