Plopper threads on 'Active'

[LardyCakeAgain]

Is there a way of changing the 'active' threads filter, so that it needs 2+ posts by the OP to be included? I'm seeing lots of plopper threads lately, either something really controversial or 'guess what happened' type discussions, where the OP just buggers off and doesn't come back. Having these on active really limits the conversations and just leaves a vacuum which encourages trolling and pile-ons.

Is that what they are called?

It's what I call them 🤷‍♀️ posters who leave a great walloping turd of a thread and then fuck off once people engage with it.

You can spot these threads a mile off though, just report to MNHQ if you see them.

I get the annoyance, but wouldn’t this just mean that new threads aren’t spotted at all?

If they start a conversation do you really need to have the OP.

It is annoying @LardyCakeAgain and there have been loads of them lately.

They're trolls @AgnesX.

I was going to say this as well.

The plopper threads are irritating but it wouldn’t be fair not to have genuinely new threads in Active.

Also, you’d just get the OP posting to bump the thread rather than actually engaging.

Ah OK, I take your point

It would definitely be useful to be able to quickly identify posts where the OP never came back, without having to "see all" their posts every time.

@FictionalCharacter you don’t get the “see next” option if there’s only one post, just the “see all”. I don’t know if that is available from all ways of accessing MN though.

Ploppers are much worse than drip feeds. Obviously the very worst is reverses.

Hi @LardyCakeAgain

Thanks for raising this. We understand your frustration about threads where the OP doesn't return but we don't think it's really workable to exclude such threads from active conversations.

Sometimes an OP posts and then may not return for a while, for all sorts of reasons - children and work and life getting in the way. Other times an OP may be finding the responses a little hard to hear, and might take a while to take them on board and reply. Other times, of course, the OP may well be a troll...

If you can hit the report button on any threads you're concerned about we'll happily take a closer look. If we're not certain the OP is genuine we'll take the necessary action.

@FictionalCharacter

you don't have to do that, you can't just see there's not a 'see next' option.

The not seeing a "see next" (now that's confusing!) used to be a good indicator but on the Android mobile site I've seen several threads where the OP only has a "see all" with no "see next" but they have in fact posted several times. So not always a reliable indicator of a plopper!

I can see that, but surely if you post on a discussion board, you're agreeing to take part in a dialogue, not to just dump your opinion and FO. Ploppers lead to poor quality discussions in active, such as threads with 6 pages of 🙄responses, or people joining MN just to disrupt the FWR and diverse mumsnetter boards. Surely there is an algorithm or discussion filter that can be used to pull out high quality threads - factors like OP responding to PPs or updating the thread, and low numbers of PP posts that contain one word replies, like . & F, or emojis?

I like MN because of the number of eloquent, intelligent womenbusing these forums - if I wanted to read posts like the above I'd just use reddit.