Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No

By the time “Maplesyrup” has posted in their school district’s forum and the age group forums about their kids, talked about their neighborhood in the real estate forum, asked about suggestions for baby names, talked about vacations in travel, given career advice, talked about their cars, gardens, recipes, home improvement projects, etc., they will be pretty identifiable. The anonymity is what makes DCUM invaluable.

I don’t like the meanness, either, which is why I call it out when I see it. If you want to call out a poster for meanness, and I see it, I will happily support you if I agree.

This. I discuss some very private information only on the condition of anonymity. I wouldn't participate if I had to have a screenname.

How would you not be anonymous with a screen name?

This has already been covered.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No

By the time “Maplesyrup” has posted in their school district’s forum and the age group forums about their kids, talked about their neighborhood in the real estate forum, asked about suggestions for baby names, talked about vacations in travel, given career advice, talked about their cars, gardens, recipes, home improvement projects, etc., they will be pretty identifiable. The anonymity is what makes DCUM invaluable.

I don’t like the meanness, either, which is why I call it out when I see it. If you want to call out a poster for meanness, and I see it, I will happily support you if I agree.

This. I discuss some very private information only on the condition of anonymity. I wouldn't participate if I had to have a screenname.

How would you not be anonymous with a screen name?

Anonymous wrote:Has the nastiness on DCUM always been this bad or is there an increase? It's just awful. I understand things can get heated when talking about politics, for example, but even posts on mundane topics become a battlefield. Twice in recent weeks I posted completely innocuous comments in discussions and someone responded in such a sarcastic manner that I didn't go back. I've seen people who post a question about a health matter get ridiculed, and know not to open some threads because it is so toxic. I wonder how much of this is attributable to just a few people (there does seem to be some commonalities) but surely no one has that much time on their hands. I also wonder if they are like this in real life, which is kinda scary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. And I can be mean sometimes, but try to be helpful. If it's too mean for you, just find another forum.

+1

Given that the owner has the ability to delete non-constructive mean posts, then it appears that the meanness is a feature, not a bug of DCUM. I’ve been visiting since ~2011 and the mean levels seem the same.

NP. I’ve been head around the same amount of time, and I completely disagree about the mean levels being roughly the same. I’ve always joked that “DCUM is full of terrible people,” but at least it seemed like terrible people sharing their real opinions. The level of trollishness and name-calling is way up. Almost even worse, to me, is the threads that are taken over by what seems to be just two people going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, usually with juvenile name calling thrown in. So tiresome for everyone else. I would love to see some kind of identifiers if it meant the ability to confirm it’s really just two individuals so everyone else could tell them to cut it out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No

By the time “Maplesyrup” has posted in their school district’s forum and the age group forums about their kids, talked about their neighborhood in the real estate forum, asked about suggestions for baby names, talked about vacations in travel, given career advice, talked about their cars, gardens, recipes, home improvement projects, etc., they will be pretty identifiable. The anonymity is what makes DCUM invaluable.

I don’t like the meanness, either, which is why I call it out when I see it. If you want to call out a poster for meanness, and I see it, I will happily support you if I agree.

This. I discuss some very private information only on the condition of anonymity. I wouldn't participate if I had to have a screenname.

How would you not be anonymous with a screen name?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No

By the time “Maplesyrup” has posted in their school district’s forum and the age group forums about their kids, talked about their neighborhood in the real estate forum, asked about suggestions for baby names, talked about vacations in travel, given career advice, talked about their cars, gardens, recipes, home improvement projects, etc., they will be pretty identifiable. The anonymity is what makes DCUM invaluable.

I don’t like the meanness, either, which is why I call it out when I see it. If you want to call out a poster for meanness, and I see it, I will happily support you if I agree.

This. I discuss some very private information only on the condition of anonymity. I wouldn't participate if I had to have a screenname.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. And I can be mean sometimes, but try to be helpful. If it's too mean for you, just find another forum.

+1

Given that the owner has the ability to delete non-constructive mean posts, then it appears that the meanness is a feature, not a bug of DCUM. I’ve been visiting since ~2011 and the mean levels seem the same.

NP. I’ve been head around the same amount of time, and I completely disagree about the mean levels being roughly the same. I’ve always joked that “DCUM is full of terrible people,” but at least it seemed like terrible people sharing their real opinions. The level of trollishness and name-calling is way up. Almost even worse, to me, is the threads that are taken over by what seems to be just two people going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, usually with juvenile name calling thrown in. So tiresome for everyone else. I would love to see some kind of identifiers if it meant the ability to confirm it’s really just two individuals so everyone else could tell them to cut it out.

Anonymous wrote:No, because it would create, in me, an expectation for posting (like FB/Twitter/etc)..I don't want that pressure to "comment" as "me"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. And I can be mean sometimes, but try to be helpful. If it's too mean for you, just find another forum.

+1

Given that the owner has the ability to delete non-constructive mean posts, then it appears that the meanness is a feature, not a bug of DCUM. I’ve been visiting since ~2011 and the mean levels seem the same.

Anonymous wrote:No

By the time “Maplesyrup” has posted in their school district’s forum and the age group forums about their kids, talked about their neighborhood in the real estate forum, asked about suggestions for baby names, talked about vacations in travel, given career advice, talked about their cars, gardens, recipes, home improvement projects, etc., they will be pretty identifiable. The anonymity is what makes DCUM invaluable.

I don’t like the meanness, either, which is why I call it out when I see it. If you want to call out a poster for meanness, and I see it, I will happily support you if I agree.