I would like opinions and advice please. I post on another online forum with very lax moderation. I an not going to name it, but let's say the purpose is to help posters with a common problem with gardening or plant issues. (not really)
People will post about problem plants, or if they need a professional to help maintain their yard, our some just have house plants with problems. Often posters also mention personal problems that affect this, for example someone has a death in family so they are too upset to garden, or they have chronic health issue that makes it hard to keep up watering plants. Many other posters will give sympathy and encouragement to the poster sharing personal problems.
The problem I notice is that once in a great while there will be a poster who is usually new, and ends up sharing about one personal problem after another, and then just piles on the bad things happening to them to the point it seems very exaggerated and inconsistent to the point that I wonder is this someone who is just desiring attention, or do they need mental health help, or are they for real, or are they posting mode and more outrageous things to see how far they can go? A message to mods is usually ignored unless poster is posting incorrect gardening info.
Is it worth it to send pm to poster to ask about some inconsistencies, or is it best to simply ignore the poster and their threads? The poster is not asking for anything more from others than sympathy, so whether it is true or exaggerated, it is not really hurting anyone.
Here is a fictional example. Poster will say initially they have problem being a widow, and were sick, and couldn't tend their yard, so now they get visit from officials. Poster will get suggestions on what to do, and encouragement. Then quickly they share that cat died, and neighbors are mean, and their houseplants have mildew, and they have horticulture degree but got fired when they were sick, and then discover they have poisonous vines in the backyard, you get the idea. The poster responds to practical gardening suggestions with a litany of fresh disaster, then disappear for a while with posters who encouraged them wondering what happened.
I have so far ignored when the inconsistency became obvious. But I have been wondering, is their any value in sending a pm or otherwise confronting someone about obvious inconsistencies or exaggerations? Would anyone ever confess if they had been embellishing their tale of woe?
Advice and opinions would be appreciated.