Are you too scared to post what you really think?

Yes that's true, I have worked in early years for 14 years and SEND for about 30, and some of the info posted on those topics is just not true. I sometimes dont have the energy to challenge.

Karmalady, my thoughts exactly.

Callistemon, I'm pleased you're back. I wasn't sure whether I'd missed something, being away now for a few weeks, but I had noticed you'd gone quiet. 💐

Of course, NotSpagetti, the correct facts are important. I think I meant more posters who check something from their favourite media source and take it as gospel, and post it as "fact". Or the posters who seem to know about all aspects of law, medicine, education, care homes, forces, etc. without ever having worked in the professions.
I'm careful to use expressions like, " my understanding is that .. ", or "I believe that .." if I contribute, not having thoroughly researched the facts on an area I know little about.

The main reason I often don’t post is because I feel there are so many posters who only want to have their own opinions heard, and obviously don’t read what anyone else has to say, so it would be rather a waste of time. I see so many instances where a comment or opinion could be followed up respectfully, thus leading to an interesting discussion, but, sadly, it often just means a ‘nippy’ reply.

Though, I do suspect, the person grumbling about fact checking had probably made a awildly inaccurate claim and been proved wrong.

The need to get facts right is why I so often give links to many statements I write and I try always to 2uote neutral and respected sources.

This is not referncing as if it was a university essay, as someone described it. It is fact checking in the way the BBC runs a fact checking group and so do most of the responsible news agencies.

I have paid absolutely no attention to that debate as I am utterly uninterested in the wealth our PMs or prospective PMs, I feel it is utterly pointless and divisive. However I have been aware of the soundbites. What did he say?

Doodledog and joseann - I know it was me who raised the idea of facts in this thread - but actually I do think they are important. Some things are more nuanced than one fact one truth but some things (like not having a flat earth) are surely facts?

There is a whole thread at the moment about Sunak and being deprived of Sky... we know it's a fact that he didn't actually say that.

I get very annoyed when people just follow the herd and don't check anything.

I should just walk on by...

I like people to say they believe x y z though abd be open to discussion. I may be mildly discombobulated that my idea about something was wrong but if I then check it and find it is - I have really discovered something new.
That can't be a bad thing.

This is all very intriguing.

I'm just wondering who all these people are that upset everybody 🤔

There are a couple of posters, not many, that I scroll past without reading.

Callistemon I noticed your absence and really missed you. So glad you’re back.
How dare anyone order you off the site. They have the problem, not you

I don’t post on Religion or Politics as I don’t have strong views on either, just my own, of no particular interest to others but I do roll my eyes at the pretentious ones and the whinging ones of which there are a few.
However I would never dream of commenting on them, they know who they are and maybe their sense of self needs that boost which people in RL see through .

I wouldn’t say I’m scared, but I know that some of the things I might well like to say would be upsetting, so I refrain.

Oh- welcome back Callistemon21 you were missed! I agree, someone might be having a really bad day and want to let of steam. You wouldn’t know because you can’t see their facial expressions. The other thing I often wondered, with a particular poster, was if they’d been hitting the boose and were normally a lovely person. Who knows ?

Then I thought

Must proof-read.

Oreo

Joseann

That's not right, Cornflower, you shouldn't leave a thread just because you see a certain name on it. That means they've won and you are left feeling deflated. But I do sort of understand.
There's a couple of names who make me roll my eyes, but no one currently makes me scared and upset.

Oh yeah!😄the eye roll🙄I do that a lot.So far haven’t seen anything scary or upsetting. We’re all different tho and don’t know what’s going on in posters lives.

An eye roll is a good idea.
Actually, a particularly nasty comment recently left me reeling, ordering me off the site 😯. It was from a new (abrasive) poster who seems to have calmed down a bit since then.

Then it thought - "this is her problem, not mine".

Of course, we never know the state of their mind either.

Curlywhirly

Yes, sadly I tend to shy away from very contentious threads. I'm not thick-skinned and would take any unkind comments to heart. There are some posters who I definitely wouldn't get involved with, as I find some of their comments are often rude and their arrogance can be breathtaking. Takes all sorts I know, but that kind of thread is not for me.

Well said! You put it better than I did! And I agree wholeheartedly! I would shy away from those sort of people in real life too!

Yes, sadly I tend to shy away from very contentious threads. I'm not thick-skinned and would take any unkind comments to heart. There are some posters who I definitely wouldn't get involved with, as I find some of their comments are often rude and their arrogance can be breathtaking. Takes all sorts I know, but that kind of thread is not for me.

Joseann

Interesting.
I think sometimes the real truth is so very hard to find, so unless posters have indepth knowledge on a specific topic, (and many do), we are all just dragging facts from Google or from supposedly reliable sources. And each of us will choose the facts or figures to suit our purpose! That's how it works.

Absolutely. As soon as someone starts insisting that they have ‘the facts’ I lose interest.

Joseann

That's not right, Cornflower, you shouldn't leave a thread just because you see a certain name on it. That means they've won and you are left feeling deflated. But I do sort of understand.
There's a couple of names who make me roll my eyes, but no one currently makes me scared and upset.

Oh yeah!😄the eye roll🙄I do that a lot.So far haven’t seen anything scary or upsetting. We’re all different tho and don’t know what’s going on in posters lives.

M0nica

i count myself among the opinionated. I have changed my name only once - and that was many years ago when someone I know personally away from GN sussed who I was. I went mute for a month or two and returned with a new name. Most people on GN quickly realised who it was had returned, which was fine and it dealt with the separate problem I had.

I find that thee are some people I seem to constantly disagree with, but even then, when they say something I agree with I will acknowledge it.

You had a good reason to name change, nothing wrong in that.
I changed my name on another forum as there was a poster who had a similar name to mine and others kept mixing us up.
In my 2 years on this forum there’s no name anything like Oreo so I should be ok.Unless there’s an Oregano I don’t know about.
Your last paragraph I agree with totally and I do the same.

I’d just skip those names, not worth bothering with or getting upset about really. I wish we had an ignore button as they did in a previous forum I was on. Then you don’t have to look at the nasty ones.

That's not right, Cornflower, you shouldn't leave a thread just because you see a certain name on it. That means they've won and you are left feeling deflated. But I do sort of understand.
There's a couple of names who make me roll my eyes, but no one currently makes me scared and upset.

karmalady

no not at all scared but I quickly learnt to keep my mouth zipped, when I realised that there were a few horrible, self-centred and self-important opinionated people on GN with nothing better to do than sit here all day and take people apart

Life is too short for all that. I am a positive person and will keep my thoughts to myself

I agree totally. I once read a post from an op who was trying to advise others of a scam she had been naively caught by and there were a couple of people who slammed into her in such an unkind way, nasty actually. I took note of those names , and have seen their nastiness appear since, so now, if those names appear, I leave the thread immediately. I wonder why they feel the need to be so cruel. And as this is an anonymous site, they have no idea of the mental health of the op. How would they feel if their nasty comment just pushed the op over the edge? Probably wouldn't care. And I'm not even talking about opinion threads but threads which decent people wouldn't even imagine there's anything nasty to be said, just advice or kind words. So yes, I rarely post on here because I'm scared, because we're not all tough and blasé- I feel hurt at unkind words and I can struggle with putting them out of my mind. Does that make me weak? Does it mean others think I should toughen up? Why? We're all different, why can't we accept others for what they are? There's far too much unkindness, criticism and intolerance these days.