In my personal life when a person begins questioning me, I feel they have no right to get so intense and be so personal. I will end a conversation I find intrusive with no hesitation. If they do not understand why,I just think they have poor social skills.

I pretty much feel the same way actually. Especially if the said subject is none of the persons business i.e. something I feel is deeply personal / private to me. I hate 20 questions in real life. Especially if it's not light-hearted or/ based on just generalised topics. Interrogation is not cool people ;)

You don't back me in a corner and make me feel confronted 'cause then I unless some HULK on you lol

What I am saying is that in public we have the right to avoid contentious. creepy, arrogant, overly curious, rah de rah people. Here on mingle we also have the right to speak/post or not to speak/post

yep!

I don't think mingle means hunting season.

Huh!!!!!! since when?????

Don't make me squirt your head with my watergun Boone...you'll get all steamed up about it

How do you prefer to use these forums?

Do you participate in all different forums, or just specific ones?

Do you just chat with friends, or do you try to get to know new people?

Do you prefer to participate in discussions that go back and forth quite a bit and can be more serious, or do you like light hearted threads better?

Do you try to understand what people are saying, or take what they say without question?

I get into the 50' and Texas threads I'll look at Well Wishes now and then or click on recent post might follow someone to a thread.

Hehe I am a Midwesterner I'm a transplant

"Do you try to understand what people are saying, or take what they say without question?"

Many times I think people are making an opinion and there is really no need to take it further. By taking it further it is inviting an argument/debate environment that doesn't need to happen. In an open public forum there is a time to say stop because of the site's rules. The questions may fit a lot better if all were gathered in the same room talking but not in a forum atmosphere. I've noticed that when someone doesn't understand someone else in threads here many times it turns into a pointing of figures as if someone was right and someone was wrong. The problem with this is most times it is only a difference of opinion and should have never gotten to the point of blame.

When people get their figure of blame out they start to paint a picture for everyone to see knowing that the mods are going to step in and penalize someone for taking it too far. In those cases it is not the person making their opinion with the most reasonable answer that wins, it's the one that has manipulated things enough to make the other person noticeably mad.

Social sites are cool but I have noticed there are lines and boundaries that need to be followed as common courtesy in regard to the rules of forums. Some people on forums ask questions and others seem to come on forums to provoke responses that lead to an argument. Being aware of this it helps to discern if a question is more of a probe to bait and not really a question at all or is it a legitimate question. It's an open forum so it is easy to say I'm innocent in this, but in reality there is a dig just below the surface. It takes a while for a forum member to see this and when they do they need to make a decision whether or not to answer the question. Their thinking if I answer it I will be probed to the point of defending myself, if I don't answer it I will be accused of being something I'm not for all to see.

So for myself I'm learning to make an opinion and not so much a question that may lead to a thread being derailed into the realm of heated debate and blame casting.

Your right, I don't think forums members should bait people into getting mad.