One Bad Apple
Aug. 20th, 2004 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerThis really ticks me off. I am part of an internet list that has good conversation going. Everyone is swapping ideas and stories. There is almost a family feeling then one person joins and the list goes to pieces. This has happened more than once during my time on the internet.
There was one list that was devoted to an actor. For all I know it is still around in some form. There was attached a list where we wrote fan fic based on any of the characters he had played in his career. On the main list we also discussed what was going on with our lives and supported each other. One member found out that she had breast cancer and we gave her a safe place to vent her frustration with her body and doctors and the health care system. She came out of it with a clean bill of health and much relieved.
We had a new member who I will call “J” who joined the group. She had a laundry list of what was wrong with her life. She wasn’t breaking any “rules” so the moderators didn’t feel they could kick her out plus she had the ear of one of the mods. She joined the fiction list shortly thereafter. She posted some roaring Mary Sue stories. She was happy when she received positive comments but any attempt to give her any sort of what she thought was negative led to a whole boo hoo hoo you are a big meanie. The final straw for me was after I finished a story that had neither a happy or unhappy ending, she wrote that I needed to be more positive and why couldn’t I ever write a happy ending where my characters go off into the sunset with each other. She suggested that I might have mental problems I needed to deal with. I thanked her for the suggestions but said that she didn’t really know me so I would prefer she didn’t comment on my personal situation. Oh the tears and crying that went off on that list. I was such a meanie. I was hurting her feelings and on and on. I went off list to the moderators to get this resolved because I didn’t feel like clogging up the list with a problem I had with one member. One of the moderators told “J”. “J” then proceeded to post the whole mess on the list. I was then getting trashed on the list for being so mean to “J” and a whole new litany of faux pas I had apparently made in the past. Anyone who came in to defend me was promptly trashed too. Finally I had too much going on in my life and I dropped out of the lists because I decided that my life was more important than this one idiot and her cronies. Felt much better after I made the decision. I have gotten some e-mail from members of the list who miss my fiction.
Since then I have been much picker about the lists I join. I have dropped a number that don’t feel right to me or they go off into directions that I am no longer interested in. The groups I belong to now are fine for now. Most of them have moderators who have low BS tolerance and keep the lists on track. I have the utmost respect for moderators especially when the topics can be very volatile.
I am grateful for the internet even when it can be a pain in the rear.
There was one list that was devoted to an actor. For all I know it is still around in some form. There was attached a list where we wrote fan fic based on any of the characters he had played in his career. On the main list we also discussed what was going on with our lives and supported each other. One member found out that she had breast cancer and we gave her a safe place to vent her frustration with her body and doctors and the health care system. She came out of it with a clean bill of health and much relieved.
We had a new member who I will call “J” who joined the group. She had a laundry list of what was wrong with her life. She wasn’t breaking any “rules” so the moderators didn’t feel they could kick her out plus she had the ear of one of the mods. She joined the fiction list shortly thereafter. She posted some roaring Mary Sue stories. She was happy when she received positive comments but any attempt to give her any sort of what she thought was negative led to a whole boo hoo hoo you are a big meanie. The final straw for me was after I finished a story that had neither a happy or unhappy ending, she wrote that I needed to be more positive and why couldn’t I ever write a happy ending where my characters go off into the sunset with each other. She suggested that I might have mental problems I needed to deal with. I thanked her for the suggestions but said that she didn’t really know me so I would prefer she didn’t comment on my personal situation. Oh the tears and crying that went off on that list. I was such a meanie. I was hurting her feelings and on and on. I went off list to the moderators to get this resolved because I didn’t feel like clogging up the list with a problem I had with one member. One of the moderators told “J”. “J” then proceeded to post the whole mess on the list. I was then getting trashed on the list for being so mean to “J” and a whole new litany of faux pas I had apparently made in the past. Anyone who came in to defend me was promptly trashed too. Finally I had too much going on in my life and I dropped out of the lists because I decided that my life was more important than this one idiot and her cronies. Felt much better after I made the decision. I have gotten some e-mail from members of the list who miss my fiction.
Since then I have been much picker about the lists I join. I have dropped a number that don’t feel right to me or they go off into directions that I am no longer interested in. The groups I belong to now are fine for now. Most of them have moderators who have low BS tolerance and keep the lists on track. I have the utmost respect for moderators especially when the topics can be very volatile.
I am grateful for the internet even when it can be a pain in the rear.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 03:48 pm (UTC)I currently belong to one internet forum that has roughly 2,800 members. It causes some serious chaos when people side against each other. I really wish it didn't happen.