Comments on: 5 things people assume about others online

By: Bes

Bes — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:33:24 +0000

Thanks for the follow-up clarification Andrew. Good point; many people are usually not that considerate of other people’s views, and simply want to express what they have to say without factoring in other things too.

Thanks again; that helps add more value to your case example. Now if only we could have some series or a book dedicated to this topic, more people, including myself, could learn more on how to pinpoint and avoid such a behavior.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 05:20:44 +0000

Bes, I think that, just like the real world, people often spend their time thinking about what they want to write instead of taking on board other people’s comments. They are often quick to want to show that they are knowledgeable or clever and sometimes jump the gun.

That may be what happened in my example.

My assumption however was that this person thought he was smarter than he was.

By: Bes

Bes — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:39:22 +0000

Thanks Bloggrrl. :), that's awesome. To add more to that feeling, here you go:

By: Bloggrrl

Bloggrrl — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:59:45 +0000

Suddenly I am feeling very self-conscious about eating chocolate while reading this.

By: Bes

Bes — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:20:04 +0000

Simple Precious, that’s interesting; thanks for sharing. That’s a good thing that you do not assume things about people’s jobs. How about other things, like assuming levels of interaction, friendship or other related things, where someone may want to be good friends but someone may be assuming things as usual and treating everyone as an online contact instead of a friend? Or how about situations where someone you know far away, like in another city, state, country, or even continent, may get close, use and copy things from you only when they need you, then they become busy or move on, until they need something again, or until they find a replacement person to ask for help from? Can we assume things about such people?

Also, hmmm, which point are you referring to, that you think I wrote because of you? You can e-mail or pm me the point also.

Mark@CreditCards, thanks for your comment and for coming here. It seems that in the online world, an increasing number of people are still, in one form or another, aiming at customers that do not disagree with them right away, and thus many people become aggressive when things do not go their way instantly.

People generally do react and feel better when they are not being forced or coerced into making some kind of a decision. By the way, are you in sales in a credit card company? Do you approach customers and try to sell them credit card accounts?

Andrew, thanks for the comment and the examples; I really appreciate it. I think I have to write a post talking about some posts where commentors become aggressive simply because of the way they believe ideas and how they do not appreciate others.

I see a lot about what you mention about OS X, Linux and Windows on places like BetaNews, in some software or a story reviews section; someone will defend FireFox or IE very aggressively by insulting anyone who questions anything or points out something that may be bad.

Thanks for sharing the example about someone assuming things through your quoted comment. I am guessing majority of the people simply want to argue and never admit anything, and thus when they think they may be right, they simply go on the offensive, not knowing how to present things in the online world. I wonder how good such people are at treating and presenting things in the offline world, both in business and non-business situations.

Do you think that you assuming some things about that person. from the response he/she gave to your quoted comment. could be justified because you assumed things related to the way they reacted and behaved around your comment?

Thanks again.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:43:24 +0000

I tend to assume that people who come across very aggressively in comments are usually either poor communicators, i.e. they either don’t know that what they have said is very aggressive or don’t have the skills to properly frame an argument, or are simply not smart enough to see the other side of the story.

Of course there are other options but I’ve yet to see someone who was particularly aggressive in comments provide a well thought out response to any follow ups, or show any understanding that there is a world outside their own, usually very limited, experiences.

Good examples of all of these can be seen whenever anyone criticises OS X, Linux, or indeed Windows.

I have also found that people are very quick to assume they know what you are saying and correct you. One example from my own experience: I included a quote in a comment but admitted I didn’t know who had said it. The next comment was from someone telling me that I had meant to quote a particular person and that I had gotten the quote wrong. They then included that quote, which was the polar opposite of what my quote actually said, and of the point that I was making.

Of course I assumed a lot about that person from that response.

By: Mark@CreditCards

Mark@CreditCards — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 06:58:28 +0000

About aggressiveness, I think it’s starting to really turn people off these days. I’m in sales, and I find the soft, unassuming approach works so much better with people (probably because it’s sincere). People open themselves up when you aren’t threatening to them.

By: Simply Precious

Simply Precious — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:31:31 +0000

I agree with the 5 things people assume online. For me, though, I do not assume that when somebody doesn’t talk about their job, that they don’t have a job. That was something I’ve never thought of.

Hmm, I bet you wrote one of those things(I won’t mention which one) because of me, huh?