Would it help us to self-correct if we knew the ages of the querents who keep asking "Advice to the Lovelorn" and other repetitive questions?

Absolutely… I just assume High School. Part of me is really uncomfortable giving advice to High School drama. I try to avoid it now.

I agree with johnpowell. There are several different constituencies on Fluther and I have decided to keep my nose out of the many requests for advice by the younger members of the group. Especially since my comments don’t seem to be in synch with those given by the contemporaries of our youngest inquirers.
When I was in high school, I was not faced with the common problem of “woud U go out with the ex-boyfriend of yr boyfriend if yr boyfriend slept with yr girlfriend’s best friend out behind the football stands last night and told everyone about it on Facebook even tho the page was suposed to be privat and like what should I do aboutiti.??”.

Ah, youth. At 17 I was more worried about getting up the balls to actually CALL a girl much less figure out whom she had slept with and whether that was going to place me on the horns of a moral dilemma.

I have two teen-aged sons and I would be embarrassed to even ask them to comment on some of these situations and they would be shocked to find out that I was reading stuff like this and actually trying to give someone that young any advice. I am sure that if either of them were faced with this sort of conundrum they wouldn’t be coming to me for advice.

Who knows, maybe “youwantme235” or “hotguy32” is really AM or PM from sultry Wilmington NC and I have been anonymously advising my own “young’uns”?

Somehow I doubt it .

SRM

You can generally tell by the register of the language.

The basic problem is that there are only 3 or 4 situations, they keep recurring, and every teenager who winds up in one of these 3 or 4 situations is convinced he or she is the only one who’s ever experienced it.

The answers are—

1. Get over it. S/he has said that s/he is not interested.

1a. You’ve given him/her multiple hints and opportunities, none of which s/he has taken. S/he likes you as a friend; move on.

1b. You broke up for a reason. Move on.

2. We have no idea. We don’t know if s/he likes you, and the worst that can happen if you ask is that s/he says no.

3. No. Fooling around with your best friend’s bf or gf is de rigeur as an opera plot, and it never ends well. At best, the soprano gets a memorable death scene.

Now, what we need is a script that recognizes teen k3wlt0k and SMS-speak, and presents these set of answers. Lovelorn querents may then search for an answer to their question there, and find it—but they’ll no doubt remain convinced that their situation is like totally completely more unique than anyone else’s, and ask the question anyway.

@cwilber; like AMAZINLY awesome anser, dude? Tru facts, hahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@gai1 d00d3tt3! u r g3ttin the k3wlt0k n0w!