Forum for the easily offended?

elsien

Just thinking we could probably do with an additional forum for those who are outraged/disgusted about absolutely everything, possibly also with the SCAM! brigade as a subset? 

They seem to be on the increase and often end with insults being hurled when  people don’t get the answer they feel they deserve. 

marcia_

elsien said:

Just thinking we could probably do with an additional forum for those who are outraged/disgusted about absolutely everything, possibly also with the SCAM! brigade as a subset? 

They seem to be on the increase and often end with insults being hurled when  people don’t get the answer they feel they deserve. 

 That would have been discussion time which was closed because of heated debates and insults 

Brie

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

eskbanker

Brie said:

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

Posts like that can be reported if they breach the forum rules, so there is already a "naughty step" in that repeated violations result in posters being banned temporarily or ultimately even permanently by the forum admins.

TimeLord1

Just use the ignore option, on profiles you wish to remove from viewing or responding to. 

Pollycat

Brie said:

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

I think there's a difference between saying "you are so stupid" and pointing out that all the information is there on the website.
You know the threads:
"I have been paying £xx for a year and I didn't sign up for membership" when it's clearly stated on whatever website that you'll be charged £xx per month.
Or "I bought something from a co.uk website and it's been delivered from China and I have to pay to return it to China" when a quick check of the company says where they are based.

That may help the OP from making a similar mistake.
Or stop someone else from making a similar mistake.
It's not "making unwarranted snarky comments".
I don't think tea and sympathy responses should be mandatory.
And generally, those posters turn abusive when it's explained to them that they could have avoided their mistake.

The thread that sparked this thread has now been deleted.
Funny that a lot of those type of threads start late Friday afternoon when there are no moderators...

Exodi

What a bait and switch, I originally thought this thread was about posters of threads, but now I see it's about commenters. Sadly I didn't see the thread that invariably prompted this.

In general, I agree with @Pollycat , I don't think tea and sympathy responses should be mandatory, nor is it always helpful in the long term to pander to everyone, especially when they're (by majority opinion) in the wrong. The less serial complainers, the better.

If I had a penny for every new poster that comes to this forum with a totally left field view on their position, it becoming clear they didn't come to answer questions and only intended to reinforce their preconceived view, and then getting incredibly defensive when responding to any comments which disagree with them, then I wouldn't need to be on money-saving-expert as I'd have more money than I could ever spend.

But on the other hand, I know what you mean about commenters which essentially respond with "you are so stupid" as coined above, and I report it where it clearly crosses the line. For example, I remember in one particular thread where the poster got assaulted and robbed, and was lectured by someone for having a watch on (?) and not paying enough attention by being on their phone. I reported them and I'm pretty sure they got permanently banned for the post.

Sea_Shell

I find it a shame how many threads get left unresolved and you never get to hear how things turned out.

My bookmarks are full of them...on the off chance they come back before the thread is timed out (closed)

Neil_Jones

Pollycat said:

Brie said:

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

I think there's a difference between saying "you are so stupid" and pointing out that all the information is there on the website.
You know the threads:
"I have been paying £xx for a year and I didn't sign up for membership" when it's clearly stated on whatever website that you'll be charged £xx per month.
Or "I bought something from a co.uk website and it's been delivered from China and I have to pay to return it to China" when a quick check of the company says where they are based.

That may help the OP from making a similar mistake.
Or stop someone else from making a similar mistake.
It's not "making unwarranted snarky comments".
I don't think tea and sympathy responses should be mandatory.
And generally, those posters turn abusive when it's explained to them that they could have avoided their mistake.

The thread that sparked this thread has now been deleted.
Funny that a lot of those type of threads start late Friday afternoon when there are no moderators...

Being guilty of doing the "yeah, it says that in the T&Cs/website/link I've just found in two seconds" thing a few times, I might have more sympathy if the issue being complained about was valid.  However  nine times out of ten the issue was because an OP didn't read what they agreed to, and then wondered why things have panned out the way they did.  Broadband/phone/TV auto increase prices are quite common complaints (that and dropping out of the initial discount rate and then wondering why the price went up).

