How can you tell and more importantly, why do you care? If you think they're a troll, don't play along. There are plenty of other threads.

Recently I was called a troll. My new post was about something that has been happening over years. I was so angry at being called a troll that I searched up all my old threads and posted them. What I really wanted to say was “here’s your proof, you were wrong to accuse me of being a troll, and you need to apologize” but I did not.

It irked me to be called a troll because my interpretation is that they are calling me liar. Maybe my interpretation is incorrect but that’s how it felt to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of us just have crazy families. I have been called a troll here a time or two. Trust me, I can’t believe this is my life, either. If it didn't require relinquishing privacy, I’d consider writing a memoir.

If you've been wrongly called a troll, don't feel bad. I receive equal amounts of praise and abuse for my posts on a running basis. I've been armchair-diagnosed as autistic more times than I can count. It's mainly because so much context is missing from text-only interactions. Although I also have had a few "OMG, am I really weird?" moments.

It’s truly frustrating. I want to jump through the screen, grab them by the shoulders and shake them as I scream, “THIS IS MY ACTUAL LIFE!” How awful for us.

For the lolz, mostly.

But you'd be surprised how many "trolls" here are actually real people who really do think that way. Lot of messed up folx in the world.

Anonymous wrote:Some of us just have crazy families. I have been called a troll here a time or two. Trust me, I can’t believe this is my life, either. If it didn't require relinquishing privacy, I’d consider writing a memoir.

If you've been wrongly called a troll, don't feel bad. I receive equal amounts of praise and abuse for my posts on a running basis. I've been armchair-diagnosed as autistic more times than I can count. It's mainly because so much context is missing from text-only interactions. Although I also have had a few "OMG, am I really weird?" moments.

People are insanely quick to call troll here. Most posts accused of that are clearly not trolls. Just because an OP''s story is elaborate or upsetting doesn't make them a troll.

There's actually a lot of research into this. And popular articles.

This is a good one:

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-win-fight-online/

This too: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217305034

PI firms are now threatening to track down trolls and take legal action:

https://milehi-pi.com/2025/07/internet-trolls-beware-were-after-you/

https://www.preciseinvestigation.com/internet-forensic-computing-investigations-exposing-trolls/

Some of us just have crazy families. I have been called a troll here a time or two. Trust me, I can’t believe this is my life, either. If it didn't require relinquishing privacy, I’d consider writing a memoir.

I disagree that they’re all necessarily trolls and fake based on my own experience. I had a crazy messed up thing happen in my life and it was too much to discuss with anyone I knew, but I also realized I needed advice pretty immediately and that I wasn’t yet in a place where I had the energy to describe it all to a brand new therapist, let alone find one.

So I put it on DCUM, acknowledged it was pretty out there, and asked for practical advice.

I was told pretty immediately that I was a troll and the thread got flagged and I think Jeff deleted it and later referenced it as a troll thread on the website issue forum or whatever it’s called. In hindsight I don’t blame anyone’s reaction.

At the time I felt weirdly hurt and invalidated. But in some ways being told my story was so crazy it had to be fake did actually help because it gave me an explanation for my strong reaction and the destabilization I felt from that event.

I look at every wild thread and my reaction is relief that it’s not my life.

I would assume out of common boredom.

I don't know, but I enjoy responding to them, when it's a good troll that keeps trickling out more information and keeps it believable enough. It's like watching trashy reality TV but you get to actively participate. It must be fun doing it from the OP side but I don't have that "talent."

Some people have noticed posts from Reddit or Quora being imported here. I guess some trolls may want DCUM's take...

Just to rile people up and then watch.

They are prone to stirring people up, and probably have no one left in real life who is willing to have anything to do with them.

I think often the people who are accused of being trolls are actually posting "real" stories but framing it in a way that feels trollish.

For instance, someone will post a story as a DIL who is annoyed with something their MIL did. Only the MIL will be portrayed as a caricature and the DIL as a totally innocent victim. People will pick up on this and call troll. But they may actually be a DIL with an MIL issue, it's just they aren't being totally honest about the conflict, and are exaggerating the MIL's behavior and omitting anything negative they might have done to get sympathy.

In another scenario, that same person might post the same story, but *as* the MIL. So a DIL might pose as her MIL, describing the situation from the MIL's perspective, but in such a way that it will induce people who jump all over the "OP" who will seem transparently to be in the wrong. That's the whole point. It's actually the DIL working out her anger at her MIL by getting strangers on the internet to yell at her MIL directly.

Another scenario is someone who has longstanding issues with a certain person or type of person might periodically post stories that are invented by based generally on their experiences with that person or type of person. So a man whose wife stopped having sex with him and then got divorced my might post stories about dead bedrooms, but in various personas to work out his anger issues. In one story he might still be married and posting about a dead bedroom in the hopes people will tell him he should cheat (maybe IRL he cheated and he wants that choice validated, maybe IRL he didn't cheat but wishes he had -- it's playacting to work through those issues). Or he might post as his ex-wife or another woman, to get people to yell at a woman who isnt' have sex with her husband. Or maybe he'll post as a wife who loves having sex with her husband and doesn't understand why her "friend" doesn't. I think gender swapping stories to prove points is common on here.

I actually think it's rare for someone to troll with a long story that is just fully invented and not related to some specific situation in their own life. People are working out their issues. Sometimes the stories don't make sense or don't add up because they've bent the truth to make a point or induce a specific response they find satisfying. But it's all related back to some real issue they have.

At least that's my theory.

Maybe this has been asked before but why do trolls post fake stories? Boredom? Researching for a novel? I don’t get it.