What is the community's view on the sad people who dedicate their spare time just to insult the questioner?

Question

Do you think they are just - very young? unworldly? geeks? people who have more time on there hands than a social life? Or something else? Big thank you to those who give considered or even funny answers but to the sads out there - it's so depressingly infantile. I know I will get a flurry of "you`re sooo gay" comments but I would love to know what the grown-ups think.

Answer 1

I've been called a He (look at my name and guess which sex I am)and dumb ***, just because another answerer didn't agree with me. On reading his answer it was obviously not a young person just a bigotted one. A bit more worrying than the childish insult from a young person!
I was also called a show-off for asking a serious health question. I made the mistake of putting that I was a size 8 and that was obviously where they stopped reading. Some people who use insults rarely read the full question. You can tell by the insult. To me that shows a lack of manners and probably education. These I can take in the knowledge that the insulter is young enough to grow out of it! Us grown-ups always read the full question, don't we? I don't react to insults (I'm too old to expect everyone to agree with me and far too old to even care what some person thinks) I'm very glad to hear young people also express disgust about insulting behaviour! These are the ones worth talking to, they can see the childishness of the behaviour, and are the ones who are alone and realise that they can answer truthfully so do.
Most of the time the young will do anything to be seen to fit in with the crowd! I'd bet most of the insults are written when 'friends' are around! The 'your'e sooo gay' type insults!

Answer 2

Good question Pete. I've never been insulted like that, although I have had completely irrelevant answers from the more infantile yahoo users so you could say I've had my intelligence insulted.

This really is a great forum for debate and I visit here every time I go on-line. Unfortunately, some people use this forum to portray their own brand of ascerbic "wit" with "hilarious" put downs and one-liners.

These people completely lack maturity, intelligence and/or character. There are alot of people on here who make my blood boil (Check out the religion and spirituality forum here) but these type of people at least have a modicum of intelligence that goes beyond phrases like "You're a retard" or "You're going to hell dude".

I've often thought how yahoo could only allow people 18 years or older here but there's always some idiot "grown up". They type their response, wait for a reaction and gleefully bask in the outrage/disgust/disbelief at their posts.

Most of them will never learn.

As to why do they do it?

I just don't know.

Answer 3

People riding inside a car feel that somehow they are as big as the car, and they feel safe, and so they can engage in rude and dangerous behavior they would not normally take part in. The car gives them anonymity.

Ditto a space like this. Especially for young people, who feel they have very little control over their lives - parents, teachers, coaches, older siblings, all telling them what to do - this becomes an arena where they are essentially anonymous, and they can say the most outrageous things without getting penalized. (or the Yahoo thought police might pull a question.)

They have anonymity and safety and so they vent. They experiment. They say outrageous things for the sake of saying them.

It's part of growing up. It's not always pleasant, it's often dumb - but making mistakes is how we learn, and this is how some of them are doing it.

This too will pass

Answer 4

I try to be honest in my simple way. I am not the most worldly or educated person. But I don't go out of my way to insult anyone. Also, some people are offended by the truth anyway.
Sometimes a silly question deserves a silly answer. Examples: "How often do you poop?" or "How many types of Gay men can you think of?".
And many of the people here are just looking for a laugh. I just wouldn't do it at someones expense.

Answer 5

First, thank you for the question, its a very sensitive issue.
I think the answer is most of what you suggested, plus the fact that the nature of the site is like a platform with all segments of society, gender, age, class, education...etc.
We all enjoy the openness of the Internet world , but on the other hand we suffer from the drawbacks such as hackers, spam, viruses,etc.
Regard those "infantile minds" like spams, and they wont bother you as much.

Answer 6

I think your fourth option (more time than social life) is probably closest in most cases...
plus I suspect that some imagine they *are* being funny or witty.

But equally there are questioners who ask apparently serious questions and then either jeer at the answerers who try to help, or pick a deliberately dimwit answer, or just abandon the question to the voters without a word. I'm new here, as you'll realise, but I would imagine that's as depressing as the insulting answerers.

Answer 7

Not sure why they do it - but i think it's a waste of time and space and spoils this site. it could be they are bored and think it wittty or fun to insult. Also they could do it to bolster their own sense of importance and worth - sad.
What really gets me is the amount of insults on the relligion and spirituality section - some people just don't want a debate or to answer - and others pose questions which are just looking for an insult.

Answer 8

Sometimes it is the other way round. I particularly despise those people who ask questions, and then use the additional comments facility to lecture those whose answers they don't agree with, frequently being abusive in the process. Clearly, they are not interested in the answers, only in trying to impose their views onto other people. Yahoo, should come down hard on this.

Answer 9

It's all right making funny or sarcastic answers occassionally - you are bound to get this. However, when someone asks a sensitive questions or sounds like they really need help and the answers are nasty - that annoys me. I always think god, if you are alone and are asking for help from strangers to help you out - you must really need good advice - not idiots upsetting you more.

Answer 10

I think people do that just to try to be funny or a smart a**. Most of the time when people do that they have no clue about the subject anyway..or they want to be mean cause to their sick dememted mind,it's funny to them.