smartcookie, as always you are entitled to your opinion but then again so am I. After reading MP’s post on the other thread, this really DID get me thinking of what kind of foolish threads get started and why people would even consider posting to them and how they could really be a turn off to posters who seriously look at this website as someplace to go to for chizuk. So I don’t have to take it as people doing Teshuva by saying their mistakes. That is what l’havdiel the goyim do when they go to confession. As I said we are NOT like the goyim which is constantly pointed out here and that is NOT how we do Teshuva.
Mommamia, as far as laughing at escapades of our youth, in my humble opinion that would be posted on a thread titled “Would you like to share a funny story from your youth” instead of on a thread instigating a rambling of “meanness”. Even though the posters here are anonymous, their characters are pretty well known by their screen names and by their posts and positions. Now when they post something they will also be known as the poster who humiliated her friend in public, who hit her sister with a violin bow (sorry, just as an example) and other things that I didn’t force myself to read.
Many posters got caught up in the story telling and maybe did think like you did about getting it off their chest because they are anonymous, but then again once you post something it is out there on the internet and you forget that you still make an impression on those that you are talking to. We might not know you face to face, but we know you. You are the one that asked for help with one issue, the other poster is the one with another issue, a third gave great advice about something else and now they will be known by the meanness they displayed or some other thing that some OP thought it would be hilarious if they could get people to discuss or admit about themselves.
There is such a thing as having fun, telling jokes, and relaxing but being pulled into something that is really not that appropriate, even if it is NOT against halacha, is something that one should give a little more thought to. Just because a thread is opened that doesn’t mean that everyone has to jump and respond. Honestly, even if no one knows who you are, does anyone have the right to ask you this question? What about a thread that someone starts “How much do you weigh?” “How much money do you make?” “What was the last fight you had with your spouse?” People are curious about many things and they can start a thread about many things. Is it appropriate to ask these questions? Should people answer them? Why would someone even think about asking a question about “what was the meanest thing you ever did”? Doesn’t anyone else think there is something wrong with that? How about “What do you regret most this year” or “In which area are you concentrating most in doing Teshuva” wouldn’t that be more appropriate as a call to Teshuva than asking people about their “meanness”?
Maybe it bothers me more because of what I do, and because I know about “meanness” from victims first hand. And because I know how easily people can be manipulated into doing and saying things they normally wouldn’t. I don’t appreciate how people or posters have their fun by manipulating others into revealing things about themselves or instigating others to argue so they can sit back and enjoy the fight.
So we see things differently and that’s fine. From my perspective I believe that even though we are all anonymous on line, and even though some have figured out who others are, I believe that we still have to be careful not to discuss online what we wouldn’t normally be discussing around any other group of strangers. Just because we don’t know each other or can’t see each other we are still entitled to our privacy and we each have to respect that and not try to manipulate others. To me this was a “troll” poster and it was totally inappropriate. BTW, did the OP mention what the meanest thing s/he did?