Why are there so many bad natured comments on here?

It's the nature of Internet anonymity. A person can be a "bad boy" (or girl) with impunity.

It's by no means exclusive to this board. Every discussion board I've been on (with anonymous participation) devolves in the same direction.

As a business decision--a decade or more ago?--the BrosJo chose not to require registration. I can't say that the meanspiritedness that's apparent here was *inevitable* but it was certainly very likely to occur, as on any other discussion board that operates similarly.

No doubt envy motivates some, but the simple ability to "bust things up" with impunity is surely at least as big a lure.

Websites have a symbiotic relationship with their trolls. The more outrage you can create, the more hits your website gets, the more money you make.

The same logic explains the current front page story.

I don’t think the answer is to leave LetsRun to its worst posters.

I don't get the trashing of runners. Anyone who was or knew a compet/pro athlete knows how much time/dedication/hardship goes into just getting there. I watch some of those OT races knowing that all of the runners dedicated years of their lives just to be on that track, yet we pretty much only focus on 3-4. And there are how many who never even got that far who also spent hrs each day for years just trying to get the OQT? We only see abt 10% of what goes on if that much, and the stuff we don't see includes injuries as well as financial and personal hardships that we have no idea of. So I pretty much refrain from trashing someone with enough passion to follow their dreams no matter how far it does or doesn't take them.

The sad thing is - you just know that the trolls are no life losers. That is why they spend so much time on the internet in the first place.

This forum used to be good about 15 years ago.

Rz75 wrote:

This forum used to be good about 15 years ago.

Hey, remember when Jack Daniels and Jim Spivey and Ruth Wysocki, et al., used to post? Some good stuff then.

But there's some good stuff now, too.

The mean spirited comments are a part of the revenue model.

This is just how online communities are. Without the consequences and limitations of real-life social interactions, individuals become more antisocial versions themselves in the same way that human stem cells are more likely to mutate and become cancerous when cultured separately from the immune cells that keep them in check. Letsrun's particular flavor of toxicity comes from the typical profile of a runner (middle/upper class, 20-40yo, white, male) but the same phenomenon happens in every online community.

Just treat it like entertainment. It's not real. Most of us aren't like this in real life because we'd have no friends if we were.

Because we are a bunch of losers and misfits. It cheers us up to watch other people fall. Gives us some hope that there are others on their way down.

You little nerds and your dumb dogs!

Get a job dorks!!! Ahhhhhh!!!👹👹

Your wives are fat too!! Ahhhh!!!

lll91l wrote:

Old hobby-joggers who never made the cut?

Yes, but the cut they didn't make was with their mother.

Rz75 wrote:

The sad thing is - you just know that the trolls are no life losers. That is why they spend so much time on the internet in the first place.

This forum used to be good about 15 years ago.

Rose colored glasses, this place hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 15 years. There has always been a lot of trolling, name calling, juvenile arguing.

It has gotten worse since the pandemic started, after all the schools got out a bunch of stupid kids that are too young to realize they're stupid flooded in.

Us old guys are pretty stupid as well, but we're at least smart enough to know we don't know everything.

Steiner Math wrote:

Rz75 wrote:

The sad thing is - you just know that the trolls are no life losers. That is why they spend so much time on the internet in the first place.

This forum used to be good about 15 years ago.

Rose colored glasses, this place hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 15 years. There has always been a lot of trolling, name calling, juvenile arguing.

It has gotten worse since the pandemic started, after all the schools got out a bunch of stupid kids that are too young to realize they're stupid flooded in.

Us old guys are pretty stupid as well, but we're at least smart enough to know we don't know everything.

What are you talking about I know everything