Just explain the recipe shit to me please

[speakingwoman]

Just that. I am, I suspect, very slightly on the spectrum and I find it confusing and stress-inducing. It always reminds me of experiences of being bullied.

Is it something I should interpret as a signal that one or more pp is not in good faith?

Is there some positive intent behind it?

Please don’t reply by repeating it.

What do you mean by recipe?

I think it's a way of ignoring obvious shit stirrers and derailing their derailing attempts.

Is it something I should interpret as a signal that one or more pp is not in good faith?

Yes. Particularly the ones who show up on the MN nightwatch (less moderation) and post controversial topics to pick a fight or get juicy screengrabs for twitter.

I'm not sure which thread it's currently happening on but yes, when you see a bunch of regulars posting recipes it's a sure sign that they've all noticed a troll come out from under its bridge and can't be bothered to engage. Usually happens after midnight. Thread will most likely be deleted when the morning mod crew log in.

It always reminds me of experiences of being bullied

As far as I am aware I am not on the autistic spectrum but I agree with this. It is supposed to be a humorous way of shutting down trolls (I don't know why simply ignoring suspect trolls is not an option)

The "funding thread" is a good example. The OP asked what I and a small number of other posters, including me thought was a legitimate question , but apparently that makes us trolls.

If you (general you) want a recipe thread then why not start one rather derail a legitimate thread? If you (general you) don't think a thread is legitimate then why not report it or ignore it?

Its a derail. Like when your child is whinging and whining for something and the just adults ignore them and start talking about what everyone wants for tea.

Defence mechanisms here are deployed when the motives of posters are questioned, when the discussion deteriorates into "you said, I say" kind of mudslinging and/or when there's no way to move forward and things are getting heated.

That's all it is, from what I can see. If it's deployed, someone has raised suspicions. If they're entirely innocent, all that's been done is the exchange of recipes or a discussion about new women's sports we can invent. If they're not innocent and are a troll or a shit stirrer, then they've been given some lovely recipes, or some new sports to try. It's quite a nice way to "fight", actually. Consider it our very own turfblocker, except we can still see what the offender is writing, we're just choosing to talk about something else instead.

Of course people report these threads. The point is that they very often (nearly always as far as I've seen) start when the mods aren't working eg during the night shift. It can take a while for the night watch to be alerted and then hide posts or the whole thread.

The "funding thread" is a good example. The OP asked what I and a small number of other posters, including me thought was a legitimate question , but apparently that makes us trolls.

Lass, no one would have thought you a troll for starting such a thread, because you have a posting history. The person who did start the thread was a first-time poster, and they were swiftly followed on the thread by another brand new poster who, coincidentally (or not) was also asking questions about Posie (this time suggesting she was a member of a Pro-Life Christian organisation).

Thank you for the clear explanation. I dislike it but I don’t own the board. There are plenty of other threads I can read.

I thought it a useful disengagement tactic and am also conscious that MN are stretched enough dealing with reports.
So it seems like a reasonable self organised tactic that serves a good purpose when people have slight concerns or get an inkling about a poster.

Have to admit I'm not personally keen on the recipes thing because it keeps a thread active when it would be better to let it die. The only good thing is that it tells people the OP is not posting on good faith. But a Public Service Announcement would do that.

Ugh, it's mumsnet 'old timers' thinking they are being witty. I cringe when I see it happen.

I think posters think it’s harmless deflection. Recipes aren’t that hilarious are they?
Or maybe i’ve not been here long enough..

But they sometimes don't die a natural death. Some posters (me included) are relatively new and don't have much experience of the trolling and may be tempted to engage. The recipes are a useful warning as far as I'm concerned.

RageAgainstTheTagine

Ugh, it's mumsnet 'old timers' thinking they are being witty. I cringe when I see it happen.

I'm not an MN old timer but even with my short history here I've seen that MN is under constant attack from people who are not posting in good faith, they come here from twitter starting controversial threads and needle posters in the hope of getting juicy screenshots to post for their followers on twitter. If the ordinary posters don't oblige a sock puppet pops up and provides something inflammatory, misgendering or 'dead-naming' so we can all be accused of being monsters.

I think it's a great tactic. Ignoring could be incorrectly interpreted as us having no argument to their points, the recipe thing can potentially piss them off so make them up the ante, showing their true colours even further, and it is also a bit of a middle finger to the derailing/trolly stuff.

I'm not an old timer either, having only been around a few months. What I've seen has been a massive policing of threads on here, both internally and externally, attempting to stop women discussing their concerns openly and without censorship, on a Feminist board.

MNHQ has a fairly clear set of rules that we all try to follow as best we can, and that results in the odd mistake, granted. Some of those mistakes involve suspecting new posters of nefarious purposes when it's not the case. It can't be nice to be suspected, but some of these people do not mean well and it takes more than one post to persuade the regulars that you aren't one of them.

It's safeguarding, and we safeguard ourselves in the best way we can, within the rules we're obliged to follow to be on here.

I would rather ignore and frequently do

Having said that i cant actually resist a good recipe

Im a follower

It's useful to me as I wouldn't realise otherwise that the op wasn't posting in good faith.

I can therefore ignore the thread when I see recipes etc rather than wasting my time.

There's also a certain amount of dig back that those posting here in bad faith have been known to comment about MNetters ought to just be talking about prams and Victoria sponge recipes and not bother their silly little heads with Man Stuff

It's a pleasant, non inflammatory way to warn others not to engage and to occupy the thread in a much more entertaining way. I enjoy it. Much better than arguing back or ignoring.

I only usually hang about in FWR so I don’t mind a few recipes and sports chats etc popping up in the mix

It definitely smacks of a cliquey in joke which leaves those not 'getting the joke' feeling excluded, which is why is pricks at the memories of school bullies.

If a tactic was needed to shut down bad faith threads, I think a more refined response would be preferable to what comes across a smug group finding themselves hilarious.

The best way to have shut down the 'bad faith' funding thread if it needed it was to answer the question in a clear informative way with a 'nothing to see here' clarity. Which Posie did.

Whether you thought it was bad faith or not it was a reasonable question which some regular FWR posters also wanted an answer to.

The seeking of funding was publicly conducted on MN so I'm not sure why clarity about it's use should have to done by individual and private messages?? Seems odd?

MNHQ have outlawed posters being able to state "I believe you are a troll".

When a troll does pop up, posters revert to signalling to one another in a way to warn other posters to be cautious, lest they
-be goaded into posting fodder for a Twitter screen grab
-be subject to unpleasant gaslighting
-waste their time responding in good faith to a troll
-feel like giving up posting at all because this kind of sealioning is so draining

It's like an early warning system. Genuine posters looking out for other posters.

I'd prefer it if we were able to call a spade a spade, but we can't.

Humour is not the worst way of dealing with trolls, really.

The recipe talk is normally done on threads started at night by obviously massively misogynist trolls trying to provoke a reaction from women. I think it's a proportionate response to that. I'm not sure it was a good approach on the funding thread as that seemed to be somewhat different.