Troll hunting, why it's not a good idea and why we deleted the Rarebird thread

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
We've just deleted the Rarebird thread as it had deteriorated into a bunfighting trollhunt. As we've said in previous posts we do think it's better to work on the assumption that posters are telling the truth and after a lot of digging we have found nothing to suggest that Rarebird is anything other than genuine.

Of course you can never be sure of any poster's real identity but we think it's better to err on the side of being occasionally taken in than on the side of being sceptical of genuine posters. If you take a different view (and we do understand that some folk do) then quite simply it's best not to get involved in threads such as these and we'd rather you did that than post suspicions on the thread. Mumsnet will be a worse place if folks routinely assume that any unusual post is a troll making it up.

Of course anyone who has genuine concerns please do tell us - we'll always take a look.

Many thanks,
Justine

DP, I agree.

(haven't seen you in ages btw)

Sure, but that is not what happened with Rarebird. People were vicious and nasty and that is appalling. What's more, it wasn't as simple as pure insult - it was exceedingly targeted, personal insult, and thus far more damaging. And it is not the first time on MN, either.

Wrapping vicious insult in an "it's for your own good... I'm just being honest" coating is adding insult to injury, and self-deluding to boot. Sometimes, people are genuinely trying to get someone to snap out of it (though it's still just their perception, as to personality/character - they aren't shrinks and this is not a setting one would diagnose from, either). Other times, they seem to be enjoying the adrenaline of it all, and enjoying isolating and attacking another person's most basic personality and character. It's profoundly unpleasant when it reaches that stage. Bullying in its purest form, and it doesn't matter how much you dislike the OP, or even if you believe her to be lying. That's still quite simply wrong. And sadly it's also really human and doesn't mean a poster thus carried away is in general a shit person, but I have to question why it is that people can't just apologise and accept that it was wrong and they got caught up in the heat of the moment and the atmosphere of a crowd. Why they try to continue justifying the unjustifiable.

I've never told anyone to piss off.

Following on from fio's posts I wonder if mn hq plant these trolls to generate revenue .

But Chicken, your 'silliness' just meant that troll-hunters turned on me too, and if you ever find yourself on the other end of such insistence that you are lying, a liar, fictional, have made up posts about your own children for the last two years as part of some crazed wider strategy, as people were saying about me, you'd realize it's much more uncomfortable for the accused than the accusers.

I could easily speculate that you, the troll hunters, generate false posts in the first place as a basis for your sport. Ridiculous? Yes. But no more so than all the conspiracy theories from the last two days.

daftpunk - you've hit the nail on the head, there was a pack mentality going on. I posted in support of rarebird a couple of times and was jumped on for not agreeing with what some of the more prolific posters had decided was fact.

Hmmn, SGB, have you met my SIL then?

There's a threead running atm where someone is very low and it's going well- lots of sensible suggestions and gentle support with no offers or vulnerability shown.

Would that all threads could be like that.

'Being a seeping, foetid, rancid cunt is another.

That straight enough for you? '

Yep, that's straight up rank.

RB was never called a cunt, though.

That's you, calling someone else (me) that.

DP. Pot. Kettle. Black.

x-post, Eleanor.

Sancti - having a coffee isn't like going on a waterskiing holiday though is it

(you are talking about Moszhe?)

expat I wasn't calling any individual that - I didn't actually even see you on the thread (it moved too fast). I was replying to several comments - if it looked targeted then I apologise.

Oh I wasn't FA- there were comments about rarebird not being sat with babay and finding time to post on MN

AS for waterskiing- ah yes! She was a very LT troll, I had been sucked in for a while. No harm done though, down to experience LOL.

Oh Daftpunk you are back again

yesterday you were stirring

today you are stirring some more

Can you not just do and post it on 'Mums Who troll Net' instead? Nothing you ever post is innocuous or without some kind of bait.

It was lovely when you stopped for a bit. Sorry to say that.

I didn't say it was you wannabe......but that was said to RB...

I feel so sorry for RB, I read some of the thread and I was shocked, (and it takes alot to shock me)....I don't care if she's making it up, no one deserves to be treated in the way she was.

The troll hunters on here need to calm down, or find a new hobby...MN should offer support to all, and if you waste a bit of time on someone who turns out to be a fake...so what?....is it such a big deal?...

Y'know we're all adults here, if we want to meet up with someone, send money, invest emotional energy...that's up to us....we don't need baby sitting my a self imposed mafia....

But that's the whole point...how do we know who's trolling and who isn't..? MNHQ have said you can never be 100% sure...so give people the benefit of the doubt...

Just want to quickly reply to flight...don't shout at me KM

Flight; I was not stirring re; mums who net, I was just saying that smaller sites will become more popular if this sort of thing doesn't stop.

sites like moldies/MWN..will only ever have a small number of posters....they are not a replacement for mumsnet...

"I don't understand why we all think the kinds are people trolling are desperately in need of something for whatever reason. Some of them are just doing it for the sport, I wouldn't give it any more concern than that. We should be used to it now on here".

You said it Lenin. Couldn't agree more. I have been aware of this story rumbling on in the background and just skimmed through this thread today.

Nice to see its business as usual at Mnet .

I'm genuinely curious about that - my assumption is someone who would invent shit like this and elicit agonisingly personal info from others would have to be a total wingbat. I know you get silly AIBU trolls, and I totally agree on those being for the benefit of the troller (if we're in luck they make us laugh as well), but do you really think the emo insanity ones aren't deeply disturbed? I can't begin to imagine thinking it would be a laugh for a Saturday afternoon, inventing something horrendous and listening to other women opening up on their very real experiences. It'd be depressing as shit to anyone normal, surely? And the ones who seem to repeat perform, from what people say... if they're that desperate for attention surely there has got to be something pretty wrong?

I miss all the best MN bits. Fuckety fuck. where am I when all the best bits happen ? off to go and look in the synopsis symmary, in chat, yes mouseface ?