I suppose some people might get disappointed if it turns out to be fiction, but I don’t see there being any real harm if it is. It’s not like those past frauds where somebody was playing out some story about a sick kid or asking for money or something, it’s just a sweet little love story. I’m a bit suspicious myself, but don’t see it as a big deal.
The truth be told some of my threads wouldn’t stand up in a court of law. No really. They’re not all 100% factual.
Some are pretty damn accurate, others are more like “this story is based on actual events,” like a Lifetime Movie. There’s some altering of events for simplicity’s sake.
It’s called “poetic license,” and it can fairly be used anytime you’re trying to report something so true that it doesn’t have to be completely real.
What Geobabe said. Even if it’s fiction, it’s not like he’s jerking us around in some way. I see no reason not to give him the benefit of the doubt. I do the same for other posters I’ve never met who use this forum to open up about their lives; why should I treat him any differently?
I don’t have any problem with the thread at all…I’m just worried about some of the people who are “living” through the thread…I wonder what their reaction will be if they ever learn it was a hoax.
I was slightly suspicios, until I got to the “we went to the beach and fell asleep in each other’s arms and a horse galloped by near the surf and woke her up blah blah blah” post.
See-through pj pants with no undies in school?
Hmmmm…
(I wonder if she’s as innocent as he thinks she is)
Fun to read though–I’m surprised someone who writes so well doesn’t know how to type. He sounds cute, and if he is making it up for attention, let’s give it to him anyway. If not, I hope his feelings arent’ hurt by reading this (it’s the Pit I know, I know)
We’ve dome this before:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=112907
It’s not because a bunch of good things have happened. It’s just that they’re too good, too perfect, too detailed, too unlikely, too well written, too stylised, too clichéd, too American. It’s fiction. All we’re missing is a soft-focus photograph for the cover and a bit of breathless blurb for the back.
If this guy proves to be an 18 year old European, whose first language is not even English, then I will be amazed beyond all description. Just reading it you get no indication whatsoever that this is someone not using their mother tongue. Minor things, like unusual syntax, normally shows through. But the ‘voice’ used here is 100% American, despite a number of attempts to distance himself from the US. But notably he can’t help using American plot devices; e.g. a ‘prom’.
I’m thinking an American, in his 30s, with the idea that he can write romantic fiction. He might even already be a moderately successful writer. I doubt he’s living in Europe. Either way, he’s having a bit of fun with the SDMB and I’m surprised that anyone has fallen for it.
But is it something to get worried about? A bit. Yeah, there is something creepy about a mature adult making up a story about two 18 year olds getting jiggy, pretending it’s real, and then getting an online crowd to egg him on. Even if it was real, it’s still creepy. Anyone care to guess what the object of his affections, were she real, would think about having her love-life documented in detail for everyone’s online enjoyment?
And I do recall others getting a really hard time here before for making stuff up.
Are these people incapable of worrying about themselves? Do you get worried about people who become engrossed in movies and TV shows?
I quit reading the date thread about halfway through. It could be real, it could be fiction, it could be somewhere in between. In the long run, it really doesn’t matter.
I’ve tried to read the PJ thread on several occassions and haven’t been able to get halfway through the OP 
No, I don’t have any vested emotional interest in protecting anyone here…having said that, I have an extreme dislike for people who lie and manipulate others to create a false identity and boost their own self-image.
I figured I coudn’t possible be the only person who had doubts, and I figured many of those who did would not start this topic for fear of upsetting board members who were in love with the story.
I really don’t care if anyone flames me for calling BS, at least those with doubts can now speak out.
Skewbald could be making it all up. So could every other poster who has ever started a thread sharing happiness or pain or confusion from their lives. Why assume people are lying until you have a reason? If the only way you could enjoy Skewbald’s thread is to know with certainty that it is 100% factually accurate, then this type of thread is not for you. To me it reads true – I was in a similar situation when I was a teenager. If he’s making it all up, he’s doing so very realistically, based on my own experience. I enjoy realistic stories about romance, true or not.
It is a great story. If it’s true, then he’s done many of us a favor by sharing the story with us. If it’s not true, then it all depends on his motives. If he’s making it up in order to trick us into believing it so he can make us look foolish, then yeah, he’s a jerk. Seems pretty unlikely to me. At worst, he’s embellished some details or added some wishful thinking. So what? He’s still shared a great story with us.
Posters should be presumed truthful until proven to be liars. It makes for a much nicer message board, in my opinion.
The thing is, when an 18 year old is in love, the girl, no matter what she is really like, will be described as “the ultimate fantasy girl”.
I read Scewbald’s response to some of the “challenges” to the validity of his age range and location. I didn’t find any of his responses unreasonable. Then again, I haven’t got enough invested in proving him wrong (or right) to worry about it much. One thing I will say though - with cable TV, the Internet, etc., we are all becoming a little more homogenous - picking up bits of culture from each other.
