Downright rude threads!

**Miss Z** · 12-16-2006, 03:25 AM

I haven't been around on PT for a while so thankfully I think I've missed most of these arguments. I know in the past I've been involved in the odd one or two, but I really do try my best to steer well clear of the threads in question.

I understand the whole 'adults vs teens' prospective that some people have, but to be honest, I don't see it happening. Used to, in the first few months of my joining of this forum, but not any more. Now either I am blind and living on cloud nine or there's a lot more mutual respect on PT now.

One of the main reasons I generally keep out of arguments is that, strictly speaking, I do not know these people on a personal level. Of course, there are some people on here that I pm or chat to often and have become very friendly with them, and I'm sure that's the case with most people here, and other people that I do not know quite so well. However, having never met any of those people face to face, I do not have the right to have a full-blown rampage at them based purely on what they have written on a friendly site. Surely I can disagree and say what I think about a subject, but I don't need snide comments or teeth and claws to back up my point of view. Everyone here should know better than that.

**Rachel** · 12-16-2006, 07:41 AM

I don't know that I can add anything to what has already been posted here, other than when I occasionally read a thread that has turned heated over something seemingly petty, I try to read it over again to see what was so offensive to begin with. Sometimes I just don't see anything to take offense at. While I agree wholeheartedly that one shouldn't be rude, the other side of that coin is one shouldn't be so thin skinned that they look for insults when they just aren't there.

Then too I have a caveat on the *If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.* Some threads are seemingly a call for help or advice for a life situation fraught with difficulty. If the only response is *something nice*, that isn't very helpful. I don't mean that one should make a rude or uncaring remark, but suggestions which might not be what the poster was looking for might just be the ones which (in the responder's opinion) could be helpful.

Many topics are those which are going to generate a wide range of opinions. Be prepared for that. Don't jump down people's throat for the least little thing which you consider a slight. Remember when you speak about other people on this board, you are essentially doing it behind their back yet in a way they will overhear. I have run up on threads criticizing others which I would have been mortified had the talk been about something I did.

Personally I think an apology goes a long way. If upon reflection, one statements have been an ill thought out reaction, a heart felt *I'm sorry* might be a way to handle that mistake.