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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Bunbury's guide to community disruptors part 5

983 replies

ItsLateHumpty · 20/06/2020 15:04

The useful Bunbury Guide to Spotting Community Disruptors is constantly evolving.

The best research and advice is not to engage with community disruptors and trolls. As ever, if you suspect troll activity, report it to MNHQ.

Remember our monitors would like to silence us by fair means or foul.

This is a continuation of the Public Service Announcement thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3691023-Bunburys-guide-to-community-disruptors-part-4

If and when you see threads plopped into FWR, especially a curious repeat of well worn topics, maybe check for poster history before engaging. AS is your friend.

There are a number of posts/posters/threads that are reproduced on Twitter or Facebook to foment controversy using screen shots & flagging to either MNHQ to have threads or posters deleted.. Sometimes, it’s used to approach commissioning editors with ideas for articles. It’s a tiresome tactic that we always have community disruptor posters who themselves post the comments that they then highlight elsewhere as purported evidence of racism, religious intolerance, anti-men sentiments, or transphobia.

Some helpful links can be found in the ‘Break it Down for me’ and ‘It never happens’ threads but in essence FermatsTheorem recommended “that in the absence of a block/hide poster button, I suggest the following strategy (given that you're talking to the lurkers).

Do not name check the sealion. Instead, respond to a depersonalised paraphrase:

"It is sometimes erroneously suggested that blah. Blah is wrong for the following reasons (short and pithy). If you need more information re. debunking blah, here's a link."

Then (this next step is important to combat derailment) go back up thread to the last useful contribution to the discussion, make sure you do name check that contributor, and pick up the discussion from that point.”

Go well Witches Gin

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
NeurotrashWarrior · 06/07/2020 17:26

I was a lurker once; made a conscious decision to sit down and try to understand the Spartacus thread. Then watched from the side lines, asked questions and more and more was in fwr under different names.

It was reading examples of cleat spelt out arguments that helped me both understand and also formulate my own opinions on where I stood.

Winesalot · 06/07/2020 17:29

as another former lurker, the bunfights are usually very informative. And I see the same tactics of some posters who are determined to merail as I do on twitter. I think it depends on the thread, but sometimes it highlights to lurkers how the conversations get shut down. However, sometimes, it is not worth the stress.

PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg · 06/07/2020 18:52

@ScrimpshawTheSecond

I can't even see the boyfriend/girlfriend one. Is it away?
It's in AIBU. Apparently mother knew her dd's boyfriend for 2 years without realising the bf was in fact a transboy.
TheProdigalKittensReturn · 06/07/2020 18:54

Is the moral of this story that there's a fundraiser for new specs that we could contribute to?

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 06/07/2020 19:03

Aha, I see. [dons hardhat]

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 06/07/2020 19:16

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

PurpleHoodie · 06/07/2020 19:25

Quite.

TehBewilderness · 06/07/2020 20:05

I am not sure what to think when I see a FWR thread show up in trending, except to wonder for the umpteenth time is it only ever the TRA threads that do so, or is it a coincidence?

Al1Langdownthecleghole · 06/07/2020 20:23

Is the moral of this story that there's a fundraiser for new specs that we could contribute to?

Or a road trip to Barnard's Castle?

Sorry - someone had to post it.

Kantastic · 07/07/2020 09:57

Disconcerting to see multiple threads on here being taken over and repeatedly bumped to the top by extremely persistent MRAs (old school variety) who are going to outlast any good faith engagement with them.

It is starting to feel like organised infiltration.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 07/07/2020 10:06

Every thread that's not about BLM being wrongthink is at least a new tack to take.

wrongsideofhistorymyarse · 07/07/2020 10:50

It's another iteration of 'cishets are racist'. Yawn.

TehBewilderness · 07/07/2020 20:50

The admin team has made it clear that opposing opinions are welcome here, and they no longer eject MRAs the way they used to so I guess MN will become the new home for the sub reddit that used to organize trolling the r/gender critical. At least for a while.

