Dealing with the trolls

[margiebargie]

Lots of people reported the most recent big troll thread, but it obviously trundled on for a while regardless - I presume while you were looking into it behind the scenes. How about a system whereby if you've received a certain amount of reports, the thread is automatically "paused"/locked/hidden while you investigate?

And if a thread is revealed to have been from a troll, delete it (with the message "Yawn" or similar), and keep it up for a day or two but hide it from everyone apart from those who were posting on it (op excluded, obviously), so that they can discuss it among themselves without their discussions being public. I'm sure the trolls get a kick out of being called a sick fucker as much as from the original deception; as it's an attention-seeking phenomenon, the less attention they get, the better, no?

It wasn't bears shitting in the woods, but humans. Loves young dream, or so I thought, posing coyly beside a log, no pun intended, in plain sight, within 30m of a public convenience, and 20m of a kids playground, to be shouted at by me, my voice carries, at probably 9.30 am "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? THERES A TOILET YOU KNOW? JUST THERE, OVER THERE! YES REALLY, JUST THERE! STOP TAKING PHOTOS OR EACH OTHER AND GO TO THE TOILET" whilst stridently walking towards said loved up couple, TAKING PHOTOS OF EACH OTHER IN THE SHITTING ACT.

There we go, another name change. It won't be, DoBearsShitInTheWoods?

Christ alive, I am going to get blocked as a troll

Notmore, at the Samaritans they used to say these people need support too, just not in the way they looking for it. I actually felt sorry for some of them, they were clearly crying out for something. We were trained to offer support but not engage in the story. It was hard and I spent ages with someone once who turned out to be a really nasty troll. I was so taken in as he was very convincing, but towards the end of the conversation realised he was mastabating.

But i think what trolls do here is actually much worse because they take so many people along with them. They literally feed of the drama and attention but can leave vulnerable people feeling duped. It's terrible.

I think lots of people don't realise that trolls pull pictures from other sites on the internet and make use of them, so were drawn in and reassured by the pics and what seemed like plausible medical details - except the more details and pics trolls make use of, the greater the likelihood they get it wrong, which is clearer to people who have relevant knowledge but not always clear to those who haven't any experience with a particular situation or don't know (from long experience reading MN) the Ways of the Troll.

I privately think that for most trolls they are extremely immature, and have never got over that sort of jealously kids have when someone they know is ill or has something wrong and that seems "special" somehow. Whereas most adults have some experience of illness and family difficulties even in mildish ways, and have come to realise that being at the centre of such dramas does not feel exciting and special at all, and causes people real hurt and lasting trauma. I genuinely think trolls are sort of the equivalent of lonely teenage girls who want to feel at the centre of things, and haven't had enough life experience to grow up a bit.

And of course there are a probably a few with serious mental health problems, sort of a Munchausen's-by-internet.

I have experience with haematological dx processes (though have never been in the situation suffered by MrsDeVere and others), and as she says above, it wasn't really the quick dx that alerted me (if anything it wasn't quick enough: an internet search will tell you a bone marrow biopsy will take 2 days to get results, but that is standard - in the situation described by the OP they would be getting the results within a few hours these days - it would be a fast fast priority in the lab). In a symptomatic AML case they can have the dx done and chemo started within 48 hours or even less if necessary, depending on the hospital.

Still, even if you didn't know details like that from personal experience, the tone of the postings was very suspect. Eg. the OP carefully misunderstood the word "platelets" in an obvious attempt to sound like she was "naive" despite this being at odds with how "knowledgeable" she was about the rest of the information she posted. The photos were odd - the clothes on the child's legs in the "bruising" picture didn't match the clothes in the other picture which was supposedly taken at the same time, despite them having only just arrived in hospital via A&E. (And leukaemic bruising doesn't look like that anyway, if you happen to know about that.) The details of the hospital beds in the picture did not look like standard NHS ones, if you've spent any time around hospitals or A&E recently. All in all, so many telling details did not add up. Along with the strange tone of the posts, it just felt really wrong.

Thanks for coming back and sharing!! That is funny / disturbing in equal measure. And, I believe you

I always think humans are beyond weird. Not all, but some.

Heavens above notmore . I'm just picturing you striding over there loudly berating them whilst thinking wtf.

George, good insider knowledge, I will keep an eye out for you on possible medical troll posts.

Seriously, why do people need to do this????

The quick progression I questioned was from posting on MN with supposedly ongoing (obvious) symptoms to getting a high fever and going to a&e. All within an hour. That seemed the dodgy bit, not diagnosis and treatment.

How many of the Troll threads are from people who name change I wonder. I don't understand why it is so easy to keep name changing and am starting to get so cynical that I hardly believe anything which is really sad.

Re shitting in tbe woods, it was the proximity to the kids playground I found so disturbing.

In the comfort of your own home, do what you like.

Drop your pants and shit within 20m of a kids "dog poo free" playground made me gag.

Came over all .imperious, Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet and Kirsty Allsop bossy.

Kids were mortified. I pick my dogs shit up, I am NOT stepping in yours.

DEFECATING FUCKERS.

It's funny you say that though, George. On one of the very late photos, of 'Oliver' sat up on a bed, supposedly part way through treatment and feeling rough, I was just looking at the suction unit on the wall and thinking 'ooh they have red tops on their suction units. That looks much nicer than our ones...' I wasn't even looking at the rest of the photo.

