To get so pissed off with the sarcastic sods on here

[Herecomethesheep]

I don’t subscribe to the ‘sarcasm is the lowest form of wit’ view. But on here generally it isn’t funny, it’s either rude, unkind or more usually both.

So someones just started a perfectly harmless thread about a clothes shop and instead of replying ‘oh, did you know they have a petite range, I’ll link you’ we have You do know they have a petite range, right?

Its everywhere. Is it just me who is sick to death of the snark? I mean, sometimes there is help and support and just sometimes a nice chat on here but there’s always someone wanting to be an arse. And WHY don’t MN deal with it?

I do hope that if you call people arseholes to their faces they deck you with a stein. It's what you ask for if you are deliberately offensive.

I do hope that if you call people arseholes to their faces they deck you with a stein. It's what you ask for if you are deliberately offensive.
OK then.

Agree OP. Makes people come across like dicks.

I've just seen a thread where pages of people pile in to demand to know why someone didn't pay a bill, I mean calm the fuck down - who cares?! It doesn't help anyone with the solution does it. It's just dickish behaviour.

What did you need to communicate to that poster that couldn't be done without calling her an arsehole?

What did you need to communicate to that poster that couldn't be done without calling her an arsehole?
I didn't post that on that thread - but it is my opinion. Maybe there are just some people who never say anyone else is acting like an arsehole - I do, and people say it to me, on here and in real life. Of course it's not "necessary" to use the word at any time, but so far the weekly attempts at bowdlerisation of MN and elsewhere aren't working, and I think MN is the better for that.

Well I might be biased by an ongoing turd of a thread in which posters are calling other women bints, sluts and whores and then complaining about deletions. But I have to disagree that prohibiting overt name calling is bowdlerisation, or that allowing that kind of thing to stand makes the site a better place. If you want a Wild West forum, there are plenty of subreddits that will happily oblige. And I won't pretend that there's no intelligent input among them, but certainly not enough, or of a high enough calibre, to be worth wading through all the abusive rants from the basement dwellers. In my opinion, anyway.

There's always a way to make your point without resorting to abusiveness, even if you're thinking "oh fuck off and die, you gibbering fuckwit" while you type it.

ReneBumsWombats
There's always a way to make your point without resorting to abusiveness, even if you're thinking "oh fuck off and die, you gibbering fuckwit" while you type it.

And surprisingly enough, people pay more attention to someone who isn't simply calling them foul names. Goodness knows why, but being gratuitously sworn at tends to put their backs up and make them less likely to pay any attention to the person badmouthing them.

MN definitely gets "moods" often reflecting what's going on in the wider world. Political times (referenda, elections are obvious), Covid was a spectacularly low point, and things generally settle as the world settles, any external posters with agendas retreat and milder posters stick their heads back out again. People are generally feeling jaded with life at present and that affects general mood and tone.

I have noticed a general trend that the humour has faded a lot. There seemed to be an outbreak of tedious po-faced posters that couldn't cope with humour unless it was flagged as light hearted. Saying that, there's been a few properly laugh out loud threads recently which gives me hope.

There's always been threads comparing MN to the past and it was always blunt which was one of its charms, but there is a difference between blunt and being unnecessarily personal/ going in for a kicking just because. The swearing's tailed off and actually gettting bluntness out through non-personal swearing is often better than alternative expression.

I tend to roll my eyes and move on when I see graturious snark. Or even some user names. The report button can be pretty handy for those clearly going beyond the reasonable range of responses into out and out vitriol.

I think posters here are often led by the nose and can be really stupid in the process.
One example is of posters looking for marriage advice being torn apart for using the term ‘hubby’. A thread peppered with ‘yabvvvu to say hubby’, to the poster’s bewilderment.
Pathetic and nasty. Go back to school.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · Yesterday 17:26
WatchoRulo · Yesterday 17:14
Surely this is the problem in a nutshell. You might have disagreed with the lanyard poster, but are you really saying it's OK to use a term like 'micro-managing arsehole'?
Yes I am; why is that not OK with you?

No - I'd judge you for that! It's aggressive, crude, offensive and completely disproportionate to the situation. You'd get that angry about someone asking about their husband wearing a lanyard? Blimey...

I don't know which charm school you went to - but I'd ask them for a refund if I were you! (I know this thread is anti-sarcasm, but hey)

I'm also willing to bet that anyone who would call another poster an arsehole or other name would not take kindly to being on the receiving end of it.

@pictish yes, there seem to be a whole lot of bewildering taboos around certain words, which completely derail everything. A poster specifically said that when she said ‘thank’, she meant acknowledge and appreciate. She still got a whole pile on of posters saying nobody needs to be thanked for looking after their own children.

Also, a lot of people don’t read updates so the person who says ‘ok, I’ll apologise. I clearly was unreasonable’ continues to get major abuse.

I really despise the MN pile on. Pages of the same nasty comments. But. I’ve found if I post something encouraging it usually tones it down.

Particularly when they're having a go at the OP for something they never said. I've seen several threads this week where poster after poster has piled on answering something the OP never asked and telling them they're being unreasonable for having a view they never actually expressed.
Thick as well as unpleasant.

@Mangogogogo but that's a mean way to reply.
Why don't you just say
'The best thing to do is contact Pensions etc'.
The way you do it is quite passive aggressive especially as you work in safeguarding and vulnerability.

Wrong thread @lovelyboneslove?

Oh no - sorry! Ignore me

"There's always been threads comparing MN to the past and it was always blunt which was one of its charms, but there is a difference between blunt and being unnecessarily personal/ going in for a kicking just because. The swearing's tailed off and actually gettting bluntness out through non-personal swearing is often better than alternative expression."

Popping my head above the parapets for a second just to say that in the past (and I've been on here in one form or another for almost 20 years) that it was much easier to take how blunt MN was in the beginning when you recognised nearly every poster on a thread. You take blunt from someone you 'see' on a regular basis, it's harder (and less 'blunt', more just plain rude) from some rando anon you know nothing about and don't have any connection to. Ditto with the swearing. If I recognise your name and we've crossed paths before, I probably wouldn't care as much about being called a daft old fucker or suchlike.

Well so far OP, over 70% have voted ‘you are not being unreasonable’ to be pissed off with the sarcastic sods on MN.

Disappointing, I do enjoy a bit of sarcasm. The thread mentioned upthread a bit had a great post about a DH driving with sharpened pencils up his nose - a recent thread had a brilliant series of puns around the weird idea of "reporting" a scrap dealer who sold someone's unwanted tumble drier.

I suppose we'll succumb to the "be nice" tide eventually and have mind what we say, but I'll enjoy a bit of snark while it lasts - it takes all sorts.

I don't know if the sarcasm is the problem...it's more the anger. I have no idea how people manage to get so bent out of shape over the trivia of other people's lives to the point that they get irate and aggressive. It is bonkers tbh.

But, the "scroll on by" message applies to everyone I suppose and you can just choose not to engage or even take a break from the site (I do this all the time). I also just hide threads when they start going...strange

@WatchoRulo

You mean you missed the thread about the neighbour who bought a trampoline to see over the other neighbours fence? In chat I think but maybe elsewhere?

Pure gold

But I did not read the one about the dryer, the pub and the air tag.

Im definitely going to look for the dh driving with the sharpened pencils up his nose. Thanks for that info.

I did read the one about the dryer, I mean

I don't think you can have read my posts very carefully. I certainly didn't "rip the OP to pieces" that's just a straight out lie. I merely pointed out OP wasn't correct about retinal data collection (a claim OP made). I was not impolite or offensive in any way. You're the one stroking an ego.