Anecdotal evidence
From Love-shy.com wiki: A wiki for the dating-challenged
Anecdotal evidence, also termed as he-said-she-said, is a form of argumentation that uses a personal experience or observation as evidence for the proof of a point. Heavily used in forum environment, it can be helpful in describing the specific predicaments of an individual, but is generally fallacious when applied in a broader context.
Anecdotal evidence can be used to describe one's predicament in their locale with reasonable certainty. While personal biases such as confirmation bias can cloud perceptions, generally speaking, the predicaments a love-shy or incel claims to suffer are generally true, and usually at least partly due to the problems that he or she describes. Any criticisms of a person's recollection of events on a forum should therefore have the poster's locale taken into consideration, and they should be given the benefit of the doubt when making such claims.
Anecdotal evidence applied broadly, of course, can be fallacious due to the arguer lacking direct experience. This, compounded with the person's personal biases, makes their viewpoint of the difficulties faced in the dating world less and less plausible with distance from their locale. A common example of this is some North American posters describing Russia as a dating panacea, with the Russian posters begging to disagree.
Note on accusations thereof
If one makes implausible claims supported with anecdotal evidence, it is reasonable to accuse them of such, especially if they are describing nationwide or worldwide phenomena. However, this becomes less likely the more direct experience the poster has with the matter they are discussing. For instance, accusing someone of concocting a childhood abuse story to garner unwarranted sympathy, without any evidence that such is being done, is extremely rude and creates an unnecessarily hostile atmosphere. It is generally best to give the benefit of the doubt for direct personal experiences described.
