January

Because I wasn't able to write a blog post yesterday, today I'll cover the most active threads of the last two days. The most active thread of that period was titled, "Memphis Cops Kill Motorist After Traffic Stop" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. Obviously this thread is about the death of Tyre Nichols caused by a beating at the hands of Memphis police officers. The thread was actually started back on January 20, but didn't receive a single reply until the 27th when the media began publicizing the imminent release of body worn camera video. In the two days since, the thread has reached 36 pages. I haven't read all of the pages but it looks like much of the thread consists of debates about what exactly the videos show with some posters thinking that the videos document an unprovoked killing and others arguing that Nichols failed to obey police instructions. Just as in the case of much of the media coverage, considerable attention is paid to the possibility of riots with some posters appearing to be nearly salivating at the chance that liberals would burn down cities. Those posters later hyped any incident consisting of more than a raised voice and even invented a few riots about which to complain. One thing I noticed about this thread was how cynical most posters appeared regarding the criminal charges lodged against the police officers who had been involved in the beating. Almost nobody seemed to accept the possibility that the charges reflected the proper application of the law. Most posters suspected an ulterior motive for the charges even if they couldn't agree on what that motive was. Some posters attributed the charges to an effort to head off riots. Some thought the quick filing of charges was due to the officers being black and suggested that white officers would not have been charged so rapidly. As you would expect of a thread of this length, there are numerous disagreements that are keeping the thread going.

The most active topic yesterday was titled "Son pledging there’s definitely hazing" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster says that she is a nervous wreck because her son has described "pretty bad" hazing during his pledging for a fraternity. I am not completely confident that this post is totally legitimate. The original poster is very sparse with any sort of details and while she asks for advice, doesn't really seem very interested in any that is offered. Several of the posters who responded suggested contacting the university's administration to report the hazing and many warned of the dangers hazing presents. Others advised the original poster to stay out of it because her son is old enough to make his own decisions in such matters. This led to some discussion of the mental development of 18 years olds. A few responses suggested joining ROTC which posters argued offers some of the same camaraderie of frats and any physical stress would be for a good cause. The thread is full of horror stories about fraternities and warnings to steer clear of them. On the other hand, responders argued that the original poster's son should simply try a different frat that might offer a better pledging experience.

The most active topic yesterday was titled, "anyone else strongly consider leaving due to garbage US healthcare?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster details her frustrating experience trying to determine whether her health insurance will cover a sleep study that was prescribed by her doctor. After several runarounds and hours on the phone, she has been unable to find an answer. In contrast, she describes an incident involving her sister-in-law who suffered a broken arm while travelling in Thailand. Her sister-in-law received excellent care and was only charged $300 even without insurance. Due to the aggravating situation with healthcare in the United States, the original poster is strongly considering moving abroad and asks whether others have similar thoughts. Many posters reply saying that they have great health insurance and never have problems accessing care, and therefore, would not consider leaving the US. Other posters suggest that the original poster's view of foreign healthcare systems may be overly rosy and predict that she couldn't easy get a sleep study in other countries. However, a smattering of those responding also express disappointment with US healthcare and are considering leaving, though their reasons for doing so generally extend beyond healthcare. For the most part, the responses reflect the stratified access to healthcare that exists in the US. Those with financial means get the care that they desire. The poor probably wouldn't even consider a sleep study and primarily rely on the emergency room for care. In the middle is where the US offers a mixed bag, with patients facing hurdles and frustrations such as the original poster has described.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Our Current Situation - Not thrilled" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster describes her child's qualifications and lists the current state of several college applications which include one deferral and several acceptances. In addition, the student is still waiting to hear from a number of other universities. The original poster describes herself as not thrilled with the situation because apparently her expectations exceded the current results. This thread was reported as a troll thread and several accusations of trolling were posted almost immediately. One reason for this is that the original poster switched the gender of the child in the first post, at times describing the child as male and at other times referring to the child as "her". The original poster subsequently blamed this on a typo. I suspect that this is not trolling exactly, but rather the case of an over-anxious parent who has probably started multiple threads and is either trying to prevent posters from making the connection to earlier threads or has some sort of privacy concern that the poster believes can be alleviated by hiding her child's true gender. Despite the concerns over trolling, this thread reach 10 pages which, frankly, I don't have interest in reading. I know from experience that posters in this forum love to nitpick college admissions and I expect that whatever anxieties the original poster may have been feeling at the beginning of the thread were probably doubled by the end of it.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Accused of racial bias at work by someone, and I feel sick over it" and posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum. The original poster provides a long and detailed description of what appears to be an innocent interaction that resulted in her being accused of racial bias. The original poster feels strongly that the allegation is wrong and is very upset about it. She asks how others would handle the situation. There are a range of responses running from suggestions that the original poster simply ignore it to advice to contact the accuser and try to resolve things. Some posters criticize the original poster for being overly emotional. A few of those who respond agree that the original poster was guilty of racial bias, though the facts that were presented do not support such a conclusion. Much of the the thread is devoted to analyzing the details provided by the original poster and drawing conclusions about where mistakes had been made. Some posters conclude that gender rather than racial bias may have played the greater role.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Alec Baldwin now charged with involuntary manslaughter by New Mexico authorities" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. A few days ago, someone started a thread in the "Website Feedback" forum asking which topics were the most popular. I checked and found that Hilaria Baldwin topics were the most popular. As this thread — which reached 12 pages in less than a day — demonstrates, her husband is a similarly popular topic for discussion. This thread discusses charges lodged against Hilaria Baldwin's husband arising from an incident on set of "Rust" in which Hilaria's husband fired what he believed to be harmless prop gun and killed Halyna Hutchins, the movie's director of photography. Posters are divided between whether these are delayed but warranted charges or the act of an overzealous prosecutor. Many posters compare the incident to former Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting companion. Not only was Cheney not charged, the shooting victim actually apologized to him. While the details of this tragic event are of course important, posters were also eager to discuss how Hilaria was dressed and how many times she appeared before the camera. Her unzipped coat came under particular scrutiny. I would guess that we are only a few hours away from a poster suggesting that Hilaria arranged the shooting as an opportunity to get media exposure.

