Can we have more specific guidance, please, about Talk Guidelines?

[BIWI]

When is a troll not a troll?
When is a PBP not a PBP?
How humorous does a thread have to become before you’ll let a troll post stand?
How humorous does a thread have to become before you’ll let a PBP post stand?

TSSDNCOP

When it comes to Talk Guidelines there is a need to be specific though!

Hi BIWI,

We do accept that there's a bit of grey area here, which means it's not always possible to be specific unfortunately.

Obviously if a troll thread is really offensive or upsetting, it needs to go. Equally, we don't want posters to be taken in and waste their time offering support that wasn't needed. However, if we just feel that a poster is just exaggerating or possibly spinning everyone a bit of a yarn, but all the MNers on the thread are aware and quite enjoying it, we don't want to be a fun sponge about things.

We do quite regularly post on a thread saying that we've unearthed a troll and will be deleting the thread, to be met with a barrage of posts saying 'please don't delete it!' and if there's no really solid reason to take the thread down, we often think there's no harm done and are happy to do as asked. So we think that lots of people actually don't mind a 'troll' thread as long as they aren't being 'taken in'. We do try to be clear when an OP is unlikely to be returning though so at least people aren't hanging about waiting.

Hope that explains things a bit. As with many aspects of moderation it really is something we feel we need to take on a case by case basis.

Thank you @HebeMumsnet

I understand the need for case-by-case moderation, and I definitely don’t want to be a fun sponge! But the thread I had in mind (which I won’t link because I don’t really want to create a TAAT) was started by a very well-known, persistent and irritating troll and PBP. Letting such threads run, by posters like that, surely only encourages them?

Hi BIWI,

We can't really comment on a specific thread without knowing which it was and yes, might be best not to discuss here if it's a specific. Feel free to drop us a line and link us to the thread though. Just hit the report button on your post above if you like and we can have a look and see if we can explain any further.