posted
Okay, I'm new here, but I'm gonna chime in anyway.
I think that the source of a lot of conflicts on message boards is that posters tend to personalize them. We either post from home or work, places where we're comfortable, and when something happens which we don't like, it feels like an invasion. Sometimes people react strongly when they feel like they've been invaded. I don't know if that's the case here (or was the case here in the past) but I'm throwing it out there anyway as an explanation of message board behavior.
The best thing to do is to think of a message board as a park. There are a bunch of people there, and every so often something happens which gets everyone's attention, but for the most part there are a lot of private conversations going on. If you listen, you can hear them, and even join in. Mostly people zone them out and focus on their own conversation(s), but usually there are only a handful of people paying attention to a particular conversation at a time. It's all about focus.
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't expect to follow every thread on the board, I just pick and choose my spots. I expect to miss out on stuff. I expect some people to be on topic and some people to be off topic, and that's life. I have no more expectations of a message board being organized than I do of a park being organized because at the end of the day, people are people, and they're gonna do what they're gonna do anyway no matter how many rules are put in place.
Does that make sense?
-------------------- My powers are Legion!
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Grey, I appreciate your civil and frank sincerity. [Civil and Frank Sincerity - a nice couple, two kids, nice little green house over on Elm I believe.] I was uncertain quite how you would respond. Last night I did catch your posted apology of my Poll when I updated it with the closing notice.
I do admit that when I was at my worst with you at the DCMB it was probably the angriest and least restrained I have seen of anyone at DCMB. (Not excusing it at all, but I never saw the GL fights or that stuff with SK8Maven, so I can't compare those.) And considering it, it was probably the angriest I had or have been for a long time, certainly in that it was so sustained, as will as venomous. (I might make an exception to that regarding a few dunderhead editors.)
And it was at a clear higher level, well, let's say lower level then you were responding. That was somewhat the "point," the wrongheaded rationale of it. I wanted you to see what it was like from the other side, to what I obviously exaggerated regarding how I felt you had dealt with others, particularily newbies who disagreed with you.
I had somewhat cast myself as hero to your villain (I think as comcifans, we may do this more than we realize in our MB debates.) But my askewed reasoning was to become a bigger villain than I perceived you at the time. Once I headed down that emotionally charged path of contempt, well, we saw where it lead. And with my writing skill, my invective was perversely imaginative.
So let me apologize again for all the grief of that, as you say, war, not brawl. (I don't know if you ever saw my last farewell at DCMB, I did apologize there to you as well, and to any others I had locked horns with.) I had been mean for some perverse "joy" of meaness. Again, I'm sorry for all of it. "Heroism" can justify almost anything in it righteousness. We see this in any fanatic, regardless of philosophy or cause.
As to your general request regarding an e-mail addresses from all of us, I'm afraid this is something I personally can't agree with. The primary reason for me is that this isn't my computer. I don't have a computer. But I also am very wary about putting personal info out on the web. I just don't trust it and never will. Too much chance for mayhem and worse for the small benefit of e-mail.
Obviously, because of your strong connection with computers and the like, this is something you feel at ease with. I don't and never will. I'm not a Luddite, obviously, since I post on a MB, but I cast permanent suspicion on the whole thing.
The Web to me should be viewed somewhat like sex in the modern age - you're sleeping not only with your lover, but with everyone they've slept with; you're not only offering personal info on the web to those posters you're familar with, but to anybody else out there who's surfing, or even hacking. So as I am very circumspect in one, I am in the other. I didn't make it to my creeky age thru wide-eyed innocence!
If others do not share my concerns, then the choice and consequences are their's. My advice is caution. I will never waver from this position, for any reason, for any dare, for any greed. I have much more that is important to me than anything obtainable on the web. And I say this while loving the fun here at Legion World!
Priorities. The Real World.
I thank all the other members who've chimed in here with support and I'll be staying for a while as I said. I am retiring Nardo though. Cutbacks have to be made. But Reep will probably be engaging in his own nuttiness as evinced by last night's "reviving two jokes?" topic.
Uh, and if anyone see's Krypto, Ferro would like his arm back. In whole. Or part.
quote:Originally posted by Reep: As to your general request regarding an e-mail addresses from all of us, I'm afraid this is something I personally can't agree with. The primary reason for me is that this isn't my computer. I don't have a computer. But I also am very wary about putting personal info out on the web. I just don't trust it and never will. Too much chance for mayhem and worse for the small benefit of e-mail.
