Getting annoyed at virtue signalling on Facebook local groups

[Floogal]

Ignoring the fussing questions everytime a police helicopter is on patrol or fireworks. Where I live it's usually the same thing. Always along the lines of;

" I've got a lot of old tat but want to donate it to charity"
" I brought the homeless guy on the high street a coffee and had a chat with him"
And, this " how many homeless people are there in town? My (photogenic well dressed) twin daughters want to give out Xmas packages" obviously hoping to appear on the local news or "and finally...' on ITV news. Usually the 'ooooh aren't you wonderful' gushing replies. Gives me the raging arsehole.

Our village FB group is brimming with people who are clearly not very good at thinking. It's a joy & a wonder to read 😊

I go into my local FB page only if desperate for a handyman/ someone to shorten some pants etc. and then get the hell out.

There have been some well dodgy ones on it, left unregulated. I don't know why the admin are not clued up on legal matters as there is a whole lot open to interpretation by the long arm of the law. Back in the day, I used to teach Netiquette classes at work.

Some of the all time classics include shoplifters of local boutiques having their faces plastered all over the FB with racist and insulting things written in the comments. Warnings that travellers have turned up. Photos of random men in parks, walking down the street etc, with warnings for your dog and DC. Intimate posts about sex lives and the reproductive goings on of themselves and/ or teenage daughters.

I am always amazed at how unbelievable naive or misinformed these people are.

‘Has anyone lost a duck’ is quite common round here. Always mallards. They then can’t grasp the concept that a duck is just like any other wild bird and will come and go as it pleases.

The helicopter one is a regular. Our village is on the flight path to the local football club where our chairman takes his helicopter to most away games. You can usually look at the fixtures and set your watch by him. It’s been explained many many times over the years but still they don’t get it.

We have a “good and bad [local place] businesses” group which is an absolute joy.

Todays is out local costa had run out of cinnamon (for chai lattes) and hot chocolate. Cue lots of “don’t know why you bother” “can’t you make your own” “waste of money” “use a local coffee shop instead” comments.

It’s a joy. Especially when the person is so unreasonable.

Our village FB group is brimming with people who are clearly not very good at thinking. It's a joy & a wonder to read

🤣🤣🤣

In a fit or childish behaviour I once put up a missing pet poster up at a local bus shelter, the missing pet in question was 200kg fully grown silver back gorilla called Elvis. It was clearly a spoof wind up but it made its way onto the nextdoor app where several folk took it seriously and wanted to know what kind of person kept such a dangerous animal as a pet. Most saw it for what it was, a joke, and pointed this out to the gullible few but they would not let it go and spent days demanding that the owner come forward and report themselves to the police and RSPCA. It became a further joke for some to report 'sightings' of Elvis around the neighborhood, using the swings at the playground, on the roof of Tesco's etc to which the same idiots thinking it was real were getting in twist demanding why Tesco's were doing nothing about said ape on their roof.

I actually felt a bit bad that people that thick were being taken advantage of

The huge fb group ‘family lockdown ideas’ annoyed in the end with quite a few attention seeking posts.
Worst one was someone whose relative bought a camera off eBay that still had photos on it, they uploaded all these wedding photos on the group and blurred the faces to see if anyone recognised the wedding so they could ‘get the photos back to their owner’ why not just contact the person who sold it??

There’s also the repeaters

‘Any one know when the kids are back at school?’

Queue 50 replies all the same …. Why bother adding a reply? They clearly have the answer (which they could’ve googled)

We get a lot of ‘Can anyone tell me where to buy (insert very normal commonly found item), looking for recommendations’.

It’s generally lightbulbs, oranges, or pens.

I want to reply ‘shops’. But haven’t dared yet.

The helicopter one is a regular. Our village is on the flight path to the local football club where our chairman takes his helicopter to most away games. You can usually look at the fixtures and set your watch by him. It’s been explained many many times over the years but still they don’t get it.

There are lots of people in our fb group who think any sort of noise above tv volume level 10 is unacceptable after 7pm and a deliberate and spiteful attempt to disturb their baby/child/dog/rabbit and prevent them from sleeping. (Cue complaints about a bi-annual concert, fun fair, firework displays, network rail and, most bizarrely, the police helicopter) Yes I'm sure the police have gone to the bother and expense of launching a helicopter search just to stop little Hugo being able to sleep at 7.20 like he normally does.

@BluebellsGreenbells

There’s also the repeaters

‘Any one know when the kids are back at school?’

Queue 50 replies all the same …. Why bother adding a reply? They clearly have the answer (which they could’ve googled)

There was one that did make me laugh though.

Q: "Can someone tell me when XX school's back?"

A : yesterday.

Love these hapless families. So easily done in our area where there are many schools all on different calendars.

I did the Christmas Card thing for the first time this year. I announced it on FB mainly to avoid all of DP's family (who live down south) wondering if I had fallen out with them as I usually send cards to all my family and friends. I don't think communicating that you have done something different is 'virtue signalling' is it?

