What is it with all these threads being deleted??

[Lilifer]

Every day now there seems to be a thread deleted on aibu - it's the only section I'm really on, but pretty much every day lately I'll see a thread, read it, then return to it later to get an update and it's been deleted. I've been on Mumsnet since 2009 and threads were rarely deleted until recently , this last year or so it seems to happen so much. Are more people just trying to troll or wind us up, or what's the reason behind this huge increase in deletions?

*writes

Toddlers running around a cafe has been deleted!

I mean why??

MN always blames the OP regardless but it was going well...

Think I might abandon ship if this continues

I've just seen one about McDonalds being responsible for the weight of their employees (unsurprisingly) go puff.

Which is a shame, because there could have been a reasonable discussion about whether a snapshot observation is representative of an entire population, are people overweight because they work at McDonalds or are McDonalds just less discriminatory in it's hiring practices and whether the average BMI of McDonalds employees is more or less than the population as a whole (I'd say less as they're generally younger and it's a fairly active job, being on their feet all day, cooking and cleaning and running in and out to the drive through waiting area).

Exactly. And such a troll may well get an answer from someone who has actually gone through the terrible tragedy of losing a child, who then shares their genuine story.

It's difficult to even imagine how they must feel when they discover that some sicko made up a story about such a dreadful thing.

Except there is no evidence that there is such a 'troll' or that it was made up. So both the genuine OP, and others who have gone through it, lose out because of the real troll - the troll hunter.

"harmless troll" is a contradiction in terms.

People are looking at this the wrong way round. All this moaning that HQ are deleting more threads. Well d'oh. That's because people who think trolls and fakesters are harmless are encouraging more of them to come and post their made up shit. More trolls=more deletions.

No. I don't want to be taken in by scum lying about dead children. I don't want to fall for some con artist whining they're down to their last tub of marge. I don't want Herbert wanking over stories about teenage girls' periods. Or primary school kids' pissing themselves.

If that floats your boat, crack on. But leave the rest of us to report them.

And all the people "knowing" someone was genuine.

You don't. Ever. None of us do.

You also don't ever know if someone is not genuine.

Where is your proof standard to tell who is a troll? So many people have been falsely accused because people on here have been so sheltered they have no experience of the real world.

They are quite right to delete anything that is racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, as well as posts by MRA and other activists.

Unless you think those kinds of posts should be allowed to stay?

The reason MNHQ delete so many posts/threads these days is because there are so many trolls here!

It's not exactly rocket science.

I'd argue the opposite.
It's people who DO have experience of the world who know one when they see one.
But then, it's not my job to say who's genuine. I'll report threads I think are dodgy. HQ will decide.

The evidence of people being wrongly deleted proves the opposite. The fact that some people can't imagine something happening, is proof of their lack of real world experience.

@TalkingCat you really think that MNHQ don't have proof someone is a troll (or a PBP)?

Very often they don't delete, because they can't prove someone is trolling. I'd say things are much more often left to stand for a while because of this, rather than MNHQ just deleting because someone has reported a thread or post that they don't like.

And bugger off with your nonsense about 'being in the real world' - I think you'll find plenty of us have been here long enough, and are intelligent enough, to spot when something is a troll post.

They have already said many times they can never vouch for anyone.

Do you honestly think they have 'proof' someone is a troll or PBP?

The enormous amount of people wrongly deleted PROVES how flawed it is. They said themselves. They can never vouch for anyone (only state if they're a long term poster or not).

Sorry, it is what it is. The proof is many people are very naive, sheltered, and simply cannot conceive of a situation because they haven't experienced it, and wrongly dob in someone innocent. These dobbers may have been here long, but they clearly have no experience of the actual real world. Only their dobber Mumsnet fake world. Evidence proves this.

... and when they can't vouch for them, they give them the benefit of the doubt.

Where is your proof standard to tell who is a troll? So many people have been falsely accused because people on here have been so sheltered they have no experience of the real world.

Completely agree with this. If I started a thread on some of the things that have happened in my life people would call me out for trolling. And yet sometimes truth really IS stranger than fiction. Just because someone doesn't believe your story doesn't make it any less true.

I was disappointed a couple of months ago that a thread was pulled about the risk of passing on a genetic condition to a potential child, and the lack of cooperation of the in-laws in doing genetic testing. Yes, it was an emotive, highly contentious topic, but it reflected the reality that families like mine, with a risk of passing on a genetic condition, are often dealing with.

Many posters had no idea that medical professionals will almost always recommend trying naturally and having a termination at 14 weeks gestation if the baby is affected, over doing IVF with genetic testing. Or that the state will foot the bill for an unlimited number of terminations for genetic reasons but only for three goes of IVF. Sorry to throw this one in here, but the thread reflected an unpalatable but accurate reality, that most posters will thankfully have no direct experience of.

All evidence to the contrary! So many have been deleted/banned when they were genuine.

Which proves my point.

IP address is the most obvious one.

A few days ago I posted on how to know if op were trolls because I didn't really know how to distinguish a troll for a genuine poster. Got a lot of information on how to spot a troll, maybe I am a bit gullible but I am now being a bit more sceptical of some posts. Sorry to derail from the original thread

Unfortunately many people use the same IP address. So it's not reliable at all.

I won’t explain how becaus wouldn’t want to give any PBP’s ideas, but essentially, if you have the right kind of systems then it’s incredibly easy to find out.

I used to moderate a different site, and we used to actually approve every sign up initially to prevent duplicate accounts but in time it turned out that posters we had banned tried to get back in, and we would thwart them before they did.

It all started with an existing poster who had alter ego’s who used to live a difficult life, befriend people on the site, and then just as they were going to meet up etc the character would either die tragically or end their life because of the mental health problems they had told their new found close friends about. When it transpired who the person was who started all these accounts users were incredibly shocked, because it was a well known, and well respected member of the site, and some even knew her in person.

After she and her trolly mates were banned she tried to sign up at least 7/8 times while I was still a moderator. And never even got past the sign-up process.

MN is probably too big to have all sign-ups approved, but if they did, they would likely stop an awful lot of trolls.

And if they made name changing more difficult they would as well.

And you know people have been banned how exactly?

I didn't know that, but mumsnet admin has kindly amended the title. Thanks for heads up

"You know there's a Hide Thread option?"
I didn't know that, but mumsnet admin has kindly amended the title. Thanks for heads up

😅 the irony 👆🏻- even my title about threads being deleted had to be partially deleted , you couldn't make this up! 🤣