What's going on on DCUM??

[Anonymous]

Maybe I've been aged out of DCUM but I've been really disappointed with some of the posters on DCUM lately. The mean way in which posters have ridiculed,  derided,  mocked and belittled the posters on the "my husband is taking unpaid leave" and "why has my post been deleted" threads is nothing less than cruel. To be honest it comes across like bullying on the playground. The bullies find a "weakness" in their victim and proceed to make that person's life a misery on account of that weakness.   Then, when the person being bullied reacts and lashes out, the bullies run to teacher (in this case Jeff) and report the victim, getting them into trouble or in this case try to get them thrown off DCUM or get their posts deleted. 
I find the attacks on those OP's posts to be very juvenile and mean. I can't imagine anyone I know behaving like this either IRL or anonymously.  The relentless mocking and nastiness is only understandable ( not excusable) in children who do not fully understand the effect of their behavior on others and the consequences or indeed go not realize how cruel they are being.

Do the mocking posters really think its ok to be so nasty? Even if you think the OPs of the threads "deserved" what they got? Would you be okay if your kids behaved this way regardless of the reason? How many of you have come to DCUM worried that your kids are being bullied, treated unkindly? Would you be okay with your kids being treated the way you are treating those posters if they brought it on themselves as it were?  I have to say that I'm really baffled. 

Flame away!!

[Anonymous]

I'm only going to say one thing...

...are you CL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I've been aged out of DCUM but I've been really disappointed with some of the posters on DCUM lately. The mean way in which posters have ridiculed,  derided,  mocked and belittled the posters on the "my husband is taking unpaid leave" and "why has my post been deleted" threads is nothing less than cruel. To be honest it comes across like bullying on the playground. The bullies find a "weakness" in their victim and proceed to make that person's life a misery on account of that weakness.   Then, when the person being bullied reacts and lashes out, the bullies run to teacher (in this case Jeff) and report the victim, getting them into trouble or in this case try to get them thrown off DCUM or get their posts deleted. 
I find the attacks on those OP's posts to be very juvenile and mean. I can't imagine anyone I know behaving like this either IRL or anonymously.  The relentless mocking and nastiness is only understandable ( not excusable) in children who do not fully understand the effect of their behavior on others and the consequences or indeed go not realize how cruel they are being.

Do the mocking posters really think its ok to be so nasty? Even if you think the OPs of the threads "deserved" what they got? Would you be okay if your kids behaved this way regardless of the reason? How many of you have come to DCUM worried that your kids are being bullied, treated unkindly? Would you be okay with your kids being treated the way you are treating those posters if they brought it on themselves as it were?  I have to say that I'm really baffled. 

Flame away!!

I totally agree, especially the one about the mommy blogger - even if she had promoted her site on DCUM (which sounds like was not the case) she didn't deserve the tarring and feathering she got. Did her blog hyperbolize some of her experiences, sure. But it was clearly not meant to be offensive and all the rest of the postings, and the hunting down of her name and address were really WAY over the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm only going to say one thing...

...are you CL?

HAHAHAHAHA.

[Anonymous]

Which of those questions would you like me to answer? Pick two.

[Anonymous]

Well if the "teacher" allows it/ encourages it, he's the biggest bully of all.

[Anonymous]

It seems like the same thing that happened with the Craigslist parenting forum. 10 years ago it was great. Then Craigslist got mentioned a few too many times in mainstream media and everyone and their Mountain Dew drinking mother flocked to it, and the quality of the content dropped significantly.

[Anonymous]

CL.

[Anonymous]

I'm with you OP. I'm convinced that these are women who hold back emotionally and/or are pushovers IRL, so they use DCUM to vent and spew their nastiness.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you, OP.

[Anonymous]

I actually find DCUM pretty mild mannered, particularly for an anonymous board that attracts people with a range of cultural and political views. Personally I'm not into engaging in name calling, or even serious arguing online, but I will post satirical responses-and I make the same kind of satirical remarks to people IRL. If I find that a thread is turning ugly and unfunny, I click away, but those threads are fairly easy to spot and avoid.

I'm often curious about posters on DCUM who constantly complain that others aren't nice or polite. For me, the top qualities I'm looking for in other posters are smart, funny, informative, and interesting. Nice and polite are qualities that are fairly low on my list. I do try to avoid evil and psycho, which is why I now longer read comments online comments for newspapers-they always seem to attract the worst kind of trolls, but DCUM definitely is not at that level.

[Anonymous]

Usually when a post goes over five pages, I stop reading it. I know that it's lost its topic, become a troll destination, and given up any semblance of civility.

[Anonymous]

I think the parents who are mocking and bullying on this list probably pass some of that attitude on to their kids, either overtly or more subtly. Nastiness, the gift that keeps on giving.

I looked at the unpaid leave thread once, despised the tenor of it and haven't checked back. I try to ignore the threads with lots of trolls posting on them, but it's annoying, to say the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the parents who are mocking and bullying on this list probably pass some of that attitude on to their kids, either overtly or more subtly. Nastiness, the gift that keeps on giving.

I looked at the unpaid leave thread once, despised the tenor of it and haven't checked back. I try to ignore the threads with lots of trolls posting on them, but it's annoying, to say the least.

The unpaid leave one WAS a troll thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well if the "teacher" allows it/ encourages it, he's the biggest bully of all.

Well, the more the crazies attack and the debate heats up, the more clicks the post gets and that's good for business.