Troll hunting

[TheArmadillo]

As troll hunting season seems to be upon us once more and MNHQ have tried several times to outline their troll policy over the years I've been here and it has had little affect. Is there a way that troll hunting can be discouraged?

on threads like this where someone name changes to accuse OP of trolling.

This seems wrong because:
a) if the OP is trolling then surely there is no harm caused. They are not asking for people's money or contacting people offline (afaik)

b) if the OP isn't trolling there is a great deal of upset caused to them.

c) the only reason for calling 'troll' seems to be that their posting style seems familiar to one or two mners.

It seems that trolling accusations are now being thrown at people who have been round a while posting, not just newbies.

Also while I appreciate some trolls do cause posters a lot of upset and problems (I have seen a few) these are rare and tend to be more obvious than a thread on a sensitive asking purely for advice and nothing else.

Plus as MNHQ are unlikely to be able to tell if someone is trolling unless extreme and repeated. And even then not 100%

Would it be a good idea to have a policy of deleting posts crying troll? They cause upset and are offensive to those accused at difficult times. Any serious concerns re trolling can still be reported to MNHQ via the report this post function.

It seems that asking people to stop doing it isn't having any affect and I for one think it is damaging MN because it does put people, especially newbies off posting for advice on serious issues.

Anyone else got a view.

Hugh was just v abusive to people IIRC. DM never replied to MNHQ, but continues to correspond with MNers over the web, just as she always did. It is up to them, I guess.

DM was asked to prove her DTD's death - I think if that had been me I would have told MNHQ where to stick their site.

That's not what MNHQ asked, according to them Shabba, just some verifiable ID information.

Personally, I would have liked to have provided whatever it took and then told everybody to eff off.

Still, everybody is different.

I think people have a right to query whether someone is being truthful - I recently did it myself. I wasn't rude apart from the suggestion implicit in my query that the OP was telling a story.

If I didn't trust what someone said in real life I would call them on it - politely. Especially if I saw other people being sucked in by a tale.

That being said if they were posting about a very sensitive matter I would be unlikely to risk it even if I was 100% certain.

I agree with Shabs that in the case od DM and any other bereaved parent I would rather offer support (which I did) and risk being made a fool of than have someone who needed support not receive it.

Well that's all to your credit Shabs. And for your sake I hope she isn't messing.

Ruby...photos on a facebook profile don't mean too much in the crazy world of trolldom...there was someone on here a while back using a photo she got from the net, and she was sprung quite badly...it's not unheard of.

Of course you can make your own judgment re the validity of a person you choose to be in contact with but I wouldn't do that on the basis of a photograph.

omg what did I do to daftpunks street cred........

thing is wannabe - and i am playing devil's advocate a little here - if you are told not to do something and warned and warned (along the lines of, ''don't give away too much personal information, remember this is a public forum', don't give too much of yourself emotionally'' and you do it anyway, whose responsibility is that?

mollieO no the poster I was referring to was the one who posted saying her h had hit her ds, there then followed a long thread, during which people posted their mobile numbers etc, then the op managed to make it to casualty, to talk to the police (who just so happened to be in the casualty department at the time and available to take a statement) and to a travellodge and posting on her laptop in an unbelieveably short time which was what made some suspicious. Don't know whether she was real or not..

Mollyroger I do definitely agree that there needs to be a level of personal responsibility on the part of those who become involved. I am constantly at the level that people do get involved, with late night phone calls and texting and in some cases even giving money to people they have never met in rl. I do think it's madness and that people need to be a bit more careful, and in those cases i guess you can't protect people from themselves. But equally I think that we need to give out the message that those out to use others shouldn't be tolerated either.

Fwiw photos on a facebook page mean nothing. Anyone could get some photos off the internet and put them on a page. There was recently a story in the news about a woman who had posted a blog about her baby who had a medical condition that was incompatible with life. She posted about her pregnancy and her determination to go through the pregnancy and spend as much time with her baby as possible before she died. People sent her presents and cards etc and the blog became somewhat of a finominon.

The baby was born and died with in hours, and she posted about her grief and sadness at her loss..

Then she posted a photo of her baby, and it turned out that the photo was a doll - the whole thing was made up.

Presumably it is quite hard to fake facebook though?

Years ago I was on a site where a woman had a very difficult relationship which led to a pregnancy which led to a preemie baby who died. She posted pictures of her baby in ICU and someone noticed that it was a picture that an American charity used on their website. She was a fake - All very sad but quite easy to do. F

acebook however - my family are on it, school friends, ex colleagues etc as well as peopl I see every day. If I posted a picture of me with a cushion up my jumper to convince some people on a website that I was pregnant all my friends would be my DH would by you get the picture. or am I too naive?

Tink, yes rather naive.

Anyone can create a Facebook account and add any info they wish, true or not, you don't need your real name, photos can be lifted from image searches, you don't know if the people on their friends list are relatives or not - you could even create multiple accounts and pretend to be family members.

Having someone on your facebook friends list proves nothing imo.

Whilst I agree that anybody can create false Facebook accounts nobody can fake their emotions after the loss of a child or children.

I speak with DM every day on the FB messenger Her emotions and thoughts about the loss of her children are very raw and, at times, painful to read. If she hadn't been bereaved she would not be able to continue pretending after all this time.

I have probably read at least 20 books about the loss of a child and no matter how hard the author tries to explain it they cannot come close to the right words, unless they have walked this crappy, awful road.

Before I lost my sons I hadn't got a clue how it would feel. I still struggle to put it into words after all this time.

I will continue to support her and I feel sad that she was ridiculed and hounded off Mumsnet.

You might be right Shabba, I don't know. I am sorry you have lost your dear children. As an outsider to that particular level of hell, I don't know whether someone talking about bereavement is telling the truth or not, but I have never found it hard to believe your story and I did find it hard to believe the other poster.

But that doesn't indicate anything really, as you know. She might be genuine, she might just have a good way with words. But I hope you are and will be O.K. whilst you continue to be in contact with her.

I'm not able to judge this of course but it doesn't, and didn't, seem to me as though mumsnet was offering her what she needed in any case. If she is genuine I am glad she still has you, who can relate so well to her pain. Many of us on here couldn't really help.

Ooh justa was that my thread?

Came to have a nose on here is it seemed quite pertinent - I've never been accused of being a troll before

FWIW I'm with the if you don't believe it don't post camp. Even though I used to post on CVQ's threads sometimes

Maybe there could be a warning about sharing info and reminding people that we are on the internet and can't often tell if people are who they say they are on the "Getting started" tab - near the top. I would guess most people new to message boards would have a look there and then at least they would be warned. People familiar with message boards would presumably already know about trolls.

I just happened to stumble accross this on another forum. Discussing this thread on mumsnet. I think it's interesting that the poster was caled a troll when clearly she just had some very odd and firmly expressed views.

Anyway - just thought it was interesting.

Am I mis-remembering? I thought that it had been proved that two of the most vocal troll hunters were in fact the same person and that they were posting from the same IP as a "famous" troll.

[Stares at screen with puzzled frown emoticon]

I would love to post but I'm so scared of being bullied that I have to keep all my problems between myself and people who can actually help me, rather than the internets.