To wonder why people wade in on threads that clearly they can’t contribute to?

[wannagotoaustralia]

Does anyone know what I mean? A thread will say something like ‘Dog owners - I need your help’ and someone will post to say ‘well I’ve never owned a dog but I think …’

Or you get something like ‘AIBU to think Friends is really misogynistic’ and someone replies with ‘don’t know - never seen it.’ Or ‘what would you buy an eight year old boy for Christmas.’ ‘Nothing, I only know one boy and he’s two.’ Sometimes they’ll admit ‘so that doesn’t really help.’ So what’s the point? Are people just that desperate for attention?

It’s not to aid sinking threads either, it happens even on busy threads that a lot of people are enjoying.

So - AIBU to ask if you’ve noticed this and AIBU to think it’s really annoying?

I just clicked into this from Active, and mainly post on Style and Beauty, sometimes The Litter Tray.

I think people click in from Active and chip in (like I am doing right now) rather than actively visit the boards, but so often there are threads along the lines of:

OP - tell me your favourite luxury bath products, please?
S&B posters - helpfully recommend lovely things
Random posters - I use bleach, I can’t believe people would waste 10p on bubbles, how vain

OP - how soon after getting a rescue cat should I wait before letting him/her out?
LT posters - offer useful advice/share experience/ask for photo of cat
Random posters - I hate cats, no-one should ever keep one as a pet

Don't mind either way.

The Amazon reviews are similar to the Amazon questions:

Q: Does this curling wand heat up quickly?
A: Not used it yet, sorry.

I think some people think everything is addressed to them personally. It's similar on our local Nextdoor group, which some people seem to think is an extension of their personal FB page. No, Sandra, I don't think the fact that you're feeling better from your cold really needed its own post and corresponding alert to all the hundreds of people in the group...

Hahaha YANBU. I wonder if some people think it's mandatory to comment on every thread?

Definitely OP. I posted about this on a woo thread a few weeks ago. The thread was about scary stories, not 'let's debate whether ghosts exist'. But you always get people coming on to tell everybody that we are talking nonsense.

You don't have to contribute to a thread!

To be fair I think there is a genuine confusion for some (rather technically inept/inexperienced) people there because they get an email from Amazon 'asking them' (obviously it's actually just autogenerated) to leave a review or answer a question about the product and they think that it is actually an email specifically to them so they should reply to explain why they can't. Which is actually quite sweet, though I agree it often makes the reviews useless.

Aww, this reminds me of my technophobe dad who told everyone that Facebook had forced him to make an account so he could get his meds. I think he was trying to register on Pharmacy Direct or similar and clicked the 'log in with facebook' option instead of signing up by email. He was adamant that Mark Zuckerberg was withholding medication until people signed up to Facebook!

@Nayday

The best/worst are the ones which reply in order to state this isn't a problem for them

OP: My DS can't do basic arithmetic. What can we do?

Reply: DS actually did his Maths degree aged 3 and actually is pretty much a genius at everything, no idea what I'd do in your terrible position!

This is especially annoying when it's threads about giving birth.

"I had my DS last week and I'm home now, it was an EMCS, my scar got infected and now I can't sit up or turn over properly, AIBU to expect DH to do the dishes?"

"Ha! When I had my DD, I was home before I delivered the placenta and up a ladder with her in a sling painting the roof tiles."

mums of toddlers coming on to advise on teenagers.

A recent one about getting teens to do stuff around the house. You should have Them started young. Didn’t we all have toddlers following us round ‘helping’. Come back in 10 years and tell me it doesn’t take your child an hour to hang their coat up.

@Cocolapew

They must be the same people who post reviews on Amazon saying they haven't got the item yet or bought it for a present so can't say if it's good or not .

I am always aghast at those!

The ones I really enjoy are the recipe reviews where the reviewer substituted lemons for lamb and ketchup for olive oil and then totally trashed the recipe. Fantastic! Same total self-absorption at the root presumably.

OP: My teenager just told me to Fuck Off! I am distraught. I didn't bring them up to talk to me like that, how should I react ?

Post 1: Sympathetic but realistic reply

Post 2: Sympathetic but realistic reply

Post 3: My DC is only 3 but he will NEVER talk to me like that (totally missing that it's clear OP thought that too, hence starting the thread).

I think the worst is “you can’t be sacked for sickness, it’s illegal!” and similar. You should know what you are talking about when the situation is serious.

@Annoyedanddissapointed

Little aside tho. It's like Amazon q&as😂 "Does this work well with x?" "Can't say I got it for my neice and I don't know if she used it yet"

In fairness, I posted a useless answer like this once. I got emailed from Amazon saying xyzusername has asked you this question about the item you bought. Please can you reply. So I did, saying something like, sorry I don't know. I thought my response would be forwarded directly to the person who'd enquired and only subsequently realised when I got an email from Amazon saying your answer to the question has now been published. I felt a right fool but I think others who give similar answers have presumably fallen for the same tricksy Amazon wording.

I had this under a different name. I was in distress and basically asking for advice when in tears. First reply was a arse who was Lome 'well I've always done X'

May have been guilty of that today. Well, kind of. I got annoyed at how judgy some posters were being and got a bit snappy. Felt a bit bad for aiming it at one particular poster, until they replied to tell me I obviously have various issues and was being a total weirdo. Ah well. Suppose that's more derailing, rather than wading in with something completely irrelevant, though. 🤷‍♀️

@Namelessnancy

The ones I really enjoy are the recipe reviews where the reviewer substituted lemons for lamb and ketchup for olive oil and then totally trashed the recipe. Fantastic! Same total self-absorption at the root presumably.

I did some work a few years back moderating comments on a cooking website. I loved the ones who had substituted every ingredient then said it was rubbish.

The most common classic is “why would you start another thread about this?” Or “why do you care”. These people don’t realize how ridiculous they sound since they care enough to comment on a thread that they are asking OP to not care about.

Oops! Continuing

Reply was 'I've always done X' which was no help to me and I said so. I was told by so many posters that I was rude but this person posted meaningless shit and was no help then painted herself the victim.

Fucking arsehole

Yanbu. Most recent one I saw was a thread where the op was asking for posters' careers as she was after some inspiration and one of the first replies was 'no help to you but I'm a sahm' well great!

It’s the diet threads that piss me off. Oh yoire not eating enough calories, eat more, go on, you will loose loads of weight if you do. 🤦🏻‍♀️ “No’ carb is unhealthy you can’t cut out whole food groups 🤦🏻‍♀️ Oh and the best the other day, ..oh you’ve done three weight sessions in three weeks, that’s why you’ve not lost weight, you’ll have gained loads of muscle 🤦🏻‍♀️

Honestly the nonsense people post is unreal.

@mustlovegin

You sound like the thread police OP

Were you trying to be ironic?

Seriously do people do this? I have never seen it. I guess I am not much help.
its like reviews that say "it's a present. .They said thanks "

Oh I didn't RTFT. lazy cow

Yes, definitely noticed this. It's weird.

It's ses for the best part a superiority thing, someone insecure needing to dim others lights to make them feel brighter. Some are much worse than others

DP had a book published a few years ago and we love reading the 1 star reviews people have left:
'Looks great, but didn't buy it, money's a bit tight this month' (I don't know how they managed to leave review without buying it)
'Haven't had a thank you from the recipient'
'Bought five copies to give as gifts at Christmas'
'Haven't read it yet'