I should clarify, these weren't people caught short, there was no travellers tummy emergency.

Gratuitous public, photographic can't use the word photgenic, as clearly it wasn't shitting.

Bare arsed shitting. In public, in daylight. Within reach of a WC.in a public park.

Fuck off to you and your daylight world of recreational shitting in public places.

This is not a thing, next time I will get a better picture of your face.

Is this where the phrase shit for brains comes from?

Burn - oh yes, definitely, I agree with you on that; that was a red flag for me too. Only some people earlier were questioning the quick start of chemo rather than the quickness of the "action" on the thread as it were (in an AML case that advanced, a hospital can get someone in in the middle of the night, dx and have a line put in the next day and start chemo pretty much immediately). But even just reading the opening post I thought, what, this has been happening for weeks apparently but you have time to write a huge essay about this instead of getting back to the GP for your child?

It's things like the narrative which really give it away, someone said earlier that the narrative is too good in troll posts, exactly my feelings.

Back to trolling, why would you post a photo with identifiable tatoos?

I also noticed different clothes , but people get chamged, and I did notice use of glasses, but some people only use them to watch tv?

What ???? me was that the mentions from some lovely kind poster, "I am currently in GOSH, let me know ypur ward?" was completely ignored.

Notmore I stopped reading the thread after reporting it and getting the standard MN response, but that does sound telling! She claimed they had been transferred to GOSH? From an unnamed hospital in East Anglia (where they apparently started out) they would normally have been transferred to Addenbrookes (which is the east of england "hub" for paediatric haematology), but early in the thread someone had already said they were near/at Addenbrookes, so clearly the troll thought that would be too dangerous as a claim

And yes, the whole collective noun bollocks is just nauseating. Even if the thread had been true it would have been cringeworthy, as if it were some kind of exclusive club... And actually, it could have been about someone's real life issue.

It did seem forced.

There have been long term health threads about a single MNer's journey through illness before that evolved their own nicknames and in jokes, but if you look at those (wonderful, genuinely supportive, heartrending) precedents, you can see that those 'clubby' elements grew up slowly and naturally.

All the "reporting for duty" "officer in Oliver's army" stuff was weird after just a day. It feels harsh to say it about people who mean well, but it is BONKERS to watch people talking in familiar manner to a child they don't know like that. They wouldn't do it IRL so soon after meeting.

Even though I'd reported the first thread, I didn't spot the sockies because I assumed that ALL the new names on the thread were people rushing to join in. It had that feel.

I think the explanation is that people feel the web is safer and friendlier than RL. If they insist on thinking that, what can you do?

I thought the same as others. The pictures do not look like they are in the UK either. I thought they looked like they are in the US tbh.

There were quite a few signs that something wasn't right but I certainly wouldn't have said anything to that effect. But I did think 'I'm sure this will turn out to be a troll' why would you keep on posting 'thank you so much' over and over? Distinctly milking it. Also I searched the username and their contributions to other threads were mostly on AIBU and said either YABU or YANBU. I thought this was odd.

It is sad because obviously some stories are real and I remember some genuinely very sad threads like the poster in France whose lovely daughter died suddenly in her sleep. This was some years ago. People like this need support in spite of the trolls.

And now one of the current highly suspicious ones, OP is saying they'll delete the thread and namechange in the morning. I'm sure that's for genuine reasons of protecting privacy and not at all because they've now gone way too far with the story

Was the one about a new job earning 23k and living with a cocklodger a troll? The threads were deleted but the MNHQ message doesn't give a reason.

I've read this thread with interest because I'm one of the naive posters who was taken in by this troll. Although I've been on MN for quite a few years I generally only post on 'factual' threads in which either I'm asking a specific question (e.g. about sleep/feeds etc) or answering same. I've never posted on emotional threads before as I don't feel I've anything especially useful to offer.

However I posted this time because I fell for it and wanted to offer support to a mum I thought was in a horrible situation - I realise now I was hoodwinked and feel a bit silly for not noticing the clues.

But you live and learn, and hopefully my troll radar is a bit more tuned in now.

It's sad that these trolls are spoiling it for others - I certainly would think twice about posting if I found myself in a situation like that for fear of being accused of being a troll. I think some of the suggestions made upthread (list date of joining MN beside name; have a count of reports at the top of every thread) would definitely help reduce trollery and wouldn't put off genuine posters.

But I'm back off to my quiet corner of lurking in the meantime, it's safer there.

I was 'sucked in' it's embarrassing enough without the people who claim they weren't (but continued posting ) looking down on those of us who were. It's rare I get sucked in, I'm generally quite cynical.

'I honestly think HQ need more people reading reports' - I have started threads saying this and been absolutely flamed! Been here almost since the start. Mn is huge now and making pretty decent money yet reports take an awful long time to even be acknowledged let alone dealt with. I've also been told I'm wrong - then I've followed up, and received apologies and actually been told that the mod 'hadnt read thoroughly' surely that's what they're paid for? Plus there's the lack of mod late night/weekends/holidays which makes it a trolls paradise! No offence to the night watch mners but they're limited in what they can do and they're not professionals.