does anyone else think MN is turning really nasty or has it always been like this....

[headingnorth]

I may not have been posting for long and don't do it very often but I've really begun to notice over the last couple of months how incredibly horrible a lot of people on MN can be. Whether a poster is genuine or not some MNers are being seriously mean, vitriolic and generally being complete bitches/bastards.

I answered a post from someone who sounded really down - offered a solution that had worked for me and I got told I was talking bollocks and I should get my facts right and I wasn't an expert so basically shut up! WTF? I didn't realise you had to be an expert to post here. My suggestion wasn't dangerous nor would it have been detrimental, just because I wasn't suggesting what everyone else was I was told I was wrong (and not in a nice way).

And on another post - What is this world coming to, that when someone in serious distress turns to an internet site for help (because they can't get the help they need in rl) and they get told they're lying, that they're a troll and the insults start flying?

I understand everyone has a right to an opinion but even if it is considered wrong why do people have to get so angry and be so horrid?

I am really going off MN.

I think that it has always been the same-it is nothing new! Try giving an opinion on a thread where you disagree (politely)with the general concensus and you really are in trouble!

headingnorth - it was always like that at times, or on certain threads.

It's not so much a MN thing as a RL thing, sometimes we all want to tell someone they're being stooopid but in RL we have too much sensitivity, on here it's different and we go ahead and hit "post message" before we've really thought about the consequences.

When you've been on here for longer, you will recognise the threads that are likely to kick off and you can either steer clear of them, or wade in to give your 2pennorth. Whatever you do, don't let it put you off posting, we need people with different views on things posting on here. Nobody wants a regimented, samey site.

Sometimes people do tend to forget the tag-line to the site: "by parents for parents"