Also, regarding Scewbald knowing more about '80s culture than one would expect for an 18 year old: I can speak as a “late in life child” (my parents were old when they had me) - I have picked up a lot of expressions from a past era, thanks to my parents. A friend of mine (same age as me) is also a “late in life child”, and she still calls the refrigerater the “ice box”! I mean, to me, that is an OLD expression, yet this woman is not that old. It’s not inconcievable for a “younger” person to be aware of “older” bits of popular culture.
The problem is that it is difficult to “prove” anything to be a lie, as he will not give any details.
It is interesting to me that people who refuse to believe any new idea without extensive, exhausing proof fall for this head over heels…perhaps because it tugs at their heart strings, rather than their brain.
Try this on for size: I worked for 5 years in a secret government lab overseas testing captured alien spacecraft.
Who believes me? Do I need to offer proof?
Mostly I’d wonder why so much secret effort is being spent reverse-engineering such shoddy technology. I mean, for things that can travel through space and time in the blink of a probed anus, they seem to crash into the desert with almost superhuman regularity.
Oh, the thread. No opinion there.
Who cares? I mean, if this guy is telling the truth, and if we start grilling an 18 year old about details, aren’t we kind of being assholes? I mean, I’ve seen this go down before. Someone tells a personal antecdote (nothing earth shattering, mind) and someone else questions it. Not because there are huge gaping holes in their story, or because they are making some far-fetched claim, but - just because their “bullshit meter” went off. And usually, nothing good comes of it. The person who is accused of spreading BS is upset and hurt (because, it’s a message board - how can they PROVE some personal thing really happened to them?). And the person who does the accusing looks like an asshole to at least a portion of the board. Even if the person who told the tale is full of bullshit - how are you ever REALLY going to know?
It would be one thing if the person making a claim that was far-fetched (“I worked on the real-life X-Files”.) Or, if they claimed some personal experience, just to win a debate or argument (“I know for a fact that Clinton did this thing because I worked in the White House at the time”.) But that’s not what’s happening here. It’s just a tale - whether it’s true or not, we’ll probably never know. But no one is furthering bullshit scientific theories, no one is spreading gossip or lies, or advancing a political agenda, so I don’t see what the harm is.
I’m glad I’m not the only one…
Before I went on my biz trip I wanted to post something like this. It just seems too…too…too…well, you know, too X,Y & Z. I don’t buy it. There are just some minor things that scratch at the back of the brain that says that it is too good to be true.
Can any Mod check his IP address to see if he’s from northern Europe?
And as a person who has dated women from Norway, Sweden and Finland- who all studied English - and as someone married to an exceptional English-as-a-second language (better than the Scandinavians) speaker - this guy is a native. Sorry, but it is too perfect. My wife fools people regularly, but she still drops the occasional ‘the’ or ‘a’ or ‘an’ or switch word order around, which this guy didn’t. I’d be very surprised to meet someone who could best my wife in an English language contest who wasn’t a native. And this guy is almost flawless.
So, sorry to say it, but I can’t believe it. Nice story though.
-Tcat
So Spoofe, what happened? 
By the way, wouldn’t you be far more suspicious of someone who was eager to try to prove the validity of his story? A liar will try to prove he has nothing to hide by being forthright. Someone telling their own story knows it’s true, and has no need to make you believe it. Skewbald seems like he’s writing as much for his own sake as for any of us.
Thanks for the link…I never noticed this thread…
As for my BSmeter (on a scale of 100)
-The literary way it’s written (I’m unable to judge if it’s well written or not, just that it doesn’t sound “natural” but he could enjoy writing, of course) : 35
-The psychology/behavior of the girl (which is extremely remote from everything I ever experienced or noticed ) : 75
-The carefully organized “titillating/erotic” factor : 85
-The way too perfect love story and the “dream-girl” : 100
-The strong american feel of the story (the dates, the “modesty” thing, the prom, the speedo issue…) : 125
-Bathing at this time of the year in northern Europe : 130
-The galloping horse on the beach : 175
-The boat the boy happens to have access to, the secret island where he intend to go : 350
In other words, I don’t believe for an instant that this story is anything else than fantasy…
It took me several tries to open this thread in particular, and only after it was brought up under Opal’s ‘Hall of Fame’ threads a few days ago. It was impossible to open…must have been a logjam.
So I joined in on it very very late and was able to read about 65% of it. ( The boards being so slow and my ISP run on geriatric arthritic gerbils are the bane of my pathetic existance.)
My bullshit meter went off pretty early on because of the writing skills ( I missed the part of him being from Europe, so that just put eveyrthing in Defcon 5 for me.) and…well…after awhile it was (as someone else put it nicely) a letter to Penthouse.
It is an entertaining read and the entire time ( I haven’t gotten to the private island and horseback riding.) all I have is this vision that this girl looks like the girl in the Dorito commericals. I think someone is a talented writer, but for being factual, it probably goes as far as a crush on a girl in pajama pants.
It reads likes a John Hughes’ movie. Starring a young Anthony Michael Hall and the Dorito’s chick.
**Scyall ** You mean *Ewe Sluts * was not factually true? I am *shocked! * 
It does read like a story, but other than that I don’t see anything wrong with it. Well other than him being a foriegener who doesen’t use the metric system.