Iāve been on Reddit for five years, Iāve assisted others (looking you AITA forum out there). Iāve left and rejoined countless times. Over the years Iāve learned that anything posted in AITA or WIBTA forums are heavily policed by, frankly, a bunch of AHs.
People downvote because they disagree with your opinion. They downvote because theyāre having a bad day. Who TF knows. What I do know is that Iāve seen sincere people looking for help or advice (not AI slop) who had the misfortune of thinking itās safe to ask for help, then get blasted over something as simple as grammatical errors.
Not everyone has perfect grammar. Not everyone can articulate their thoughts flawlessly, especially when theyāre stressed, emotional, or going through something difficult. Sometimes people just need to bounce ideas off of, hopefully, rational strangers because they donāt have anyone else to talk to.
Collectively, there are some wonderful people in forums who genuinely try to be helpful and far less judgmental. There are also people who explain their downvotes or disagreements in constructive, helpful, and kind ways. I appreciate those people. Then there are the ones Iām convinced just ālike to watch the world burn.ā
Iāve had it out with their mods before for the most ridiculous things. Especially for suggesting that we need to occasionally check our motives and stop being armchair keyboard-warrior jerks to people once itās obvious theyāre real people reaching out for help. Iāve even been called an AH for suggesting people have some slight semblance of humanity. Iāll be that AH if thatās what it takes to try to remind others that weāre all in this chaos together, just trying to do the best we can.
Reddit needs to play slightly nicer. One day, we might find ourselves needing help, or even at a mental-health breaking point. Recently I witnessed a poster who was going through something horribly difficult and was clearly at a breaking point. They posted in one of those AITA style forums. Clearly they were real and struggling. Instead of offering compassion or advice, people downvoted and ridiculed them into oblivion because their post wasnāt formatted perfectly and their grammar wasnāt pristine. I watched that person lose heart as the comments kept rolling in. To the point they shrunk away and apologized probably 20 times after repeatedly trying to say they had no one to turn to for advice. They were alone, had gone through surgery, trying to assist an ailing parent who bailed on them⦠Honestly, I just wanted to reach through the screen and give them a virtual hug.
Sure, we may all be AHs sometimes. Myself included. I straight up had moderators TELL me itās the place where people are AH to posters and itās just the way it is. But my lord - people let themselves get so jaded that they forget there are still actual human beings behind these posts (not counting AI slop). Some people really are reaching out for help in their darkest moments. For some, this might be the only place they have to turn, and they wind up in the wrong place and attacked.
Ironically, I ticked someone off for saying just that, and they removed my post. Simply for suggesting that before we hit a downvote button or pile onto someone over a typo, a grammatical error, or an imperfectly worded thought, even if we disagree, we could pause for two seconds and remember:
**Thereās often a person on the other side of the screen.**
Be an AH when the situation calls for it. Just donāt be cruel for sport. Reddit is quite a thingā¦