Trolls
Find a Conversation
| Sun, 11-25-2007 - 4:51pm |
Have you ever been on a message board where there's a "troll" - someone pretending to be someone they're not? I have - several years ago on another board - for moms of kids my DS's age. In that case, the "mom" posting had an improbably sad story, nothing ever went right, every horrible thing that could happen, happened to her. Each post she'd give out a little information, and kept people posting back to her time and again. Some folks even emailed her "off the board" and got very attached. In the end, the majority of posters came to believe she was a fake - it caused great division among board members - some folks actually tried to find her IRL and failed.
We spend so much time talking about how to keep our kids safe on the Internet, that we forget it's new to us, too. So, be wary of people whose stories don't ring true. We've got a great group here, but it wouldn't be hard for someone to fake us out.


Pages
I'd rather be sailing
Jeannine
Someone joined another board I was on and told
I think most every board has had their share of trolls. I never knew they actually had a name though.
On another board there was this type of person. Her story was so involved and after a while I began to suspect there was something not ringing true. We had been e-mailing each other for quite a while too. Then one day she just disappeared and I have never heard from her again. It was a very odd thing to go through, I had invested a lot of time in her and all that she was dealing with and when I started to feel that she wasn't honestly who she said she was and all these things weren't true, I got a bit annoyed. Taking all that time and energy from me really made me angry.
Most of the ones I have seen involve what I think may very well be kids pulling
<< Then one day she just disappeared and I have never heard from her again. >>
Going wayyy off topic here... but I have a few boards I post on almost daily.
Actually, I don't really know for sure what happened there. This gal supposedly had a ton of things going wrong and she was very depressed. The cl on the board and I both were e-mailing her and both of us were worried when we didn't hear from her. I never told the cl that I thought she was a troll, but I just wasn't sure. I don't know what really happened, the cl and I were both quite worried that she had tried or succeeded in commiting suicide, but we will never know.
As far as if something ever happened to me. I don't know. 2 of the boards I participate on I have a very good friend who is the cl for them. We talk and e-mail on a regular basis and if anything ever happened to me I know that Dave would let her know. But I don't know what would happen for this board. I had never considered that. Maybe I should mention it to someone, maybe Mary could post here. But then again I'm not sure that is something she would be thinking of at the time.
I agree that an empty profile on its own is not enough - but it might be part of it. I always approach posters (here and elsewhere) as if they ARE who they say they are, and I definitely respect people's privacy practices. For me, the red flag is more a story that doesn't hang together or is just too sad or complicated to believe.
I also agree that posting pics of kids is a mixed thing. It definitely helps us with our feeling of community, but probably presents some temptation to people wanting to do harm.
Sue, mom to Leah and Seth
Sue, mom to Leah and Seth
Good morning,
I tried the google search - every single land line I entered (including unlisted ones) I got a name, address and map.
Pages