Why Do People Misrepresent Themselves on City Data Forums?

[Fiona8484]

As someone who recently moved across the country, I don't find it strange to see people ask about school districts on here. Heck, if I was putting kids into a school on the other side of the country I would be curious about what the locals think about the schools, but I would also research through government sites.

[arleigh]

Really , you would expect the truth from a government site ?

[believe007]

Originally Posted by nickthap

Hi there,

I've recently become sort of obsessed with the "moving to [insert city here]" City-Data Forum postings. It strikes me that a large percentage of postings (and by that I mean original postings) are bogus. That is, many of these postings seem like the original poster is either misrepresenting their reality pretty significantly (how much money they make, their situation requiring them to move, etc.) or completely.

So, my question is, if my assumption is correct, why are they doing it? Fantasy role-playing? Boredom? Are they psychotic?

Another question is, why do so many people respond to what seem to be obviously bogus postings?

Lmfao....believe none of what you hear & only half of what you see......

That's the general rule I use around here......

[UplandsAiry]

Originally Posted by Pruzhany

FWIW

On this line of thought, we've found many of these posters to be kids.

Wow! That's so weird! (Actually maybe it makes perfect sense )

Originally Posted by Robert20170

Welcome to the Internet.

^So true. It's probably like this on any sort of forum... I hope the mix of people really wanting to find out/share information or "browse" different places at least balances out the people who feel they need to vent or want to get negative reactions out of people.

I always look up forums or websites about the next place I'm moving to. In my experience a Realtor will always paint things in a positive light but taking everything with a grain of salt the internet can often give hints of a more realistic picture.

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

I think some people get a thrill out of arguing on a forum or pretending they are someone they are not. Who knows? Frankly I don't care.

That's probably the best attitude to have. I still find it weirdly fascinating. A thrill from purposely wanting to start an argument or troll...

Maybe the act of sitting down at a computer and typing, without real life consequences and without looking at someone face to face makes it a little like a game or a place to procrastinate.

Originally Posted by TheShadow

The posts that irk me are the ones in which the OP states a problem and asks for people's opinion or advice and then when all the sensible advice tells them they are in the wrong, they argue and get snotty that everyone doesn't agree with the way they dealt with their problem. They are just looking for support I guess, because their RL friends tell them they are wrong and they want a "second opinion".

And then they might just really be seeking affirmation of what they already think.

[baileyvpotter]

Originally Posted by Mnseca

I think most people have real questions, but misrepresent themselves in order to protect their privacy. For example, maybe they don't want to tell their real job or their real home city or whatever. I don't see anything wrong with that - we have to take some precautions to protect our privacy on the internet, and not posting accurate details of our lives is one way to do that. I always change details, but try to still make it so that the answers I get will be applicable to the real situation.

Originally Posted by likeimglowinginthedark

A need to impress/or a need for attention.

Originally Posted by Garthur

These same people will boast of huge incomes and wealth.
What I have learned from this is that there are very few honest posters and honest people that I know from my personal life. Because of this I have cut way back on posting on any forum. I pick and chose what posters I read.

In my short time on CD and the few forums that I read and post on, I have come across people who
either contradict themselves, give too much information and details about themselves as a way
to get attention and then post their real identity. This just baffles me since some of the things they
say are skeletons in their closet. Also, love the ones who also go in detail how much money they have
and then I see on another post how they are "poor mouthing" about small things.

[HighFlyingBird]

When considering a move, some people are able to consider several places...so they might post in several forums asking similar questions.

Better question...why do so many people on C-D think people are writing fake posts for attention? I'd call that projection

[iowa4430]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I have seen cases where a person puts up the almost identical post in 5-6 different cities. They are obviously not going to move to all of them at the same time so it's obviously fake, probably just to get some small amount of attention that is lacking in their life from the responses. Just like the person that is obsessed with starting new threads over and over about the poor financial state of Stockton, CA, or the one that keeps starting new threads asking about jobs that have a lot of down time. You really have no way to know whether someone is misrepresenting their income, however.

Can't speak for others but years ago I was in line for a promotion with the company I was working for. The promotion was nearly voluntary, to a degree, as to where I could move. There were multiple "territories" within each state to choose from and you could basically live within just about any area within that territory.

Needless to say, there were an abundance of options to pick frm.

I really only was serious about the midwest but could have easily picked the south or south east.

So, looking at let's say the midwest:

Minneapolis
Chicago
Omaha
Kansas City
St Louis

I might have posted something in surrounding areas of each of those. That leaves quite a bit of ground to cover and options to consider.


If I would have wanted to open it up to the SE, then it is even more confusing. I might have picked 3 or 4 other areas and posted various places.


The bottom line is, there are many reasons why people do things they do. I would like to imagine that most are doing it out of honest necessity.

Even if they are just curious.....Who really cares?

[reganon]

Oh, come on. You really can't think of reasons people misrepresent themselves?

1. To win an argument. Person A cites facts. Person B says, "No, I'm right because I'm a Fortune 500 CEO." You could populate a small country with the number of so-called Ivy League professors and multi-millionaires arguing on the internet.

2. To get information without a load of crap. So many people come on C-D to find out the best towns with the best school districts, but then half of the replies concern troll them about their budget. Sometimes I'm guessing people just say, "budget $1.5 million" for the sake of shutting that down.

3. Most Americans are "embarrassed millionaires." In other words, we're all planning for our future lives as wealthy movie stars, business owners, and lottery winners. Reality is less important.

4. As other people have said, to obscure identity.

5. To stroke their own ego/increase their reputation on the forum. People in general want to be treated with special status. On the internet, their story can be whatever they think it should be. Went to Boston College? Might as well round up and pretend to have gone to Harvard. Pretty and skinny in 1997 but now resemble Rosie O'Donnell? Regale the board with tales of how men just won't leave you alone.

All that said, I do think most posts are pretty accurate. For every instance of misrepresentation, there's at least one of bragging to strangers.

[495neighbor]

Some posters find anonymous forums a good way to test the waters for what they might want to say or do IRL.

[mostlysunny1]

Passive aggression, nuts or why some people are selective about company they keep... : )