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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?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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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.
I would assume that they are trying to make serious comparisons of a variety of possible destinations that they are considering.
But I have yet to take the time to inspect people's posting histories. I have spent many an hour bored and responding to whatever on C-D but I have yet to get THAT bored.
I don't assume all "moving" posts are bogus, but many of them do seem to be at least partially solely based on the naivete of the posts. When you say you can buy a million dollar home, then it's almost a sure bet that your RE agent can furnish you with all the info you need. But it seems weird that you'd be asking complete strangers where to send your kids to school.
But it seems weird that you'd be asking complete strangers where to send your kids to school.
Isn't that the point of the local threads, though? Someone may very well be looking at applying to jobs in several different cities, and who better to ask about what the good neighborhoods are or what the culture is like than people who live there (rather than someone who's trying to sell you a house by any means necessary?)
There are lots of weird/creepy mentally unstable people on here. And yes, I too sometimes suspect that some of the "I'm moving to..." posts are just bogus.
I don't assume all "moving" posts are bogus, but many of them do seem to be at least partially solely based on the naivete of the posts. When you say you can buy a million dollar home, then it's almost a sure bet that your RE agent can furnish you with all the info you need. But it seems weird that you'd be asking complete strangers where to send your kids to school.
Maybe they want "boots on the ground" opinions, from people with no incentive (monetary or otherwise) to slant the truth?
I first got introduced to C-D asking questions prior to a move to Colorado Springs, thanks to the military. I knew we were coming here, but didn't know where to look for a home, what schools were good or bad, or anything. At one point I looked at a house listing online that looked really cool, and posted with questions about it, and one of the Mods of that forum (a really great guy) actually drove over and had a look at it. He was able to clue me in that there were a lot of issues apparent in person that weren't represented at all in the listing. I don't know if the other locality forums are as good or have such helpful posters, but the CoS ones are awesome. So much so, that later I was a little shocked at some of the rougher elements on some of the other boards.
But I digress. I don't feel that test scores or demographics alone are a great indicator of school quality, so I was happy to hear from real people who live here.
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.
I would definitely trust the opinion of the posters in the Dallas forum over any Dallas real estate agent any day of the week and 5 times on Sunday.
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