Monday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was the thread about Carlee Russell who is no longer missing but about whose disappearance very little has been revealed. Since I discussed that thread yesterday, I'll move to the next most active thread which was titled, "Am I the jerk?" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of this thread or the original poster. I've received several reports suggesting that the original poster is a troll, but I have not observed any sock puppeting and prior threads from the poster (of which I can find very few) don't raise any red flags. Yet, the original poster is very hard to accept at face value. The thread begins with the original poster complaining that her kids have non-stop activities this summer. I assumed that she would go on to complain about the hassle of chauffeuring them around town, but it turns out that her husband does all of that. The original poster would like the kids to do fewer activities, but this has upset her husband because they enjoy the activities and the original poster is not the one karting them around in any case. The original poster believes that her opinion should matter despite the fact that her husband is doing all the work. Virtually everybody agrees that the original poster is indeed the jerk in this situation. To the extent that the original poster gets any sympathy, it is from posters who think she is suffering from stress caused by her job and taking it out on her family. Then, in what was apparently a surreal attempt to demonstrate her humanity, the original poster revealed that her husband is in recovery from alcoholism. Rather than supporting her husband's attendance of AA meetings, she complains that they are another activity to be juggled. With every response, the original poster loses more of the little sympathy others had for her and convinces even more posters that she is a troll. At some point, there is really no difference between a completely unreasonable poster and a troll and this poster has clearly reached that line. The impression that I get is that the original poster's husband may be less than perfect, but is doing everything within his ability to address his drinking problem and to parent their children. The original poster, on the other hand, is contributing very little other than criticism and complaints that her husband doesn't sufficiently consider her opinions. She appears to have considerable contempt for the man. The most sympathetic reading of this thread suggests that the original poster and her husband have a communications problem that could stand to be addressed. But frankly, I think the original poster is likely dealing with deeper issues. This is a case in which it might be better for all involved if the original poster is a troll.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. Titled, "Staying Pretty", the original poster says that she tries to stay attractive by working out, eating healthy, and maintaining a "disciplined beauty regimen". She says that while men appreciate the results of her efforts, they don't support her commitment that is required. For instance, they may resent the time all of this takes or that she has to be strict with her diet. The original poster wants to know how others handle this. The first response claims that handling it with anything less than the utmost grace would be unattractive and the second advises that the original poster to "Stop living for various rando guys you meet from the internet". I suspect neither of those resposes was particularly helpful. Others responding want more details about how much time is involved. A poster who finally addresses the question asked by the original poster suggests that men are interested in women with natural beauty and, therefore, women have to keep their beauty habits secret. Maybe that's why they are called "beauty secrets"? While many of those responding might not go as far as saying beauty routines should be kept secret, there is pretty wide agreement that they shouldn't be discussed. "No one wants to hear how hard it takes to do anything", one poster writes. Other advice is not to handle such guys at all but to move on to others who would appreciate her efforts and be supportive of them. When the original poster provided more details about her routine, she received one response saying it sounded fine and another saying it was "annoyingly high-maintenance". I guess you would say there were multiple perspectives.

The third thread that I'll discuss today was titled, "Saw a car a big bumper sticker today: ‘Raising Lions, Not Sheep’" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. The original poster says that she has seen bumper stickers with this expression multiple times and wants to know what it means. She asks whether parents are raising their children to maul other kids. A poster responds to suggest that they are teaching the boys to lie around while the women do all of the work. One poster, whose manhood should absolutely, under any circumstances, not be questioned claims that we are "overrun with absolute sissies" and implies that lions are tough leaders that we need. Fairly quickly this thread turned quite snarky and is kind of entertaining. But, my favorite part was an exchange that started with a poster claiming to have seen a "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac". This elicited a response from a poster saying she must be younger than the previous poster because she saw a "Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac". This, in turn, caused a poster to reply saying, "Totally missed the basic reference", ironically revealing an unfamiliarity with "The Ataris". Several posters attribute the pro-lion sentiment to MAGA Republicans and a number of posters who demonstrate such politcal leanings do show up to promote lions. Or at least it seems that way. In most cases, it was difficult to distinguish such posts from the snarky posts and they may well be creatively written satire.

For my final topic today I am going to skip what is really the next most active thread (for the record, it was titled, "Had a seriously rattling experience yesterday") and, instead, discuss the thread that came after that one. Posted in the "DC Public and Public Charter Schools" forum, the thread is titled, "DCPS Teacher Side Job- Should We Report It?" It's not the thread that I really want to discuss, but instead the poster. The original poster is a troll and the thread is likely a complete work of imagination. I have mixed feelings about writing about trolls. On the one hand, I enjoy exposing them and calling them out. On the other, the more attention I give them, probably the better they like it. Moreover, giving them exposure increases the perception that few of the threads on DCUM are authentic. In this case, I am letting my enthusiasm over exposing the troll get the better of me. The basis of this thread is that the original poster claims to have seen a teacher from her daughter's elementary school working as a server in a strip club and wants to report the teacher to the school. Within a few posts, the original poster replies to herself in the guise of a third party suggesting that the teacher might also be a drug user. The original poster posts incessantly, rarely identifying herself as the original poster, and constantly throws fuel on the fire. For instance, in one post, the original poster suggests the teacher might also be a prostitute. True to form, the original poster even denies that she is a troll. In one post, the original poster writes, "I am not a teacher". This will become more interesting later. In another sock puppeted post, the original poster says, "I wish I knew which school this teacher worked at" which, of course, the original poster should know given its her daughter's school. She later writes, "My advice to the OP is to go ahead and notify the principal." It is fairly rare to see such blatant sock puppeting. I locked this thread, but within minutes discovered that the same poster had been participating in a thread titled, "Removal of Eaton Principal Steven Eskay". In that thread, the poster posed as a teacher who had been bullied into signing a petition criticizing Eaton's principal. In one post she wrote, "I’m a teacher at Eaton and I enjoy working with Principal Eskay." Remember that the poster had also claimed not to be a teacher. At any rate, the poster replied to her own post saying "I agree!" This pattern of posting and then replying to the post continued for several pages. I couldn't find many threads that this poster started, but I did see that the poster started one thread claiming to be inbounds for Bancroft Elementary School and the very next day started another thread claiming to be inbounds for Hearst Elementary School. The poster didn't appear to have a 2nd grade daughter in either case. In another thread that this poster started titled, "How Many New Schools Does DCPS Need to Add?", the poster spends a lot of time calling residents of NorthWest DC "racists" and then agreeing with herself. I simply deleted that thread. I am baffled that someone would devote energy to this sort of behavior. What is the poster hoping to get out of it? Is her life that devoid of drama that she needs to create it on DCUM? Poor woman, if so. But, I want to conclude with a warning to trolls and sock puppets. Anonymous posting became a tradition on DCUM because we wanted posters to be able to discuss personal topics such as their children in a safe manner. Of course, anonymous posting can easily be abused. But, when you do so, you lose any expectation of privacy. If you engage in trolling or sock puppeting, I will have no hesitation about exposing anything I can find out about you.