Do you lie on the internet?

[CherryLipgloss]

I often see the phrase "everyone lies on Mumsnet / the internet", but personally I don't! I might alter the odd tiny detail (to make something easier to explain or less likely to be outing), but nothing that changes the sense of what I'm saying.

Of course I know there are trolls, but AIBU to think most posters are genuine?

Please vote for yourself (not what you think other people do).
YANBU I'm as honest as the day is long
YABU making up stuff is half the fun of posting anonymously

I change little details to not be identified. The number of siblings I have and the age of my children probably don't match up throughout my posts. Never anything that changes my answer or would make a difference to the meaning of my post.

Don’t people swap details around a bit to protect their privacy? I don’t think of that as lying.

Although there are people who are total fantasists or they effectively use the internet for trolling because they are presumably bored and dissatisfied with their lives, I would imagine the numbers are really low.

However - isn’t there a thing of ‘accusation is admission’ - so if someone sees fantasists and liars everywhere, they are probably a liar and a fantasist themselves?

No, nothing to lie about. If anyone was deliberately looking for real-life me on Mumsnet, there's a good chance that they'd find me and it wouldn't matter.

No. Lots of people do, I'm sure

The dog-with-a-bone posters who spend their whole time trying to catch people out are very annoying though

Well those who lie will skew your vote for starters because they will lie and say that they are honest.

Then they will write a post to say they don’t lie … because they are lying 🤥

So... the other door leads to the castle and this one leads to certain death?

I read a post yesterday where lots of people were saying, oh, you can't believe anything you read on mumsnet, because the majority of posters are just writing a lot of bullshit, and it's so easy to spot them. Well, I can't spot them - most posters - OPs and those who reply - come across as genuine to me, with the occasional exception. Maybe I'm just very naïve. I don't lie, btw, apart from changing some identifying details, like most people.

I once mentioned someone I knew by a very rare name on the baby names board. I was accused of making this up by a poster who claimed to have trawled the historic records of a specific area and found no evidence of the person existing. I genuinely don't know if it is weirder to claim to have done this or actually to do it, all to refute a perfectly factual and ultimately inconsequential post.

That is very odd!

I once contributed to a thread on kids and toy guns to say that my one of my dc was going through a phase of pretending that an L shaped piece of toast was a gun. Several other posters said their DC had done similar.

One poster reacted with total disbelief, basically accusing me of creating a false narrative around kids' desire for toy guns to support the use of replica weapons in play. Ok then

I’m more honest on here than I am in real life! I haven’t lied on here.

Oh I do make inconsequential changes to sex and age and the like to avoid people potentially identifying me or others from real life.

As an internationally famous boxer, why would I need to lie?

I don't think anyone's hugely likely to pop up on here and say 'Oh, I lie all the time. All my threads are total bollocks.'

People definitely do make things up on here, though. Sometimes it's very obvious, but I'm sure often it's not. It's almost like a creative writing exercise for a lot of people. They invent themselves a scenario with characters and post it to see how it plays out. Same with the 'Am I the asshole?' board on Reddit - I read an article a while back about someone who made up dozens of the scenarios on that board, quite a few of which went viral with people assuming they were true.

And for some people it's an attention thing - almost like Munchausen's, if that makes sense? I once worked somewhere where people went to the local papers about things we'd done that were immediately proven to be untrue - very easily. The things people had complained about literally could not have happened, or there was CCTV completely disproving their claims. Neither complainant had asked for any money back or compensation or even come to us before going to the local paper, so we concluded that their only motive was attention. I think some Mumsnet posts are like that.

Equally, there are certainly some occasions when truth really is stranger than fiction, and some people are weirdly incapable of understanding that just because something hasn't happened to them before, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen to someone else.

Ultimately, I think anyone who is on Mumsnet for entertainment purposes (which I think about 95% are) just has to accept that they don't usually know whether or not what they're replying to is real.

Isn’t there a riddle about this?

Like others I mix up details to protect me, my family and the pupils I taught.
Other than that I don't lie.

@BadNomad mentioned it upthread.

Labyrinth

Manatee, I have an old school friend who used to find herself lying to impress people and she would take a while to realise she was actually talking BS. She also knew other people with this habit - and one anecdote was a guy (in his late teens/early twenties) who found himself saying to this woman that he was really amazing in bed had the knack with certain pleasuring moves and also had a really big member. It wasn’t until the women was sold and up for sex with him that he realised that he’d made it all up and was a total disappointment to her.

I can sort of get it because my friend has explained that she really loves the feeling of having people’s attention- almost like a drug and she can’t stop once she’s started, but then there’s a feeling of “shit shit shit” when she realises that she is being believed and this comes with an expectation she can’t climb down from. I find it really annoying- as though something has been stolen from me, when I am being pointlessness deceived.

Its even more bonkers to do it anonymously on the internet, but maybe it’s the same motivation for some people - they love the attention they get from the other posters.

No one knows me so I don't need to lie

It wouldn't occur to me to lie. But I don't necessarily think that people who lie are lying about everything. I think often it's more about exaggeration and embellishment to make their life/situation more interesting or dramatic. I think a lot of people have a basic desire to showcase themselves in the best light and will embroider things a bit (or a lot) to achieve this.

Don't worry, you have.

I have a friend who fibs in real life. He will say anything for convenience, I don't even thinks he realises he is fibbing. Which is why I have called it fibbing, not lying.

As for do we lie on the internet, were you really expecting loads of users to come on and say Yes! I do! All the time! ?!

I don't give out my address, I may fudge a year off an age, but otherwise I don't lie.

I don't understand the lying on anonymous boards, unless you are just trying to wind people up, but many many people say they do/know many who do. We had this discussion on a money board and some of the people lied about everything so they could be deemed an expert in an area they knew nothing about and gain "praise" - if you are gaining praise by lying what is the value of the praise? 🤔

I don’t lie! I change name occasionally so it’s not quite so blatantly obvious who I am. But saying that, I don’t say anything I wouldn’t actually say to my friends.

I don’t understand the lengthy made-up posts or who could be bothered to write them.