Any chance MN HQ could ban posters who consistently speculate regarding trolls...

[hmc]

It's getting really boring when a number of posters repeatedly keep dissecting threads and questioning how genuine the OP is, often leaving a lot of ill feeling in their wake. Seen a lot of it around lately - it is becoming an epidemic!

The MN policy on trolls says:
"we would rather Mumsnet erred on the side of giving folks the benefit of the doubt and risked being made to look a bit foolish than pounce on someone who turns out to be genuinely in need of help. We hope you agree"

So perhaps MN HQ would consider banishing the repeat offenders to some poisonous cesspit of malice? They wouldn't be missed.

What I mean is that trolls don't want that kind of attention

they want to be believed. They don't thrive on being questioned.

tortoise, so do you think that shiny should have been banned for suggesting that dizzymare was a troll? or flame for suggesting it of cvq? or whoever it was that questioned ethanchristopher to the point she admitted to being a troll? Or whoever it was that outed judge flounce (he/she was before my time but is imfamous).

In fact, have mn hq ever identified a regular poster supposedly going through a hard time as being a troll and banned said poster without anyone realizing? Or have all the prolific trolls been outed on the boards by posters rather than by hq?

lots of pulled threads and more bans in a few months than i've seen in 6 years.

and people are calling for more? more moderation?

sad.

Sprogger, of course it proves nothing, but neither is it right to assume that a troll will want to stick around once outed.

That was what I was trying to say. My issue was with the wording of the policy.

Was that definitely DM wannabe? Thought it was someone else?

i think there should be a section titled 'unbelievable'

where people can put their unbelievable stories. they may be real - they may not.

but it would at least give me a heads up when searching for the previous weeks gossip.

• this set up would help me enormously

I don't honestly know why people got so aerated about SirBoob's bus thread - it wasn't that hard to believe! Was it really just because it had happened to her more than once? Well, that's not that hard to believe either.

Typical response of the "it's never happened to me therefore it can't possibly happen to anyone else" group of people.

tw, in my case it was the length of the conversation - I can imagine a muttered "That's disgusting" but it seems the charming lady had a 5 minute go at her and attecked every aspect of her life and parenting.
I suppose in the back of my mind there was also the bus aspect of it, which brought to mind the Bristol incident.
Anyway, that's what made me but I was aware that the OP was a genuine poster so didn't troll call.

SPB - I did post on a similar tirade that I had had to endure on a tube train - perhaps that's why I found no difficulty in accepting it.

I love in the north, people are gruff up here
"by eck lass put em away"

Two points

1. I want to know what a " groll" is, I suspect I may be one

("By wannaBe Mon 14-Jun-10 11:59:16
if people didn't engage though then there would be little impact to shouting "groll". )

2. I like Custardo'c Unbelievable topic rather a lot, and I think it has mileage.

Catinthehat - Wannabe uses a screenreader/writer so it might have misheard the word troll, that's probably all. But I expect she'll come and tell you that herself in a minute.

Agree with Custy. Lets ask MNHQ for a 'strange but true' section.

strange but true - yes yes

wannabe, i just want to add that i've reported a certain poster who was going through a hard time, i thought was a troll, i didnt mention it on the thread and nor did anyone else. and by the end of that day that poster had stopped posting.

mnhq do find 'trolls' and do get rid of them, there is no need to shout 'troll' on a thread

are you humming that tune yet?

what tune for some reason i have

bermuda triagle < shit that dates me>
and
tales of the unexpected＜ｓｈｉｔ　ｓｈｉｔ　&# 65364;ｈａｔ　ｄａｔｅｓ　ｍ&#6534 9;　ｔｏｏ＞

well that;s weird

[Thumb & Wannabe - !

Good word though you have to admit!]

As an aside, would also remind people that raising doubts on a thread does not mean that person has not also reported to MNHQ - they are not mutually exclusive actions.

ooops 'groll' was a typo.

"wannabe, i just want to add that i've reported a certain poster who was going through a hard time, i thought was a troll, i didnt mention it on the thread
and nor did anyone else. and by the end of that day that poster had stopped posting." Don't you think though that it would be helpful if mn hq were to inform us if someone was found to be trolling in such a way? Esp a regular poster.

Part of the reasoning why lots of people don't report to mn hq is because they simply don't have the confidence that hq can do anything. I appreciate that helen said that they were working behind the scenes re DM, but she'd been reported weeks before it all kicked off, and still she was free to post and nothing could be done. And in the meantime she'd befriended people on fb/exchanged mobile numbers with other posters etc.

If Dizzymare hadn't been outed on the boards, would mn hq really have been able to establish whether she was genuine or not? And if so, would they ever have told us? Or would they have quietly deleted her meaning she would have been fre to pursue her off-board friendships on fb, with the occasional "remember dizzymar? she's going through a hard time atm but can't post," thread popping up which would probably go under hq's radar as they can't check all of the boards all of the time. Same applies to cvq, etc who have trolled in similar ways.

"there is a difference between someone like Shiny warning people about someone who was creating a lot of emotion and risking people already emotionally fragile
being embroiled in a situation they cant or shouldnt have to deal with (dizzymare).... and someone popping up on a thread and taking the piss and being
mean simply because its a bit far fetched and filling a genuine thread with rubbish that leaves the OP feeling bullied and upset to the point that they
leave.(sirboob)" Is there though? Someone stirring up emotion could equally be genuine, and them being "outed" on the boards could cause them hurt too? Equally some trolls do start out with the small things that go wrong in their lives and build up to the bigger stuff once they've convinced people they're genuine and gained their trust.

Dizzymare posted a lot of dramatic stuff, but she also responded normally to other threads.

Ethanchristopher didn't live a life of drama, she posted normally just inconsistently. She wasn't necessarily sucking people in emotionally, but she was befriending teen mums off board and planning to meet up with at least one.

But I imagine there would be people who would see no merrit in outing her as a troll because what she posted on-board was actually pretty harmless.