A reverse?

[LaLaLamp]

I'm seeing this phrase a lot on here but don't get it...anyone care to enlighten me? TVM

Where you write a scenario from the other persons perspective, primarily to gauge a reaction. Or illustrate that advice is very different to male posters than female posters.

thank you!

Usually blindingly obvious, and almost always really fucking annoying!

Eg you might say 'my mum threw me out because I brought my boyfriend back and she had told me I couldn't' but you're the mum writing from the daughter's perspective.

It's bloody irritating when people do a reverse though

Does anyone ever admit it's a reverse though?

It’s often a situation where the OP would get the sympathy in their own right - so reversing it is pointless.

But also if you pretend to be the other party, you can’t really answer properly about motivation and backstory - because you’re pretending

They just waste people’s time.

I have seen quite a few reverses on here, and I’ve NEVER seen one where there was any reason to reverse it.

Are reverse threads against talk guidelines?

If not, I think they should be.

They're a pile of manipulative wank.

Does anyone ever admit it's a reverse though?

Yes, loads.

Then they get all shitty with people who only reply to the opening post and haven't read the whole thread, to discover the OP was misleading everyone.

@popehilarious I’ve seen them admitted to - and apologised for, which is something.

Manipulative wank is spot on.

Annoys me when someone posts some ridiculous way they have (supposedly ) behaved, then others waste their time trying to explain to the OP why they’re wrong.

As above. I don't know why people get so annoyed about them though!

I get annoyed by them because if you are the other person in the story you can’t know what the protagonist is thinking, but you post as if you do, attributing emotions and motives which may well not exist. Like “I decided to throw my daughter out because I have frankly never liked her” - “I am so bored of my friend so I have decided to cut her out of my life” .

I’ve given two reasons already why I don’t like them:

• they’re time wasting as the OP can’t ever give a true picture of the thoughts, feelings, motivation etc of the pretend OP
• they’re pointless because they always (almost?) go the real OP’s way, and they would have done written honestly

But I’ll add a third...

I actually find them quite rude and patronising - OP is saying “I actually don’t trust you lot to judge this properly on the real facts”. To which I think - piss off.

When someone is so obviously in true wrong, it can be quite amusing to write it from their side, for proper gobsmacking effect. So I don’t mind it for the entertainment value - as long as it’s finished off in the OP with the info that it’s a reverse!