Policy for when there are issues with posters?

[cbcb]

I did PM with NEW a few times. I think a lot of what she posted was real - maybe not the details and larger stories about her own life but I think that her responses in the threads of others were genuine. I often found her extremely well-thought-out and considered in her advice. I'm actually uncomfortable with her having the "troll" label because I think the vast majority of her posts were as a member. To me, a "troll" is primarily about their own stories and getting a reaction to them. NEW may have done that, but she also was a valuable participant in other ways.

[Yvaine]

I did PM with NEW a few times. I think a lot of what she posted was real - maybe not the details and larger stories about her own life but I think that her responses in the threads of others were genuine. I often found her extremely well-thought-out and considered in her advice. I'm actually uncomfortable with her having the "troll" label because I think the vast majority of her posts were as a member. To me, a "troll" is primarily about their own stories and getting a reaction to them. NEW may have done that, but she also was a valuable participant in other ways.

I liked a lot of what she had to say as well. She had "she of the radically different perspective" in her sidebar and that was exactly what she brought to the forum. She had a lot of useful things to say about disability rights (whether she had a disability of her own or not) and about lifestyle choices that people are sometimes judgmental about.

[pierrotlunaire0]

Poirot, the one thing that has tripped up trolls in the past here is the time line.  You say you and your son have had some medical issues recently.  Now if you posted that your son was getting sick; next day in ER; later that day having surgery to remove a brain tumor; then next day in a different thread, your son had an argument with his best friend.  Someone posts, "Do you have 2 sons, because your son just had surgery?"  Oh, he was discharged, and the friend came over to see how he was doing.  I remember one troll in particular where 3 days couldn't hold all the happenings that occurred to her in one day.

Another giveaway is the troll has interesting stories, and the killer is that there is always a punchline: things get wrapped up in a neat package, the rude person is shamed or punished in some way, and the troll is revealed as a hero.  Now occasionally that does happen in real life, but most of the time there is no ending. 

[DottyG]

I will go ahead and post the link to kinseyanne's tread where she was called out considering she has been named several times anyways and Tricia reffered to it, sorry for not doing it earlier. I am unsure if it was locked because of lies, or because of the way she was being called out (or both).

http://www.etiquettehell.com/smf/index.php?topic=99872.0

I remember her thread about losing th ebaby being locked, and I had assumed it was because of medical advice even though I was aware that she had a lot of OTT stories. I had assumed it wasn't lying because she was not banned, and other posts were allowed to stand as they went up.

I was suspicious of both, but did not know that they were trolls. Like I said, I give support because someone else may benefit and I figure as long as I am not too invested if I get burned once or twice it is worth it to be nice to everyone I am moved to on this board for whatever reason.

OK, post 54 is very interesting in that thread! 

LOL!  You're right!  Penguin, was all that deliberate?!  If not, it was quite a coincidence!

[jimithing]

I did PM with NEW a few times. I think a lot of what she posted was real - maybe not the details and larger stories about her own life but I think that her responses in the threads of others were genuine. I often found her extremely well-thought-out and considered in her advice. I'm actually uncomfortable with her having the "troll" label because I think the vast majority of her posts were as a member. To me, a "troll" is primarily about their own stories and getting a reaction to them. NEW may have done that, but she also was a valuable participant in other ways.

For me, all the other stuff goes out the window when you start posting things for sympathy and sucking other posters in. Many people here on the forum *have* actually been sexually assaulted or have had very difficult pregnancies. When you start to use those kinds of things to play on people's emotions, the other contributions are heavily outweighed by the negative.

[Spoder]

I did PM with NEW a few times. I think a lot of what she posted was real - maybe not the details and larger stories about her own life but I think that her responses in the threads of others were genuine. I often found her extremely well-thought-out and considered in her advice. I'm actually uncomfortable with her having the "troll" label because I think the vast majority of her posts were as a member. To me, a "troll" is primarily about their own stories and getting a reaction to them. NEW may have done that, but she also was a valuable participant in other ways.

I liked a lot of what she had to say as well. She had "she of the radically different perspective" in her sidebar and that was exactly what she brought to the forum. She had a lot of useful things to say about disability rights (whether she had a disability of her own or not) and about lifestyle choices that people are sometimes judgmental about.

I agree that she had some interesting perspectives and expressed herself well. Honestly, though - the value of that is negated, for me, when someone starts eliciting sympathy from good people, with lies. Particularly when the lies are about serious things like sexual assault and resulting multiple pregnancies.

Some people on this board have actually suffered similar things, for real, and it's totally disrespectful for her to use those issues for her own agenda (whatever the heck that was). JMO.

ETA: jimithing, it appears we think alike on this.

[LadyL]

Did anyone else catch that in the baby name thread (where Kinsey was sent a list of 25 names she couldn't use for her baby as they were spoken for by a friend who wasn't pregnant, but was trying to conceive) that Kinsey claimed the friend said to her, "If your baby dies I will name mine after you?" If that's not uncanny foreshadowing I don't know what is. I find it easier to believe that it was a literary technique than to believe that someone would actually say such a thing. Also most people would issue a cut direct over that comment, not continue to engage them and then post about it.

