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Banning/suspending trollhunters ?

4 replies

SerendipityJane · 29/08/2019 15:44

Not sure if it's getting worse, or me getting grumpier, but quite a few threads of late where - despite clear and unambiguous guidelines - some posters decide to clog it up with in-thread accusations, rather than quietly clicking "report" and going about their day.

Especially in more sensitive threads it can be quite distressing to the OP.

Since it's clearly against site rules, why doesn't MNHQ ban or suspend people who insist on trollhunting ? Especially after MNHQ comment on a thread (but people "miss" it) ?

Awaits a flaming (or being called a troll )

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MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 30/08/2019 08:06

Hi @SerendipityJane,
Yes, we agree and we're looking at the issue in more detail at the moment.

We do warn, suspend, and sometimes ban the worst offenders.

But in general, troll hunting is against the guidelines and if you see it happening then please hit the report button and we'll take a look.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 03/09/2019 14:25

Thanks to @SerendipityJane for starting this discussion - it's a live topic in the office too. And thank you to the contributors who have shared their own thoughts and personal stories about the effects of both trolls and troll hunting.

We've been wanting to have a chat about troll hunting as we’ve noticed it’s happening more often on the boards recently. As many of you already know, our Talk guidelines ask Mumsnetters not to troll hunt on threads but to report concerns to MNHQ via the report button instead. The main reason being that when people accuse others of trolling in public, either they're wrong, and perfectly innocent users feel chased off the site; or they're right and the troll gets a ton of attention - which is exactly what they came here for. It's a lose-lose situation, which is why we try to keep it off the boards. With that in mind, we’re going to be taking a tougher line on troll hunting and we thought it was only fair to give everyone a heads up.

Don't panic - we aren't going to be slinging anyone off the site immediately for questioning it where they suspect something is amiss, but you might find you get a mail from us to remind you to cease and desist if you do get caught up in troll hunting. And if we find there are repeat offenders who, despite deletions and warnings, keep ploughing on, we will issue suspensions and bans if necessary.

We have moderators working most hours of the day and night to attend to your reports but if it's early hours of the morning, you can always pop over to the Nightwatch board and let one of our Nightwatchers know if you think something is a bit dodgy - they can hide the thread until we get to see it.

Please do ask here if you have any questions and we'll do our best to answer them.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 03/09/2019 20:36

Evening everyone. We will be returning at some point with answers to questions but we just wanted to pop in as we've had some reports voicing concerns about the business of 'vexatious reporting' and worry that it's been misconstrued.

Please be assured that no one is going to be banned for reporting genuinely. We have lots of regular reporters who report multiple times a day sometimes and, far from regarding them as vexatious, we're very grateful to them! As others have pointed out, we only know about issues on the boards from reports so we encourage people to report anything that concerns them. If you think someone is a troll, do let us know. Even if you think we've missed something, we're still glad to get another report about it pointing that out. We know we don't always get it right first time.

It's difficult to give a definition for 'vexatious reporting' but it's certainly something that by its very nature you'd be well aware you were doing! Reporting many times is absolutely fine, even reporting the same person many times if you have genuine concerns is fine.

But if it became clear that someone was deliberately and repeatedly reporting a user who hadn't broken the rules in any way in order to get them banned AND we had said we had no concerns about them at all AND we'd made clear we didn't want to hear any more of it, we would probably consider that vexatious. Ditto reporting the same post a hundred times in five minutes. But again, you'd probably be asked politely to give it a rest first - honestly, we're pretty lenient here!

We really want to do our best to encourage people to report. It would be shooting ourselves in the foot to do anything to make that difficult for people. And we'd only do so if we were pretty sure that someone was reporting with the sole purpose of causing trouble for someone. It has happened from time to time but it really is very rare. And it would be a very unusual situation that meant we didn't simply message you first to ask what was going on - we're talking bonkers trolls and people with very obvious axes to grind here.

Anyway, we hope that eases any fears on that score. Please do report. Please don't air concerns on the boards. We just love hearing from you really.

MNHQ

HebeMumsnet · 03/09/2019 21:03

Not YOU again NoSauce! (Just kidding!)

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