It never occurred to me to even try to associate a specific comment with a specific poster. In fact, like when the yellow pages comes out, my first reaction was to look for mine.
Those people are also assholes.
Meh. I’m not remotely ashamed of what I said. I’d have said the same thing in public. I was merely highlighting an assumption about the anonymity of the responses that wasn’t, in my view, all that solid.
That was mine. In my defence, I’m the worst possible person to confide in.
I cannot be the only person yearning to know who the sooper-dooper-famous wordgame aficionado Doper pretending to be an “average Joe” amidst all the rando civilian nobodies is. Right?
I got punked by this because it’s happened for real several times.
That and I also don’t know what day it is, ever. The fascination with April 1st eludes me.
I read that as counter prank, but who knows?
Yeah, this one doesn’t do it for me.
It’s one thing to pull a prank that tugs at people’s baser instincts for the lulz. One year when we were kids, two guys put a luscious-looking cupcake tied to a string on a lunch table and pulled it away every time someone went to grab it, and I don’t care that they totally got me and I don’t care that I’m a grownup now, I still think that was funny.
But this was a prank based on manipulating people’s *nice *instincts - the instinct to support someone who’s having a hard time and feeling guilty and confused - for personal entertainment, and then holding them up for public entertainment. That’s a crappy little thing to do. Not the end of the world, but ‘HAHAHA you tried to be kind to someone SUCKA!!!’ is never a good look.
I didn’t get one, so maybe I’m just jealous.
On the other hand, this:
is lovely.
Yup. There is absolutely nothing in mine that could possibly identify me, either.
(I don’t care, for the record.)
Possibly the best joke I’ve *ever *read on the internet.
11/10, props.
I don’t get it. Help.
It was a quip on this endless Pit thread. I didn’t get it the first time either, but it’s really clever.
Bolding mine.
This part is what I don’t get. If he’d said he was transgendered and coming out, then yeah. But just to say he’s been pretending to be a guy when he’s a girl doesn’t necessarily mean any of that’s attached. A lot of people pretend to be the opposite gender online for various reasons. So, I’m not sure why all the support was called for in the first place.
“I thought you were a dude, but you’re really a chick? Okay, no problem.”
It truly translates into zilch because nothing was at stake to begin with. He wasn’t catfishing folks. Good grief.
And back in the day when the Internet was still young, I had a friend who initially put forth some pictures that were purportedly of himself that everyone in our circle believed. Years later when he was about to meet one in our group in person, he came clean. He’s been worried we wouldn’t think as highly of him if we saw him as ugly (sadly, which is how he saw himself), so he substituted ones of a guy he worked with. Now, there was some deep, meaningful, personal involvement there with lots of opportunity for people to get their feelings hurt. Yet what happened? Everyone understood, amazingly, and realized that to be part of the ‘internet community’ at large, you gotta have a thicker skin than all that, roll with the punches (especially when bumping up against others’ baggage and what not) and not take everything so damned seriously.
Heeheeee!! Thank you - now I can stop feeling like the internet’s biggest idiot 
Well, because the original PM said that ‘she’ was feeling ‘guilty’ and felt like this was some big secret ‘she’ couldn’t reveal to anyone.
Again, I don’t see it as some huge big deal. Just a crappy little thing to do.
Yeah, but that was a totally different thing. Your friend was genuinely insecure and trying to protect himself from rejection. He wasn’t taking advantage of people’s nice instincts for his personal lulz - which is the part I don’t like, not the untruth per se.
Well I don’t mind having been nice for five minutes in vain. It’s better than being made angry or sad or anxious, for example.
@ Idle Thoughts
Just don’t post the ones where the person is all “you’re a girl? I’ve had the biggest crush on you forevers, now we can be together!”
Because that definitely didn’t happen in the response I sent Idle. 
I guess that could’ve been read multiple ways, but I can see on the tiniest level how that may have caused the slightest pause. But all this? [Not you personally, but the calling for his head or something.] is totally disproportionate to even what you describe above. It’s just bizarre.
Understood. But the reason I brought it up was those folks had many years and lots of emotional involvement invested in which to feel betrayed and yet, the response didn’t echo this to about 1/100th percent. There was no hue and cry, no outrage, no shunning or throwing over of friendships. People got it. In his case, yes, it was insecurity and fear and everyone was totally forgiving. In this one, once it was cottoned to that it was APRIL 1ST, you think the normal thing to do (if you disapproved) would be, “Eh, probably lame, but you got me. Har har.” End of discussion. Not calling for the ridiculous things some have been bandying about.
We really don’t need rape jokes here.
Quote:
I already thought you were female, but I have no idea why I thought so.
Have you told your parents? How did the conversation go?
No matter what, I’m here, and I want to be supportive. So don’t worry -** I’m told people are born with your condition,** and that it is not a choice. Many of them go on to lead happy and productive lives
(my bolding)
