to wonder what some people are doing on an internet forum when they're not remotely interested in having an honest discussion about anything?

[Lottapianos]

I keep reading the following or similar....

'Get a life'
'Get a grip'
'Well if that's all you have to worry about.....'
'You can always switch over/don't have to watch it'
And my personal anti-favourite:
'You're overthinking it'

I'm not perfect - I sometimes start reading a thread and then decide I can't be arsed any more so I move on and don't leave a comment. I don't decide to tear the poster to shreds on my way out though.

Why on earth do people make these ridiculous, fatuous, completely unhelpful comments? They are just more or less polite ways of saying 'shut up and stop feeling what you're feeling'. Just because you have no empathy and can't wrap your brain around someone else's point of view doesnt mean that they are wrong and have no right to feel how they do. By all means disagree but do it honestly and put some effort into the discussion instead of just brushing people aside.

OK, that was therapeutic. Thank you for reading

[wigglesrock]

But I don't come on MN for a serious discussion all the time. I dip in and out of it, have a look at threads, topics that interest me, catch up with postnatal group, have an eyeroll at baby names.

I think that it can be possible to take MN too seriously, worry too much about anonymous posters on a huge forum think.

[wigglesrock]

I use catch yourself on with regularity

[HighBrows]

I say it in my head in a Northern Irish accent too

[wigglesrock]

I say it in my accent - which makes James Nesbitt sound RP trained.

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

I think that too Tolliver. I remember a thread from years ago where the OP was taking her (no doubt beautifully dressed and impeccable behaved DD) to school when next door neighbour came our with her brood, looked at her wistfully and said "god it must be so easy with only one". OP (not suffering from secondary infertility) was hugely offended by this offensive slur - how dare that bitch imply that getting one child up and out to school in the morning was less difficult than two/three!

It's always stuck in my mind as the paradigmatic "you're over-thinking it". Sometimes people just say the first thing that comes into their heads. Grips occasionally need to be proffered, in as nice a way as possible.

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

However - the posters who come onto a Sleb Twaddle thread and take pride in not knowing who anybody is can sod off. Nearly as bad as the people who log into the Graun's website each week especially to read the fashion/Lost in Showbiz section and then to tell the journalist how trivial and worthless the article is.

[Solari]

The one that irritates me is seeing on a thread. Really? You decided to devote even more of your precious attention to let everyone know just how un-entertained you are?

[SacreBlue]

It's hard reading sometimes but one of the things about that I like is that it reflects rl. Coming up against someone completely unmoveable happens in rl and it's fucking frustrating, on a forum you can read if you want and/or hide/report. It does tho give the opportunity to think about things that people in rl may not say to you out of politeness.

All of which says 'sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't and occasionally I realise I was being a dick/walkover when I didn't need to be'

[daisychain01]

There's a great AIBU? thread at the moment talking about the Knox and Sollecito and whether its unreasonable to feel sorry for him. People are ripping lumps out of each other, handfuls of hair flying everywhere, some people know every last little detail, almost down to what colour her knickers were on the day of the trial, and I really very very nearly said "get a grip" but I just about stopped myself in time ...

then I joined this jolly conversation and thought Phew! Relief! I wont get torched!

Oh by the way I'm very new to all this and having read this thread, I bet you've all finished discussing it, had enough and all gone off down the pub.... So I'm left standing here, all on me todd, nothing left to say that hasn't been said... Oh bum... Oh well, night night.

[Solari]

Your post made me laugh (in a good way) daisychain01 . Welcome to MN!

[daisychain01]

Hey a fellow MN, great to meet you too, Solari I hope you are enjoying your evening. This was a great thread, sat here chuckling away, its so funny! But very true!

I was going to add that I find it amazing that people post an open request for people to give their opinion about something and then hurl insults back at them when they dont get the response they want to read! I wonder what planet they are on ... "Um, well you DID ask...." Mind you if I asked for an opinion, I think I'd probably put a hard-hat on, some replies are a bit brutal :-)

[Solari]

I do think some people post when they're convinced they're right and want to bask in the glow of being told so repeatedly (or to make a point to someone disagreeing with them).

If so, then it must come as quite a shock when it doesn't go as expected. I must admit, there are some OPs when I read it and am sure the thread will side one way, and then it does the exact opposite.