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?

@Wainwriter

YANBU

What particularly annoys me is when it's clear that it's not just a lighthearted chitchat type thread, but actually important. I saw one a while ago where the op had written two sentences and wanted to know which was correct. Can't remember exactly, but think it was for a job application or important work presentation. She posted it in pedants' corner too, so clearly targeting people who might know. The first few responses said things like 'Sentence A sounds right to me.' 'Yes, A definitely ' or even 'Not sure, but think it's A'. It wasn't. It was B. Luckily a few others later explained the correct answer but I couldn't believe that people who clearly didn't 'know' the answer decided it would be a good idea to post!

I can only imagine the horrors of the legal and medical sections if you are actually a lawyer or doctor and know what you are talking about!

This!! Why do so many posters feel the need to answer questions on slightly specialist subjects that they know the square root of fuck all about. The grammar ones make me cringe (I write grammar books). "Hmm, I'm not sure OP but sentence A sounds right to me, so I'm saying that's the one that's correct". "Definitely A is right because [makes up some non-existent rule of syntax]". No, love, it really isn't.

If I came across a post from someone asking a question to do with biology, or brain surgery, or carpentry, or farming, or line drawing, or psychiatry, or coding, I would NOT POST. Because I don't know the first arsing thing about any of those subjects.

I’ve seen some fantastically awful financial advice on here (I’m an accountant). All dispensed by people who don’t really understand finance but that’s what their hairdresser’s boyfriend’s dad does so it must work, right?

Eg stretch yourself to the absolute limit to buy the most expensive house you can, borrow over 40 years, it will be worth it, it was for my auntie in 1995, never mind pension contributions, your house is your pension and you can’t lose blah blah.

Or people who post sage, nose tapping statements that, if they took two minutes to think about, they would realise are entirely misconceived.

Eg, re Victoria Beckham’s excuse for a business which has incurred tens of millions of losses since incorporation. But that’s OK, according to the Mumsnet Warren Buffetts. Because it’s tax losses, see? Yeah, tax losses. They don’t count.

Entirely failing to grasp that a loss is still a loss and that the tax saving on it is only a percentage of that loss, just as tax on income is only a percentage of the income. So a loss of £1m would save you, er £190k with corporation tax at 19%. Never mind that though, eh? Keep tapping the noses and giving us your unique financial insights.

Twins threads.

Well mine are 15 months apart so this is what I would do. ITS NOT THE SAME

The problem is that if a thread makes it into Active Conversations, a lot of posters don’t pay any attention to which topic was originally posted in before wading in; hence canine phobics in Doghouse threads etc.

That’s why the Special Needs topics now don’t appear in Active Convos as I mentioned upthread, as too many people were posting irrelevant or judgmental responses without understanding or respecting the context of the thread.

@SirChenjins

I think they just like the attention and hope people will notice them and their pointless post. Otherwise I have no idea - I have never been able to figure it out. I’m not sure if they’re the most annoying type of poster or if it’s the ones who don’t rtft, join a long thread 20 pages in and give an response that was covered on page 2.

I’ve never seen a thread like that so I can’t help you

@Marcee

This is an online site. People can los8t what they want as long as within the guidelines

Just because they CAN doesn't always mean they SHOULD.

It happens all the time on boards or topics raised by people of colour. OP will say “To parents of black children how do you find.....”. Parents of black children tend to respond and then comes the “my children are white but I think it’s a non issue to have white plasters/tights/monkey stickers are not outrageous” etc. It’s exhausting and infuriating.

if I find a recipe online I like the look of, I check the comments to see if anyone has actually made the dish and can confirm the recipe works. What I usually find, especially on US sites, is a long succession of people saying 'Looks great! I'll be trying this out real soon!' dated eight years ago. Did they try it? Was it so awful that they actually died as a result, and that's why they didn't come back to tell us what it was like?

That's something I always wonder, too!