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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]Jeff (and others),
Do you ever wonder what motivates people to post certain competitive, cruel, catty things here? Is this a universal issue with message boards; as in, anonymity is the perfect cloak for the evil that lurks within all of us?

I see people -- presumably adults, many of whom are parents -- acting in ways that my 6th-grader would have outgrown by now. Putting people down, making competitive remarks about colleges or sports, making fun of people's income, suggesting people have cancer when they post a common symptom on the health board, writing things that would make them humiliated if their true identities were discovered.

Is this a Beltway thing? A DCUM thing? An anonymity thing? Does this board attract people with axes to grind? Yes, sometimes there are posts that reaffirm my faith in humanity, but often, the things I see here make me wonder what brand of vitriol lurks inside so many of us.

Ideas?[/quote]

I don't think there is a single answer. Some people are just entertaining themselves. They don't really care if they are helpful and actually might find it more fun not to be helpful. There is no real explanation for their response other than that they were fun. There is a minority, or at least I hope it is a minority, who are simply mean and take pleasure in being mean. But an unfortunately large number of posters appear to have mental health issues. I am not a psychologist and can't diagnose these folks, but the ones with whom I am most familiar are simply obsessed with posting. They commonly have a couple of strongly-held views and absolutely nothing can stop them from posting those views. These views can be anything from the proper age to get married, to the best sport to play in high school or whether a child should be held back a grade in school. If you post an opinion that conflicts with their view, you are going to hear from them and not necessarily in a polite manner.

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