I knew that it was going to happen, I could see it coming, but that makes it no less disappointing that yesterday's most active thread was about Prince Harry's book. Titled, "Spare" (just like the book) and posted in "The DCUM Book Club" forum, the thread is nearly 40 pages long already. Obviously I am not going to read 40 pages. For that matter, I'm not going to read even 4 pages of this thread. What I can say is that very few posts have been reported so either fans of the Sussex dual have grown surprisingly tolerant of the haters or the couple's detractors have failed to find their way over from the Entertainment forum. Mind you, the book is not even available to read yet so all of these posts are either based on excerpts or just posters' general feelings about Harry and Meghan. Once people are actually able to get their hands on a copy, there will likely be a lot more posts so this thread or others like it will probably continue for some time.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Husband refuses to help with night feedings" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster and her husband have a newborn baby that wakes several times a night for feeding. The couple initially split feeding duties so that both were allowed decent stretches of sleep at night. But, the husband has now returned to work and decided that he should no longer wake up for night feedings, leaving it all to the original poster. The original poster is struggling with the lack of sleep, thinks her husband is being unreasonable, and believes he should still be responsible for one night feeding. Their disagrement on this issue led to a big fight and the original poster seeks advice and support. Those responding largely fall into two camps: 1) those who agree that the original poster's husband is being unreasonable and that he should either split duties or hire someone to provide assistance, either as a night nurse or for household help to allow the original poster more time to nap; and 2) those who support the husband who they think deserves to sleep through the night because he has to work and doesn't have time to take naps during the day. Of course, the standard advice for all relationships in this forum is to get a divorce and such advice is also offered. However, the original poster, sleep-deprived though she may be, is still lucid enough to soundly reject that suggestion.

Today I'll look at the most active threads over the weekend. Coming in at number 1 was a thread titled, "Feel terrible about my finances after reading this site" and posted in the "Money and Finances" forum. The original poster explains that he and his wife immigrated to the US, landing in northern Virginia, after he completed a PhD program. He now works as an engineer while his wife is a stay at home mom. After reading posts in the DCUM finance forum, he feels that his finances, especially retirement savings, are in terrible shape. As things stand, he plans to rely on his daughter, whose education he took out loans to finance, to support him and his wife in their retirement. But, wait, there's a plot twist. On page 12 of the thread the original poster reveals that she is actually the daughter in this scenario. She works in investment banking and hates the job, but feels tied down due to her parent's expectation that she support them. In a later post she explains that her purpose in starting the thread was to get feedback on whether to remain in investment banking or not. This could have been done in a simple straight-forward manner without the subterfuge. Moreover, I found a few posts in which the original poster sock puppeted. Several of her posts criticized "white" families and in one case she had the audacity to accuse another poster of trolling. Basically, there are a ton of things wrong with this thread and the original poster's conduct. As a result, I've just locked the thread.

Happy New Year to the half dozen or so readers of this blog. I didn't think anyone would bother to read it so I'm thrilled to have even a small number of readers. I'm going to change things up a bit today. I would ordinarily write about the four most active threads of the past week. However, I've already written about all but three of the top ten. With today marking the first day of a new year, I thought I would look at the most active threads of 2022. I'll look at the top 10, but write less about them than I normally do in order to keep this post to a reasonable length.

As is fitting for this sort of countdown list, I'll start in reverse order. In position number 10 of last years most active threads was, drumroll please, a thread titled, "2022 HS Boys Game Results" and posted in the "Lacrosse" forum. This thread was started on March 3 of last year and hasn't been updated since June 17th. But, if you are interested in reading 158 pages about lacrosse game results, we've got you covered.