To think we all take an OP's word as gospel when it may not be

[Ilovemyself]

Most of us ( myself included!) come on here and like to comment on people's discussions based on the OP's original post.

The problem is, we never hear the other side of the story.

The OP could be 100% right, but they could also be using the thread to boost their own view of being right. ( and go back to the person they are pissed off with and say that lots of people agree with them)

AIBU to think that people should not take the OP's word as gospel when some questions them?

The OP as I see it isn't talking about trolling. As a thread develops it sometimes happens that there appear to be underlying issues demonstrating that the OP's perspective might possibly be somewhat skewed. If that happens a lot of people have already decided their stance and refuse to look at what is developing in addition to the original post. It happens the other way too. The OP might initially come over unsympathetically, but as the thread develops you can see better where they're coming from - and I don't mean as a result of intentional drip feeding.

Exactly I lovesooty

Well this is an Internet forum, of course you're only going to get one version of events, unless the other person just happens to be conveniently on MN

Obviously.

All you can do is take the OP's word for it

I beg to differ. You can pay attention as the story develops, reflect on how the OP presents things and modify your POV if you need to. The OP presents their reality. It doesn't have to be yours in its entirety.

Other wise, we might as well pack Internet forums in altogether if the only way you'll believe the OP is to get the other side of the story. 9.999 times out of 10 that will not happen. So just roll with it and stop over analysing

It isn't as simple as that for all readers, which is what the OP was saying.

Well I suppose you have to take the OP's word for things or else there would be no point answering. But sometimes it's fairly obvious there is another side to the story.

I have been on threads - some recently! - where I have suddenly got the feeling that the reality is rather different from the view the OP is presenting... however, that is usually from details that the OP has divulged, so I can't say it's the OP being dishonest.

I just stop posting.

Once I didn't stop posting . . . and I turned out to be completely wrong and the thread worked out fantastically !

Ones like the wedding threads - no one is getting hurt, it's only a wedding, so I don't care if it's real or not. I just love a Bridezilla thread!