I wanted to donate to Barnardo's in memory of Star Hobson, and money has been a bit tight so instead of spending money on cards and stamps I donated in her memory and shared Barnardo's appeal. A lot of people on my FB have been wringing their hands about about the recent child murder cases so I wanted to do something tangible. I used to work in Children's Social Care and poverty is a huge risk factor for abuse and I don't think people know that, so I wanted people to watch Barnardo's appeal. Emma Thompson is their seasonal ambassador. Shaming people who want to donate instead of sending meaningless annual cards is a bit harmful to charities who rely on people to not only donate, but share their appeals on their social media to widen the reach.

‘Is the XxX boot fair stilling running. What time pls?’
Every week this gets posted.
The boot fair in question hasn’t been running for two years now.

@DillonPanthersTexas that’s really quite funny!

@Georgeskitchen

"If you are the person who hit my parked cat last night on XX Road , it's on CCTV and we have your reg. You have 24 hours to come forward or we will involve police" At least half a dozen of these on various sites each week, despite commenters informing Op that the police do not investigate minor vehicle scrapes 😅

Yes we get this too - usually in a car park so more often than not, on private land, too! Obviously it's annoying - I guess it helps to rant.

Our group seems to be quite good for reuniting people with lost items as well - eg school ID cards or college bus passes and the like.

There seems to be a mix of casual racism (and "Northernism") - people knocking on doors with northern accents or dodgy people handing around and somehow people know they're Eastern European without speaking to them...and virtue signalling - eg there is a fraudulent Big Issue seller - we know he's fraudulent - he's been moved on several times and he doesn't have a licence from Big Issue and lives in a bigger house than I do! But new people move to the town and get stroppy when longer standing residents point out he's a fraudster and not licensed. He does get moved on very quickly these days now though.

@Lairymary

We had: "I have just been followed by a suspicious looking black male whilst out for a walk with my newborn, his hood was pulled up so I couldn't see his face but he was wearing a grey jacket and black joggers, just to make people aware." Response: Err that was me on my lunchtime walk, my hood was up because it's cold. Sorry for being black

Yep, seen a few of those in our one. There's also a core group who have a massive problem with any shops that sell "foreign" goods, eg. the local Polish shop.

Every week, multiple requests for tradespeople, long lists of recommends are given, then the next week the same bloody requests all over again by someone else.

FB has a search facility, why don't they use it instead of posting the same requests repeatedly.

I wonder sometimes how these people manage to function throughout the day without having to post something easily searched for. Are they desperate to see their names on the site or just plain thick?

One thing that did annoy me on our group was that before Christmas people were trying to offload tickets for events because they had covid and had to isolate.

An admin puts on a notice saying "giveways/sales of items are not allowed in this group, even tickets" and than naturally switched off commenting (the most annoying bit of Facebook functionality ever). Fortunately people ignored it and continued to post their tickets for sale or give away. I thought the admin was unreasonable, given the special circumstances.

Like most places we have quite a few local community sites and the same Karen (yes her actual name) will post on absolutely everything

Lost cat..... Hope you find you cat soon

Blatent look at me post..... Oh your so kind etc

It's got to the point I shudder when I see her name

@Lairymary

We had: "I have just been followed by a suspicious looking black male whilst out for a walk with my newborn, his hood was pulled up so I couldn't see his face but he was wearing a grey jacket and black joggers, just to make people aware." Response: Err that was me on my lunchtime walk, my hood was up because it's cold. Sorry for being black

Bloody hell @Lairymary!

Did you say anything?

While it's not virtue signalling, the ones that get me are the people who post things like:

'need a plasterer to re-do my kitchen, ideally Thursday this week sensible prices only please'

As if any tradesmen have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs reading Facebook for the last few years. We've been having work done and getting someone in requires persistent phone calls, people not turning up for quotes and the work going to whoever a) turns up and b) has space in the next 3-6 months!

Cross posted with @cobblers123!

I was gobsmacked by the utter cheek of the following scenario.

FB poster 1: we have got some spare mince pies, would anyone like them?

FB poster 2: oooh, yes please.

FB poster 2: oh by the way, could you deliver them please, as I am shielding?

Next day, FB poster 2 is telling a long story about how she took her husband to hospital. So able to do that, but not fetch mince pies she has cadged off neighbour.

The older I get the less tolerance I have for attention seeking. The virtue signallers, the check ins at the hospital, the “happy birthday to my beautiful fill in the blank” (bloody tell them instead) and the constant fucking posting of every boring detail of your life. Gah!!!

There are some that make me laugh though, we have an airfield near us that is operational, it houses the coastguard helicopter plus some private planes and a spitfire.

It's been there for ever and was once a naval airstation.

Every now and then there is someone on FB or NextDoor complaining about the noise from the aircraft, especially the spitfire which is quite noisy but is a fabulous sight and many people love to hear and see it.

Cue many replies saying, if you live near an airfield, you must expect noise from aircraft and as the place has been there for so long, they must have known when they bought their house, there would be aircraft noise!

Idiots!