Remember to Stay Kind.

[Artichoke Lover]

I was surprised when I joined about a month ago at the amount of people on here who answer rudely when someone asks a question. It's hard to tell tone online though, so people misunderstand both ways.

I see this too. It’s unintentional most of the time but tone just doesn’t carry across text. I’m guilty of this I’m naturally blunt with words and irl it’s tempered by my tone and expressions but those don’t carry across text at all so I have to be careful to give extra thought to my words online. I’m also guilty of getting frustrated when I come across the 3rd person of the day who can’t figure out what’s wrong with their day old chick when they’ve been feeding it nothing but iceberg lettuce. When that happens sometimes I just have to step back and let someone else answer because I know I’m not capable of being kind in that moment.

 

[sdm111]

There's also a search feature that can be utilized that can be used first that will more than likely answer the questions new people have. Like the bazillion new posts about what chick is this. Alot of the new posts are the same question. What's this. There are some legitimate questions but most can be answered via search. Matter of fact search isn't needed they can just check the new posts 70% of the posts there are probably going to be the same question they are about to ask.

 

[Isadora]

I see this too. It’s unintentional most of the time but tone just doesn’t carry across text. I’m guilty of this I’m naturally blunt with words and irl it’s tempered by my tone and expressions but those don’t carry across text at all so I have to be careful to give extra thought to my words online. I’m also guilty of getting frustrated when I come across the 3rd person of the day who can’t figure out what’s wrong with their day old chick when they’ve been feeding it nothing but iceberg lettuce. When that happens sometimes I just have to step back and let someone else answer because I know I’m not capable of being kind in that moment.

I think part of the reason why it surprised me was because I naively thought, "This is a chicken forum!" meaning, it's seemingly a pretty innocent topic. I failed to realize initially that when there's people involved, things happen. Doesn't really matter what the subject is about.
It's neat that you're able to realize if you're a little too heated and can step back and wait for someone else to answer. A lot of people don't have that self-control.

 

[DogAndCat36]

Yeah, there have been some hostile people that I've seen.
Heck, yesterday there were two threads that were not all too kind. Even with some of the old accounts being a bit bitter.
I am a teen, and because of this, I have little control over my chickens' husbandry. Even sometimes when I tell people this, they still judge and harass me over things that I can not fix. Even though I do reach out and try to fix things that are in my power, some people still look at the things that I can't fix. (I am not happy about my chickens' diet of cracked corn either) There have honestly been times that I have been tempted to leave but there are also so many lovely people here.
There is also one more thing that I also want to say, some people might lash out because of a misunderstanding, or maybe they dealt with similar problems and really wanted to drive home a thought. I did this once on a thread where I recommended op to free roam their rabbit in the house or at least a room. This one person popped in and try to rebuttal why hutches are good and it lead to me getting hostile. I had good intentions, I wanted to help a living being thrive, not survive. Close to the end of the conversation, I got too hostile and accidentally chased the person away. I regret it.