MFP Bullying Needs to Stop

Over the last few weeks I've read a number of naive posts from people which have quite rightly been shot down - however the way in which the MFP community has done this has been, in my opinion, negative and in many cases borderline bullying.

I'm not going to talk specifics but I think it would be good if we could all be mindful of the following things

Not everyone on the site will have the same goals - most people join the site to loose weight but some people are here to track what they eat in order to stay healthy - I'm talking about maintainers, people who are training and want to hit specific macro 's (protein, carbs etc) and people who are trying to gain weight normally following physical or mental illness. Some people just want to loose (or gain) weight - others want to become super fit athletes or body builders. Some want to have the worlds healthiest diet - others want to simply reduce their calorie intake. Every single one of these objectives is legitimate and I don't believe any of us have a right to judge one objective to be better than another.

With this in mind - a sensitive poster will state their personal objectives at the start of a post before making a statement like 'should my fridge contain more lard' ... But lets be honest - not everyone is super sensitive...

When we see a post like this we shouldn't all rush in to tell this person they are an idiot... but ask probing questions like 'have you considered that most people on this site are not looking to increase their lard intake - perhaps you can share your objectives and how will eating more lard help you to achieve them'

The worst kind of response is where we pick up on an attribute of the poster and use this to belittle them rather than to meet their statements head on with a constructive and logical argument. For example making assumption on something in a profile picture and making comments about it, or picking up on spelling or grammar issues and using this to make people feel stupid. Come on people - that's not what this community is or should be about!


So - read this then go forth and be nice to each other I know its what you all do best