Monday's Most Active Threads

The two most active threads yesterday were ones that I have already discussed and will, therefore, skip. The first of those was the Gaza war thread which racked up nearly 700 new posts. The second was the thread about the murders in Fairfax. That was has turned into more of a discussion of au pairs and the family's income than the crime itself. The most active thread after those two was titled, "Student with Gun found at Walter Johnson" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. The original poster simply pasted the text of a message from Walter Johnson High School's principal which informed parents, students, and staff about an incident involving a gun that had occurred at the school. Apparently, one student informed school administration that another student was believed to have a gun. Police were called and, when the second student was searched, a gun was found. No information was found suggesting that there was any threat to the school or an intention to harm anyone. Nevertheless, the situation is being taken very seriously. To explain the responses in this thread, a little background is in order. In Montgomery County, there is a group of high schools, including Walter Johnson, that have the letter "W" in their names. A second group of schools are joined in a consortium called the Downcounty Consortium, or DCC. The "W" schools are frequently considered to be better and more prestigious whereas the DCC schools are stereotyped as having more problematic students and not being as academically strong. It is fairly common for posters who are believed to be associated with a "W" school to make derogatory comments about DCC schools. Posters supportive of DCC schools, in turn, have developed chips on their shoulders. This conflict was apparent in the very first response to the original poster in which a poster claimed that she has been chastised for sending her kid to a DCC school and, in light of this incident, the "W" school parents should rethink their "false sense of security and superiority". I wish someone had immediately reported this post so that I could have removed it. But, since that didn't happen, the thread largely devolved into a rehash of the "W" school vs DCC animosity. Intermixed among the airing of DCC grievances were a few posts injecting other hot button topics such as some posters' desire to have metal detectors installed at schools and continued anger over the removal of police officers, or School Resource Officers (SROs) as they are called, from schools. Every few pages there is a post about the incident itself, the main one being that the 17-year-old student will be charged as an adult. But, for the most part this thread is a fight between "W" school and DCC school partisans with a few posts — almost seeming to be off-topic — about the gun incident.

The next most active thread was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum and titled, "What is the obsession with UVA for out of staters?". The original poster wants to know why there is an obsession among those from out-of-state with the University of Virginia. She says that this obsession is especially common among those in Maryland. For some time now, the college forum has been inundated by threads and posts about UVA. It is almost impossible to start a thread about another school and not have it hijacked by UVA posts. As such, this thread was immediately thought to be a troll, something the original poster insists is not the case. But, posters are divided about the motive of the suspected troll. One group believes it is a case of a UVA supporter promoting the university — something that definitely happens in the forum with some regularity — while others suspect that the original poster is actually anti-UVA and attempting to generate criticism. I found no evidence that the original poster was trolling and I further suspect that even a thread that had a title that was nothing more than "UVA" would immediately attract both kinds of posts. So, in that regard, it doesn't really matter what motive the original poster might have or what was written in her post. The outcome would basically be the same. But, among the usual UVA promotion and bashing, there were a number of posts that addressed the actual topic. Posters said that UVA is small and highly-ranked which makes it competitive with private schools. Many praised its location and scenic campus, especially — as one poster mentioned — in comparison to the flat terrain of the midwest. Posters also mentioned strong relationships with some prominent high schools in certain states. UVA's strong and active alumni network was also cited as a reason for out-of-state interest. In spite of this confirmation of interest from those out-of-state, a significant number of posters denied that there was any such interest. In particular they denied that there is strong interest among those in Maryland. Some posters pointed out that UVA's student body is 70% in-state. As such, regardless of whether or not out-of-state interest is strong, there simply isn't room for many of them.

Third for today was a thread titled, "I love him but don’t like him. Feeling stuck." and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster explains that when she and her fiancé got engaged a little over a year ago, she moved into his DC condo. Because she didn't change her car's license plate, she has to move her car every few days to avoid tickets. Normally her fiancé does that but, yesterday, she tried to move the car herself. She was unsure where she could legally park and called him to help. This resulted in him getting angry and an argument starting. During the argument her fiancé also made a hurtful comment about her not having a job (she was recently laid off). The original poster adds that there were other issues and she feels like she simply doesn't like the guy anymore and suspects he doesn't like her. Despite all of this she loves him, doesn't want to leave him, and wouldn't want him to be with someone else. She concludes by saying she is confused about what to do. In the DCUM relationship forum, the answer for everything is "divorce" and the only thing preventing that advice offered is that the perception that the original poster is not married. Therefore, the first response is "dump him". That is essentially the same advice offered by every other post on the first page. In a surprise twist on the second page, the original poster revealed that they were, in fact, married and have been for nearly a year. At this point my trolldar went off with such intensity as to almost break the needle. I quickly checked the original poster's other posts in the thread and, not surprisingly, found considerable sock puppeting. The poster repeatedly replied as a third party, many times purporting to offer advice to herself. Acting as different posters, the original poster took both sides of the argument, at times supporting herself and at other times supporting her husband. In a particularly ironic post, the original poster — who had just spent 6 pages trolling — responded to another poster by calling that poster a troll. Needless to say, I locked the thread.

The last thread at which I'll look today is another one that I ended up locking, though I did that yesterday rather than today. The thread was posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum and titled, "Swift a cancer in NFL". This thread will require some background. I suspect that I will be the first to reveal to you that a somewhat obscure singer-songwriter by the name of Taylor Swift has apparently been dating an equally obscure NFL football player named Travis Kelce. Swift has attended Kelce's games and gained a certain amount of publicity which, I am led to believe by DCUM posts, was necessary to boost her otherwise flagging career. This has led to a certain amount of perturbation — or dare I say butt hurt — among some die hard football fans. Among those is the original poster of this thread who, apparently having never noticed one of the cheerleaders on the sidelines of NFL games, complains that Swift has been seen dancing in a miniskirt. Even worse, she has covered her mouth when Kelce got tackled. The original poster prophesies that the NFL will favor the Chiefs, Kelce's team, because Swift is driving viewership and apparel sales. His final criticism — that Swift is actually an Eagles fan — is one which I agree is unforgivable. The original poster concludes by repeating his title saying that Swift is a cancer and needs to go away. Many posters agree that the Swift-Kelce relationship has attracted many young viewers to the game. They, however, consider this a good thing. Others, regardless of whether they see Swift as being a positive or negative influence on football, think that the original poster is being overly dramatic and over the top. Quite a few posters point out that Swift is simply doing something extremely normal — attending her boyfriend's football game. Rather than blaming her, the critics should blame the media who is giving her so much attention. In contrast to the original poster, some posters believe that Swift is the best thing to ever happen to the NFL and has driven an entirely new fanbase to the sport. There was nothing terribly wrong with this thread but it was very similar to an existing thread about Swift and Kelce. Just as Swift has diehard fans, there is also a group who are very opposed to Taylor Swift threads and are put off when more than one is active. Including this thread, there were 4 active Taylor Swift threads on the first page of the entertainment forum. So, risking the wrath of Swifties, I locked this one.