Al1Langdownthecleghole · 07/07/2020 21:12

There seems to be a campaign to infiltrate AIBU too. When Fem chat regulars either grey rock or post with patience for lurkers, there seems to be concerted efforts to wind up other posters/watch the bun fight & gather the screenshots.

nauticant · 07/07/2020 21:38

Case in point, the Margaret Atwood thread and the poster who is thrilled to be a dog with a bone over a glib dementia comment.

bishopgiggles · 07/07/2020 21:59

There's a poster who perhaps doesn't know much about bread - who has habitually used the same MO of other certain posters, i.e. coming into threads just to say how you're not allowed to disagree with any of the FWR lot and seeing who bites - then using whatever comes up from that to derail the thread with.
It's very transparent - at least to me, but others feed it...

bishopgiggles · 07/07/2020 22:05

Actually I'd like to rephrase my post above - I'm not insinuating they are the same poster as other frequent derailers, and they do at least seem to contribute their own opinions rather than solely sniping.

I think I've just had enough of discussion about FWR itself, in other threads, being the most common form of derail.

HeistSociety · 08/07/2020 04:19

@TehBewilderness

The admin team has made it clear that opposing opinions are welcome here, and they no longer eject MRAs the way they used to so I guess MN will become the new home for the sub reddit that used to organize trolling the r/gender critical. At least for a while.
I'd have to agree.
Mammatino · 08/07/2020 11:10

I'm having a sit down after catching up on last night's knife fight. Part of me wants to scream "don't engage", but there's been some unbelievably clear and strong educational posts. I think they got their screenshot last night though, it was completely twisted and a lie but out of context it would look bad.

EmbarrassingAdmissions · 08/07/2020 12:58

Part of me wants to scream "don't engage", but there's been some unbelievably clear and strong educational posts. I think they got their screenshot last night though

I know the earlier versions of the Bunbury Guide had fuller links to the research that exists on this topic (curse the lousy search here). The research clearly indicates that a forum should not engage - the difficulty lies in that the moderation is not done by the community (here, FWR) but by a separate and uninvolved business entity (MNHQ).

Engaging will get this sub-forum closed down. Is there more value in having a discussion space or having somewhere that is intentionally misrepresented elsewhere?

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 08/07/2020 13:10

Maybe it's worth considering the bigger picture. At the moment, anyone at all can register wth MN, post any ridiculous, horrible post they wish, and take a screenshot before the mods can even see it, let alone take it down.

This screenshot, even if entirely fabricated and malicious, can then be shared on Twitter, etc. And it seems that this has even been (ridiculously) turned into 'news' that someone is supposed to represent MN or the MN board as a whole.

BUT in the long run, who on earth bases journalism or opinion on a fleeting anomalous post from an anonymous sock puppet account on an anonymous internet forum? We have to get wise to this, and by 'us', I mean society as a whole, not anyone on MN.

Don't take any one statement as gospel; check your sources; look for corroboration; look for context.

This should be something everyone gets familiar with doing, and again, I'm not addressing this to anyone on here, of course, but as a wider community we should all be doing this all the time.

In the short term - I supopse it's up to MNHQ how they deal with this. The board may well end up targeted more and more. I'm registered with Spinster, too, tho I don't use it much, and will keep an eye out for other useful sites/spaces.

nauticant · 08/07/2020 13:31

Did you see this a few days ago on another thread?

mobile.twitter.com/rGenderCritical

lady69 · 08/07/2020 13:54

I feel there needs to be a rule where you can only post new threads after a week or even 2 of being registered. Seems a fair way to help avoid the usual suspects registering and plopping some disingenuous drivel in bad faith.

AdaColeman · 08/07/2020 14:12

On the old BBC Boards you had to have made a certain number of non contentious reply posts, IIRC it was 25, before you could start your own thread, which I always thought was a good system.

DianasLasso · 08/07/2020 14:31

[quote nauticant]Did you see this a few days ago on another thread?

mobile.twitter.com/rGenderCritical[/quote]
Following that up, I've come across this thread by one of the mods, of her "queue" of complaints to deal with on Reddit GC the day it was banned:
mobile.twitter.com/womenopausal1/status/1278432168935657476

Every single thread (regardless of content) had been flagged up as "sexual content involving minors" by someone with an axe to grind. As the former mod said, it's not like Reddit have taken down any of the actual "MAP" communities.

The poor mod also mentions having nightmares brought on by the fact that she and the other mods had to vet every single uploaded image by hand as the only way of screening out obscene content. Shock