How can I tell when a post is serious or not???

[ElizabethJane]

Recently there have been some threads on nmp that are a joke. They seem to start off as a serious thread but obviously they are are a joke if you take the trouble to read them. I have great difficulty deciding whether a post is a joke or is 'serious'. I dont want to offend the posters but it would be helpful to me if they made this plain at the beginning of the post. If I am having difficulty then newbies must be finding this too. I want to reply to a post but then I realise that is is a joke I feel cheated. Thanks EJ.

[diane07]

Hi EJ,

can you pm me with the post you are referring to and i can help you out.

di xx

[ElizabethJane]

Done thanks

[nomorepanic]

Most of the joke ones should be in the panic/pause humour forum so you can tell from which forum the post is in.

[SueBee]

Hi Elisabeth,

I know you reply to a lot of posts on here and from what I've seen, your advice and support come from your heart.

I'd say, if you do reply to a post only to find out later it is a joke, its no reflection on you and maybe it should be made clear that the post is in jest to begin with.

Sue xx

[Going home]

Do you mean some threads deteriorate a bit and go from a serious question first asked into a bit of a free-for-all a few pages in, with a few members taking them over and turning them into something completely different? I suppose this can put people off answering the origional question, since the question has actually got a bit lost!

Anna xx

[KK77]

I'm sorry but I don't get what the fuss is about.

Is this why my Complaints thread has been moved? My thread is a mixture of humour, jokes and serious posts too, that's why I put it in Misc. Mart Barr's cit thread has jokes in it too - maybe that should be moved as well?

I think it's petty. We can have a joke on any thread - it's not restricted to particular forums.

[Going home]

Oh, sorry..I didn't realise there might be something specific that's happened or that there were issues going on? I was just answering as a 'generally speaking' kind of thing...

Anna xx

[ElizabethJane]

Yes Mel is is that. It was getting exclusive. Sometimes I just cant tell whether it is serious or not. It must be hard for the newbies as well.

[Maj]

I've got to be honest and say that the "complaints" thread was really making me laugh and cheering me up. It was really funny at times. I don't find it offensive in the least. There have been other threads which were supposed to be serious that I have found offensive. We're just all different
Myra x