I agree completely...and completely disagree on one point:
"If only everyone's reasons for visiting online communities were simply to socialize." After 10 years of participating on numerous different online sites and venues, there is one thing of which I am absolutely positive: every single person who participates in online discussions has one thing in common. Each one of us is NOT getting our RDA of
satisfactory real-world interactions with other people, otherwise we wouldn't be online. No matter how *needy* or how *limited* each of our individual RDAs may be, if we
HAD met it for that day, we wouldn't log on. This has nothing to do with being a grumpy old man who yells, "Get off my lawn" to neighborhood kids nor does it have anything to do with needing to tend to your 72 cats because you're an old, dried-up hag whom no man wants. There are a million and one real (and imagined) reasons why one can legitimately NOT be getting enough
satsifactory real-world interactions with others: time constraints, geographical constraints, and physical constraints, just to name a few.
Realizing THAT fact goes a long way in understanding others - whether you like them or not, based on your own perceptions or what you've heard through the grapevine and embraced as Gospel.
Regardless of studied male/female online interactions, the fact still remains online "discussion" boards
are considered "social" sites; unless Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster have been fired or overthrown, those words
DO have generally-accepted connotations. Ergo, men and
women who engage in "social discussions" are obviously not doing anything wrong,
"whether we like it or not" (to quote a wise and revered man).

runk:
@Mercedes01
I'm glad you found a community during that extremely stressful time in your life, to find support and to help you keep your sanity. It is no accident that you
would have found
women with whom to share your experience...women are
still the primary care-givers for children, whether they be healthy or ill. It's understandable that years later, you would still find great comfort from other women, while online.
Also, it's interesting how often people misunderstand your Aussie humor and *judge* you by American/European standards; it's almost like some don't understand the internet doesn't recognize continental borders.
Almost *like*.

runk2: <--- Fukkit...I'm keeping all the beer for myself.
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P.S. Ahhhhh...I don't care when people go off the original topic. Some of you are thinking of my previous *wonderful* threads on various other sites which - regardless of the stated topic - were created for the sole purpose of containing others' attempted bashing of me throughout
others' threads. I'd only admonish others to stay on topic when they'd come to MY threads to bash
other people who were posting in MY threads.
ADHD be damned...I
insisted they stay focused on focusing ALL their angst and despair on just ONE person, at a time.