Proposal - a "Trolls Graveyard" topic area?

[SinoohXaenaHide]

Prompted because I was quite pleased with my creative and amusing response to the OP of this deleted thread and obviously that response is now lost to posterity.

But it's quite often the case that threads which are started by someone who isn't genuine get worthwhile and valuable responses - sometimes on serious topics people share their own real experiences and those responses deserve not to be lost just because the thread is deleted. Sometimes when the OP is a really obvious troll, witty and creative MNers have some good fun with responses to the absurdity.

I would like to suggest a "Trolls Graveyard" topic where threads that are removed from the main forum can be sent, with settings to stop anyone adding more posts to them but the existing content can still be seen. Obviously not every deleted thread should go there - certainly not anything with hateful or offensive content - just the ones where there is worthwhile content to preserve. I think this would also be helpful for non-troll MNers to be able to browse and see examples of the kinds of threads that have been found to be non-genuine over the years.

Helpful to the potential trolls also to see what pulls people in…

Haha. I think we had the same idea.

Posted something similar just this early morning.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4411422-Can-we-have-an-Entertainment-or-Fiction-board-for-Bizarre-threads-instead-of-deleting-them

Great idea! There used to be a similar board on a site I used to post on some years ago. It was called The Troll Tank. When threads got nasty/argumentative on the main board, the mods moved it to the Troll Tank where they could carry on scrapping and fighting. The Troll Tank was hidden from the main menu, so their trolling and arguing was unseen by people, unless they went to the Troll Tank themselves.

IMO, as you say, the fictitious ones should be allowed to stay (on a Troll Tank type board,) but when they are nasty threads, like one a troll started about Adele last night, being really horrible about her, THEY need to be deleted. But yes I agree that some of them should stay. And be put on a special Troll Thread board.

Great idea 👍🏽

Sadly I think it would just become a target for some to see if they could get in it. The best to hope for is people not letting them slide so they can be zapped early and save people giving a piece of themselves to it.

On a previous thread about trolls,

I suggested that it would be useful to have regular troll fixations available somewhere.

Poo troll
Tights troll
Those types.

Or maybe common signs that op is a fucking creepy perve with ops that are not so obvious and get genuine responses.

Although those posts do get warnings from other posters if they get responses.

Hey OP thanks for this suggestion.

For all the reasons mentioned above, we like your idea here but also have a few reservations.

It's not unknown for us to post on a thread to say it's a troll but to continue letting it run, or to close a thread where we think likely started by a troll but we think it contains good advice or is rather entertaining. Letting troll threads stand is not something we do often but neither is it something we have hard and fast rules around not doing.

If people would like to keep adding thoughts and suggestions here we will check in and put it in the mix for discussion. For the time being it's likely we'll continue to deal with these sort of troll threads on case by case basis.

There was a thread yesterday that was started with a nod and a wink to have a go at me.

If that sort of thing wasn’t allowed to be preserved in perpetuity maybe it would be ok.

@MustDust

Sadly I think it would just become a target for some to see if they could get in it. The best to hope for is people not letting them slide so they can be zapped early and save people giving a piece of themselves to it.

Ok I am understanding the reasoning why preserving in perpetuity might be a bad idea. However, how will MNers learn how to recognise and respond appropriately if troll threads are always zapped and so there's nowhere to go to learn?

So possible ways to mitigate this:

Any threads sent to the trolls graveyard get the OPs username replaced with "a boring troll" or somesuch so there's no kudos for the notoriety.

Threads only stay in the graveyard for a short time, maybe a couple of weeks, but still locked for no more contributions, and with an appropriate warning to readers. Rather than being preserved long term.

That’s a lot of extra work for hq