[HermioneGranger]

I was thinking Cherryripe was the reincarnation of another poster, banned long ago...

But yes, I did find her posts incredibly entertaining (if also incredibly frustrating).

I did too.  Her posting style was incredibly similar to a poster I remember being banned several years ago.  It was kind of freaky. 

[blue2000]

I will go ahead and post the link to kinseyanne's tread where she was called out considering she has been named several times anyways and Tricia reffered to it, sorry for not doing it earlier. I am unsure if it was locked because of lies, or because of the way she was being called out (or both).

http://www.etiquettehell.com/smf/index.php?topic=99872.0

I remember her thread about losing th ebaby being locked, and I had assumed it was because of medical advice even though I was aware that she had a lot of OTT stories. I had assumed it wasn't lying because she was not banned, and other posts were allowed to stand as they went up.

I was suspicious of both, but did not know that they were trolls. Like I said, I give support because someone else may benefit and I figure as long as I am not too invested if I get burned once or twice it is worth it to be nice to everyone I am moved to on this board for whatever reason.

OK, post 54 is very interesting in that thread! 

LOL!  You're right!  Penguin, was all that deliberate?!  If not, it was quite a coincidence!

<snicker> That IS funny!

[pierrotlunaire0]

I never thought IndianInLaw was a troll.  In many ways, I thought she was a lot like me: kind of boring life, with not much to create threads on.  But she posted comments on everything.  And the time she tried to start a forum war, several people had warned her not to do it.

Now when someone said that Kinseyanne was a returning troll, did they mean she and NEW were the same person?  That I don't see at all.  NEW had a very distinctive style, and KA's was not the same at all.

[DottyG]

So, if you suspect that a poster is a former troll, but have nothing to back that up, would you report it to the mods?  I think what is giving me the feeling is similar writing styles but there is nothing super obvious!

Yes.  I have done just that.  I've said that something about the person is just raising some red flags for me and that they might just want to keep an eye on the person.  That it may not be a troll or a problem, but that I just wanted to bring their attention to it to keep watch on.

I think that it's important that we help the mods when we can.  This place is huge - and there are so many threads going on at once.  They can't always see every post that's made.  So if you're able to give them a quick "heads up" that this is an area of the forum that they might want to look at if they haven't already, I think it's helpful.

You don't have to tattle on the person.  Just bring the mods' attention to it.

[Yvaine]

I did PM with NEW a few times. I think a lot of what she posted was real - maybe not the details and larger stories about her own life but I think that her responses in the threads of others were genuine. I often found her extremely well-thought-out and considered in her advice. I'm actually uncomfortable with her having the "troll" label because I think the vast majority of her posts were as a member. To me, a "troll" is primarily about their own stories and getting a reaction to them. NEW may have done that, but she also was a valuable participant in other ways.

I liked a lot of what she had to say as well. She had "she of the radically different perspective" in her sidebar and that was exactly what she brought to the forum. She had a lot of useful things to say about disability rights (whether she had a disability of her own or not) and about lifestyle choices that people are sometimes judgmental about.

I agree that she had some interesting perspectives and expressed herself well. Honestly, though - the value of that is negated, for me, when someone starts eliciting sympathy from good people, with lies. Particularly when the lies are about serious things like sexual assault and resulting multiple pregnancies.

Some people on this board have actually suffered similar things, for real, and it's totally disrespectful for her to use those issues for her own agenda (whatever the heck that was). JMO.

ETA: jimithing, it appears we think alike on this.

Agreed--but I think she made valuable contributions before the saga started, if that makes any sense. If the early parts of her story (like the hyperthyroidism) were made up, they didn't really hurt anyone but her, and she had interesting things to say. It's a weird situation because she waited so long to start the shenanigans and had been a good poster before that.

[Poirot]

I can't believe I was so darn dimwitted as to not catch penguin's obvious (and yet still subtle, in some way) call out in #54. 

[Ticia]

Okay, I think this thread has run its course. Please keep in mind that we don't know if certain posters, that have been discussed here, are trolls or not. And to keep talking about them as if they are trolls is counterproductive.

[Ehelldame]

IndianInLaw was not a troll.  The forum rules are very clear that if you are found to be importing trouble from another forum (such as going to another forum to stir up trouble which directs angry troublemakers back to Ehell), you will be promptly banned.  No second chances.  No mercy.  There were some trolls from another forum on Ehell and IndianInLaw went to their forum to "do battle".  It only added fuel to the fire and she was banned for doing it.   It was a hard decision to make because she was a high post count regular with no previous mod history but there can be no favoritism for oldies so the rule of law for the forum prevailed.   IndianInLaw's situation should be noted primarily because it demonstrates that a high post count and years on the forum will not save you if you break one of hard and fast rules of the forum.

Look for new sticky thread in Forum Announcements regarding mod policy re: issues with posters.