The Most Active Threads since Friday

The most active thread since my last post on Friday morning was titled, "Woman missing after reporting seeing a toddler on the highway" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. This thread was started Saturday based on a report that 25-year-old Carlee Russell had gone missing in Alabama in mysterious circumstances. While driving home Thursday night on Interstate 459, Russell had phoned 911 to report that a toddler was walking alone on the side of the road. Russell then pulled over and phoned a family member. Russell was heard asking someone if they were okay and then screamed, after which only noise from the road was heard. Police arrived to find Russell's car running with the door open and her phone and other belongings near by. But, there was no sign of her. Posters in the thread seemed convinced that Russell had been a victim of human traffickers who may have used a toddler as bait. A few posters found the idea that Russell was lured in to stopping unbelievable and proposed alternative ideas such as she was running away, had stumbled into a bad situation of sorts, or had even been attacked by a bear. Eventually the thread was mostly taken over by armchair detectives who appeared convinced that the mystery could be solved through Internet discussions. They would hustle back and forth between the WebSleuths website, Reddit, and DCUM, posting information from WebSleuths and Reddit without an ounce of skepticism. This led to considerable discusion of topics that don't appear to have any source beyond "a poster on Reddit" or similar. Seventeen pages into the thread, reports emerged that Russell had returned home and been taken to a hospital. The police eventually released a statement confirming that Russell was safe, but saying that they were holding off on questioning her in order to give the family some space. As such, almost nothing is known about what happened while Russell was missing or the circumstances under which she arrived at her home. This led to 20 more pages of theories and allegations, basically none of which had any factual basis. While many posters expressed joy that Russell had returned home safely and quite a few praised the handling of the situation by the police, a number of posters seemed determined to paint Russell as a sort of culprit in this situation. As of this morning, almost nothing has been released publicly about what happened to Russell, but that is not stopping rampant speculation.

The second most active thread was posted in the "Travel Discussion" forum. Titled, "Most overrated international destination?", the original poster asked about international travel destinations that did not live up to expectations. This is a 25 page thread so I can't read all of it. But, skimming several pages confirms what I would expect. Just about any destination that is suggested as overrated has its defenders. I have agree with some of the posters who criticized the entire premise of the thread. It is really impossible to judge an entire country by a visit to a single city, or indeed an entire city by a short visit. As a result, a suggestion that a destination was overrated often provoked criticism of the person making the suggestion. Either they had missed the important attractions or were simply too unsophisticated to appreciate what the destination had to offer. About the only exception to this that I noticed was Cabo San Lucas which was mentioned by several posters who complained that it was not possible to go to the beach. A good demonstration of the back and forth of this thread involves Bali. One poster said that Bali was overrated and another agreed, saying that they hadn't experienced enough local culture. This provoked a response from a poster claiming to have experienced plenty of local culture while visiting Bali. A third poster agreed saying that the previous poster "did it wrong". There is also a big debate about Amsterdam which has a considerable number of both critics and defenders of in the thread. The highlight of this thread for me was the reaction to a poster who suggested that residents of DC are not qualified to "pass judgment on their superiors around the globe". A poster responded by saying, "We’re the oldest and greatest country on the earth, we have the highest standard of living, and we’ve never lost a war, we can judge whoever we want!" While this appeared to me to be clearly tongue-in-cheek, it generated serious responses from posters taking issue with some of the assertions. The poster responded to the corrections by calling them "Russian propaganda", causing even further heartfelt but presumably misplaced outrage.

The third thread today was titled, "Underused baby names due for a come back?" and posted in the "Expectant and Postpartum Moms" forum. The original poster says that "Fred/Freddy is a GREAT NAME" but that she doesn't know anyone in real life with that name. Therefore, she proposes that parents of boys consider it and asks what other names are due for a comeback. Since most of the posts in this thread simply consist of lists of names, it is hard to summarize. Scattered among the lists are posts from those commenting on the suggestions. There are several comments pointing out why a suggested name might not come back. For instance "Marjorie" is ruled out because of Marjorie Taylor Greene". But, that suggestion is also rejected because, a poster claims, most people don't pay enough attention to politics to understand the negative connotations. Also, most of the suggestions seem to elicit responses from those who know people with those names and, therefore, disagree that the names are underused. Some posters have interesting comments regarding how names fall in and out of style. There is a minor controversy regarding moms who dont like nicknames. But, basically, this thread is what it is and what it is a list of names. If that interests you, there are 12 pages for your reading pleasure.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. Titled, "Non-Famous but Frequent DCUM Posters III", this is the third iteration of this theme focused on posters who are recognizable but not "DCUM famous". In other words, this is supposed to be about the bush league DCUM personalities. I think that I have commented before about how a common phenomenon on DCUM is talking about DCUM. For whatever reason, there are a number of posters who take considerable joy in reminiscing about past threads and posters. This is just a variation of that practice. I guess that it is good that posters can still find joy in this sort of thread, but this one seems to be a bit of a reach. Many of the posters don't even seem to describe a specific poster, but more often a phrase or expression that is likely used by many posters. This elicits a complaint about "posters that think there is only one person who says the annoying phrase." Apparently there is someone who frequently posts about charcuterie boards and has managed to annoy at least one poster. But, that poster's complaint seemed to create more fans of the charcuterie poster than anything else. Or, at least fans of charcuterie boards. At 12 pages in length, the thread managed to cover enough posters that some recognized themselves. True to form, many of them defended whatever they had done earn a mention in this thread. For instance, the poster who "always suggests something monogrammed" was not going down without a fight and not only owned her sobriquet, but described recent monogrammed gifts she has recently provided. One poster complained about posters who don't like the use of the term "littles" to describe children, but exactly those posters quickly appeared to criticize the term. This then turned into a rough and tumble debate about the "little" that is still continuing on the most recent pages of the thread. Those who post about the British Royal Family seem to have inspired enmity from all quarters. In that regard, one poster expressed hesitation at mentioning the "Kate Middleton Superfan" in fear that, like Lord Voldemort, she would be summoned. The very next post that came three minutes later was posted by someone appearing to very much fit the description of a "Kate Middleton Superfan", leading to a number of chuckles from other posters.