Return message from report

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Last Tuesday I reported a thread I believed was not genuine. I got the following message back:

"We've had a dig behind the scenes, and can't find anything to suggest that the OP is a troll. That's not to say we can guarantee she's genuine either, but for the moment we'd say take it on face value.

If the story is true, I'm sure the OP will appreciate your advice and support, but as always, we'd say not to give more of yourself emotionally than you can afford to."

To me, the message implies that the thread was probably true and made me feel really really bad about not believing it. It also reads to me like it is encouraging me to post on the thread to support the OP. I didn't as I didn't have anything helpful to say, but it made me want to be able to say something to help.

I Have been feeling bad about reporting it, but now it turns out that the poster was (probably?) a troll. I therefore think that return messages should be more neutral in their response. Along the lines of "thank you for reporting, we can't find anything wrong but will keep an eye on it." And leave it at that.

It sounds quite neutral to me. Don't feel bad for reporting.

I think it sounds completely neutral. They are effectively saying they'd rather give the op the benefit of the doubt.

I think you are reading more into it than is there TBH.
Please don't insist that MNHQ have to resort to rote messages rather than actually communicating with us.
That really would be shite.

Agree with above posters.

I always think MN are grateful for reports and would rather get 1000 reports that are unfounded than a load of disruptive troll hunting, or that's the genteel impression I've always had. They could of course be rolling their eyes and muttering 'not her again!' when I hit 'report' but it's certainly never translated that way :)

Definitely don't want a rote message! I love how the reply was personal! I just felt like I was being encouraged to support, and given the nature of the subject, felt bad for doubting. Seems most disagree through and I do tend to read things into things that aren't there.

The world needs doubters! Or MN does anyway

That's a standard message from MNHQ, I've had it when I've reported threads that were not deleted. I really don't think it was personal and you should never feel compelled to post on someone's thread if you are uncomfortable about it in any way at all.

I did read the message as compelling me to post though, that was the problem. I felt guilt until I saw the troll declaration.

I had the same reply from the same thread. It also did make me feel bad, though I had been 100% sure it was a duff thread (I have personal experience which did not fit with the events on the thread; and tbh, it was the tone of the writing that gave it away more than anything else, as they always do...). Agree with you that the message could have encouraged people to re-contribute to the thread believing MN had deemed it effectively legit. Also if it was a PBP, why was MN saying it checked out behind the scenes, as surely they must have been able to see?

Oh is that just a standard message? I reported a different thread a while ago and received something similar about giving the OP the benefit of the doubt and offering support. It didn't make any sense because the OP wasn't actually looking for support on that particular thread

@BurnTheBlackSuit

I did read the message as compelling me to post though, that was the problem. I felt guilt until I saw the troll declaration.

Apologies if that was the case. it's tricky to know the best thing to say in these situations - we don't know why people troll in this way, and we would really really rather that they didn't but one thing we would say is that we would always rather give someone the benefit of the doubt until we can be sure (by which ever methods (and TSSDNCOP on that score) that the person is not genuine
HTH
Thanks as ever, for all the reports, - keep em coming
Peace and love