Unfortunately I do believe there has to be an element of self responsibility in a lot of cases; Ofcom/regulators/government can only do so much.  Doing the whole "diddums" thing doesn't help anybody.

That being said, some people just blatantly try it on.  Always remember a post from a few years ago where somebody apparently topped up a mobile phone by £10k, and "only realised" a decade later.  They got everything they deserved in the responses, and the amount of sympathy was so small it was unmeasurable.

Pollycat

Neil_Jones said:

Pollycat said:

Brie said:

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

I think there's a difference between saying "you are so stupid" and pointing out that all the information is there on the website.
You know the threads:
"I have been paying £xx for a year and I didn't sign up for membership" when it's clearly stated on whatever website that you'll be charged £xx per month.
Or "I bought something from a co.uk website and it's been delivered from China and I have to pay to return it to China" when a quick check of the company says where they are based.

That may help the OP from making a similar mistake.
Or stop someone else from making a similar mistake.
It's not "making unwarranted snarky comments".
I don't think tea and sympathy responses should be mandatory.
And generally, those posters turn abusive when it's explained to them that they could have avoided their mistake.

The thread that sparked this thread has now been deleted.
Funny that a lot of those type of threads start late Friday afternoon when there are no moderators...

Being guilty of doing the "yeah, it says that in the T&Cs/website/link I've just found in two seconds" thing a few times, I might have more sympathy if the issue being complained about was valid.  However  nine times out of ten the issue was because an OP didn't read what they agreed to, and then wondered why things have panned out the way they did.  Broadband/phone/TV auto increase prices are quite common complaints (that and dropping out of the initial discount rate and then wondering why the price went up).

But when it's pointed out that the OP didn't read what they agreed to, instead of saying 'Ooops, I missed that' they get abusive and aggressive.

Amazon Prime, Easylife Rewards Club, Complete Savings, plus all those websites that charge an 'admin' fee on top of either a free or cheaper charge (GHIC, ESTA, passports etc) all figure highly on the "I've been scammed' rant.

Neil_Jones said:

Pollycat said:

Brie said:

I think there should be a naughty step somewhere for those who make unwarranted snarky comments.  I hate to see people ask questions and the response is essentially "you are so stupid".  Happens on all sorts of boards unfortunately.  If people can't be nice they shouldn't be allowed to play.  

I think there's a difference between saying "you are so stupid" and pointing out that all the information is there on the website.
You know the threads:
"I have been paying £xx for a year and I didn't sign up for membership" when it's clearly stated on whatever website that you'll be charged £xx per month.
Or "I bought something from a co.uk website and it's been delivered from China and I have to pay to return it to China" when a quick check of the company says where they are based.

That may help the OP from making a similar mistake.
Or stop someone else from making a similar mistake.
It's not "making unwarranted snarky comments".
I don't think tea and sympathy responses should be mandatory.
And generally, those posters turn abusive when it's explained to them that they could have avoided their mistake.

The thread that sparked this thread has now been deleted.
Funny that a lot of those type of threads start late Friday afternoon when there are no moderators...

Unfortunately I do believe there has to be an element of self responsibility in a lot of cases; Ofcom/regulators/government can only do so much.  Doing the whole "diddums" thing doesn't help anybody.

I quite often suggest there should be some personal accountability.
I'm usually flamed for it by the OP.

On a recent thread, I pointed out that the OP was blaming the wrong organisation and received a highly sarcastic response.
Why can't people just admit they are wrong when they are?

Neil_Jones

Probably because most people haven't a clue how a discussion forum works.

On Facebook you can post "OMG Company X took £23.97 from my account.  They only got £15.28 last month.  Has this happened to anybody else?" and the responses will always be in the affirmative without any real digging of any facts.  So they're used to being "right" because your "friends" on Facebook aren't going to side with the company you're complaining about, otherwise what's the point of being friends with them?

On a forum it's a case of "yeah, that didn't happen, did it?" and strangers, so its difficult for somebody to be told they're wrong.  So they storm off because they haven't been told what they want to hear.

Sometimes damned if you do and damned if you don't