Why do people lie on forums?
Discussion
Every time someone starts a thread on PH announcing that they own, have just bought, or are thinking of buying a nice car, a large number of responses accuse them of lying. This annoys me, but to be honest a lot of the time those respondents may well be right.
We also have the "members who have dropped off the map" thread, which features multiple stories of people who were found to be lying in some way about who they were, or pretending to be several people.
When there is no obvious benefit, why do people lie on the internet?
I just don't get it.
What possible benefit is there in my trying to impress a bunch of people I will never meet?
We also have the "members who have dropped off the map" thread, which features multiple stories of people who were found to be lying in some way about who they were, or pretending to be several people.
When there is no obvious benefit, why do people lie on the internet?
I just don't get it.
What possible benefit is there in my trying to impress a bunch of people I will never meet?
Two reasons:
1. The self-satisfaction of "impressing" random people in order to accommodate for a lack of achievement and/or importance in their everyday life.
2. Because it's relatively difficult for the non-believers to prove 100% that the person is lying, meaning a lie can, in many circumstances, be perpetuated.
You do of course get the odd troll that's doing it for a laugh however that'll generally be obvious from the get-go, and usually slightly humorous.
1. The self-satisfaction of "impressing" random people in order to accommodate for a lack of achievement and/or importance in their everyday life.
2. Because it's relatively difficult for the non-believers to prove 100% that the person is lying, meaning a lie can, in many circumstances, be perpetuated.
You do of course get the odd troll that's doing it for a laugh however that'll generally be obvious from the get-go, and usually slightly humorous.
I knew a kid (AND THIS IS TRUE 
) who used to lie outrageously about things when we were about eight. His dad (who was in some kind of army desk job IIRC) was in the special forces and had been in Vietnam, he had a machine gun in his shed, etc.
These lies were guaranteed to impress a gullible eight year old audience, but they were clearly easy to prove to be untrue, so he gave it up fairly swiftly.
The connection I can't make on web forums is any obvious benefit to the liar.
) who used to lie outrageously about things when we were about eight. His dad (who was in some kind of army desk job IIRC) was in the special forces and had been in Vietnam, he had a machine gun in his shed, etc. These lies were guaranteed to impress a gullible eight year old audience, but they were clearly easy to prove to be untrue, so he gave it up fairly swiftly.
The connection I can't make on web forums is any obvious benefit to the liar.
For a while I thought I was the only person who worked with an "eleven-erife" - the type of person who would always have to go one better, whether it was true or not. We all knew them at school, but I thought people grew out of that.
Sadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
Sadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
What sometimes annoys me is when you ask for a recommendation for something and no matter how run of the mill or mundane the object is someone without fail will come along and start a response with "I got one of these..." and post a link to something that is ridiculously expensive in order to show off and say look at me look how rich I am.
I'm not jealous in the slightest
.
I'm not jealous in the slightest
.Isn't it about acting out a life more interesting than your own, like daydreaming you are a superhero or a spy or whatever. Obviously you won't get away with telling people you have superpowers on the internet but you can at least pretend to be a little bit better than you are.
You often hear people hinting at knowing secret stuff. They do that winky smiley to indicate they are in the know.
Think about how many posts there are on here though. It's not that often outright fantasists appear with wild stories is it really?
There are too many tenacious buggers with epic Internet skillz to get away with it for long I expect.
You often hear people hinting at knowing secret stuff. They do that winky smiley to indicate they are in the know.
Think about how many posts there are on here though. It's not that often outright fantasists appear with wild stories is it really?
There are too many tenacious buggers with epic Internet skillz to get away with it for long I expect.
S11Steve said:
For a while I thought I was the only person who worked with an "eleven-erife" - the type of person who would always have to go one better, whether it was true or not. We all knew them at school, but I thought people grew out of that.
Sadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
The curious thing is that these people have no idea that they are the object of ridicule. Sadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
S11Steve said:
For a while I thought I was the only person who worked with an "eleven-erife" - the type of person who would always have to go one better, whether it was true or not. We all knew them at school, but I thought people grew out of that.
Sadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
Ours was a Tommy Two sSadly not.
There is still someone I am loosely acquainted with who is privately known as Two-turd Tony. I've you've had one turd, he's had two.
ts. 
Not on the Internet, but reminds me of a lad that used to hang around with us twenty years ago. A real Tommy Two sts.
Three of us were talking about a twin-engine kart race we had coming up at the weekend - all of a sudden TTS butts in with 'Yeah, my mate used to race them, he was gonna be the UK champion - but he flipped his kart on the last lap...'.
Tosser.
ts. Three of us were talking about a twin-engine kart race we had coming up at the weekend - all of a sudden TTS butts in with 'Yeah, my mate used to race them, he was gonna be the UK champion - but he flipped his kart on the last lap...'.
Tosser.
Orchid1 said:
What sometimes annoys me is when you ask for a recommendation for something and no matter how run of the mill or mundane the object is someone without fail will come along and start a response with "I got one of these..." and post a link to something that is ridiculously expensive in order to show off and say look at me look how rich I am.
I'm not jealous in the slightest.
The boasting on here is now reaching epic proportions.I'm not jealous in the slightest
.Typically someone will announce they are going somewhere on holiday, pretending they want recommendations. Others post they've been there, often with helpful replies.
The OP then announces they've actually been there loads of times already. Then drops in loads of random boasting about how many other holidays they've been on and where they've eaten or what they bought in some jewellers etc. They're clearly not looking for any information at all, just an excuse to post about how much they spend on holidays. I can't imagine anyone is ever impressed by it.
All their posts are like this. Recommendations for top restaurants, advice on where to get a Rolex serviced, questions about carrying money in their Porsche. They never actually want the information, it's just telling others about their stuff. Nobody is impressed. If they get called on it. Other shallow people who also just come on here to image craft, start banging on about being jealous of success or being a socialist.
Social media brings out this kind of boorish braying in the worst way. check ins from first class lounges, 'look what I bought my wife' posts, 'ain't I a lucky guy look what my wife bought me!' etc.
The odd thing is these people are actively trying to make other people (their friends) jealous . What kind of person tries to make their friends feel bad about themselves. They need psychological help or a rewarding hobby or just shot in the face.
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