In this post, I will be talking about an /r/IAmA post. One not usually seen, one that uses words some would contest the definition of:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a71pj/iama_murderer_ama/

“I am a murderer, ask me anything.”

In this post, the poster identifies as male - and from the little he has put on the site there is no point in contesting with this. I mention this merely because of the male need to advertise talent, bravery and all. Even in pretending, in telling stories are the men the heroes usually.

We start with a very, very frank description that introduces us to the rest, followed by a post that maybe tries to humanise him more and make us sympathetic. At this point, we have no idea of the situation and have not yet made up our mind over whether he ‘deserves’ gaol time or punishment.

Assessment of main points: the man that he is fighting with and will eventually ‘kill’ is a ‘moron’, and ‘probably drugged’. Adjectives used to — in my opinion — lower this villain to a point where the reader will agree that he is bad person. The fight sequence seems dubious, and has been called out my many to be faked, citing inconsistencies such as how the man could be so far away after just jumping and pushing him to the ground, and how the author could’ve stood in a well defined martial arts stance and punch a man who was apparently on the ground. More points include that bouncers would have done something about it if they came in straight after the guy fell to the ground, and that you do not check someone’s pulse by placing your hand on their neck like that (just because someone has no pulse, they are also not necessarily dead).

Quote from spmx:

No, the writing style reflects someone who is describing a story through imagination, rather than reflecting from memory. As in, the details tend to be from an observational perspective— it’s how we tend to picture things in our head, from a 3rd person view, the way movies are filmed. This is different from memory which is much more imbuned with emotion rather than judgement.

This is quite true. Close your eyes, and try to imagine going about your life. Now, are you an observer watching your body do these things, or are you looking through your own eyes? It is really hard to try and imagine yourself through your own eyes as you normally picture the situation at hand, seeing the environment and filling in the gaps. When you remember a dream, you remember what you did and what you observed rather than what happened. A good fiction writer can put you in the eyes of another, not merely let you set the scene out in your head.

Nitpicking details aside - if this is fake, why even post it? Reddit has a thriving community all of which lose a little bit of hope after reading a couple of ‘fake!’ comments that have valid thought out points in them that could be plausible. Perhaps the male need to show off? It is mentioned that this man got a ‘tough guy’ reputation which helped get him sex. Is this what he wants? An imaginary situation in which he comes off as victor and gets rewards from it while still trying to seem humble by atoning for his misdeed — a classic pattern.

The idea of karma-whoring is discounted, the user was only created to post it and self posts gain no karma - unless this user continues on with this account as a new start and uses this ‘fame’ to boost himself.

Reddit does not need fake posts, it needs real life posts to bring the outside world to some who do not view it often enough. There are enough people on the site so that fake posts need never come up. If people can stop lying for attention, perhaps the quality of the site will increase. The more fake posts which call to something someone does or did, the more the faith in the next valid post falls.

Don’t let reddit turn into a fortress of mistrust and cynicism. A little bit of scepticism is a good thing to have, but when you do not believe anything on the premise that it could be fake, therein lies your downfall to enjoy IAmA.