I want to talk about trolling

I’m not really sure what trolling is, is it putting up a false story and waiting for a response?

Trolling can indeed mean putting up a false story in order to see what happens.

I can understand Gransnet discouraging troll hunting - it can derail otherwise helpful or genuine threads.

Just report - by clicking the Report option above every post - and Gransnet investigate. You can say you have reported, I think, but you don't have to.

There are some posters who think it’s fine to flag up on the thread that they think it’s a troll. Sometimes it’s very obvious because it’s so silly but other times, you can’t be sure. If I’m in doubt I report and just don’t engage with the thread at all. Some GNers are incredibly open and helpful on such threads and it’s a pity if their wish to help is being misused - but that is one of the problems of open forums like this. I once had a thread of mine deleted on MN because it was thought I was a troll - it upset me and MNHQ did apologise - they had made a mistake in their procedures

How can GN or MN work out if a post is genuine or not?

A good question!

They do it frequently on MN but obviously they won’t tell us how. And as with me they have occasionally made a mistake.

But either way, we’re supposed to report not make snidey comments ourselves on the thread

Actually maryeliza snide comments seem to be perfectly acceptable, but swearing in response to them isn’t

Pithy comments are OK depending on how you spell “pith” though

jane completely at your post - what do you mean?

PM’ed you maryeliza

maw

I know someone is going to tell me this is a thread/comment about another thread and wag a finger but I’d like to know what happened to that thread that got us all het up yesterday? I presume it was pulled by GNHQ so was that a dodgy post or was it our reaction that had it withdrawn? Sorry to ask but I don’t know how else to find out.

mollie It said thread deleted at OP request

I don’t think that was a wind up at all I think that person was really surprised when she didn’t get sympathy from everyone I don’t think she thought she had done that much wrong

Thank you. I wondered. Odd really, she knew exactly what she had done wrong but not the impact on anyone else.

And how annoying, can't remember what it was! ?

Bluebelle I agree.

I wish people would just report their suspicions, as Maryeliza said and not make snide comments. I’m fairly new here and when people start making remarks about ‘onesies’ etc, I feel I’m in a club with a code I don’t know. I would have thought the best way to deal with trolls is to ignore, as they’re looking for a response.
It seems like some of GN members are trying to play a game to see how far they can go with their remarks before LaraGransnet intervenes and warns against troll-hunting.