There is still the option of making use of the site's private messaging system. The messages remain here on the site, so you don't have to worry about shared emails and the such. It's no more dangerous than posting here in a thread, really. That way, if you did decide to take a discussion or disagreement off the board to discuss in private, it would enable you to do so without compromising your email address.
Just a thought (or rather, a second thought, since Grey actually mentioned it first )
-------------------- Some people are like slinkys: not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when you knock them down a flight of stairs
From: Penthouse atop Levitz Hall, LMBP Plaza, Embassy Row, Legion World | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
For me, PC, I already over-indulge my friend's generosity in my use of their computer, and additional time with what you describe would not be best.
And as for my time, I'm only able to find time to check out about 1/3rd of the topics in addition to my creativity activity here, so private messaging would just eat up my dwindling free time.
I can say what I want to say in the topics. And at it's worst, e-mail and the like can become just gossip, which I have little taste for. Unless it's about Legionnaires!
BTW, my ego might be affecting my judgment here, but by my count, 174 new members have joined since I acknowledged my prior bbz ID.
posted
174 new menbers where? The count at the top of my computer screen says 94, and most of those have been here for quite sometime before the aforementioned bbz acknowledgement.
-------------------- White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So... many... possibilities.
From: Birmingham, AL | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Reep: BTW, my ego might be affecting my judgment here, but by my count, 174 new members have joined since I acknowledged my prior bbz ID.
quote:Originally posted by Blockade Boy: Dang, I needed some dating advice. First Ann Landers dies, now this. sigh
There's always Amber and Umber
-------------------- Some people are like slinkys: not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when you knock them down a flight of stairs
From: Penthouse atop Levitz Hall, LMBP Plaza, Embassy Row, Legion World | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
[Reep] {[...] And as for my time, I'm only able to find time to check out about 1/3rd of the topics in addition to my creative activity here, so private messaging would just eat up my dwindling free time. }
I have to respectfully disagree, Reep. It takes 30 seconds -- once -- to turn PMs on in your user profile. As long as it took to write and update, on the same Webpage, your occupation as being "Ex-Pope of Durla. Now I don't have to wear that stupid hat. Or lederhosen."
It takes under one minute to open a second browser window or tab, right-clicking, when you have a flashing alert, and to read a single private message of reasonable length. Any PMs stay on file until you can read, reply to, or simply delete them. And the sender knows that, and when, you have read one, with your having to do nothing else.
You clearly feel you have the time to summarize polls when -- and I must say this just once -- they rarely need summaries. We can see that, for example, four of 40 respondents being bisexual are thus "one in ten" without your saying so. Your "what if"s and humor posts are entirely creative. Such summaries really are not.
Some matters do occasionally require private contact, or it's more courteous to others to simply not put it in public. PMs are not merely a conduit for "gossip."
I am asking -- as a personal favor, if you're sincere about better relations, and not in anyone else's name -- that you take the 30 seconds to show such courtesy as to at least receive such notes, by turning this feature on through the link at the top of the page to "my profile."
Or to say, directly, that although you have the time -- and we know you do -- you simply don't want to do so. One or the other.
I would have asked you this privately ... but I can't do it yet, and I would like to have been able to do so. I won't keep bringing it up. I had to request it one last time, though.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Grey, I understand the sincerity of your request. But as you have distilled my choices in this, it finally comes down to this - I don't want to.
And it would be significant additional time for me, since I am more verbose than brief, more contemplative and evaluative (currently!) than certain and ideological in composing my words.
It might be brief for others, but not me. The "Ex-pope of Durla..." quote you cite didn't spring forth fully formed. They rarely do. An old painting professor of mine expressed it well: people subconsciously assume it took the same time and effort to create something as it takes to experience it's result. We don't see the difficult process or feel the pain of creativity. I might add that that ignorance of process is necessary and often central to the magic experienced in any art appreciation. The same can be easily argued for spiritual enlightenment, but I'm getting tangential.
Verbosity! It killed Socrates! And everyone thinks it was hemlock. Hah!
So, I'm just simply not interested in e-mail or versions there of. I decline your sincere request or anyone's to expand into that area. Don't want to. Not interested. Forever and ever. End story.
As for my Tally summations, Grey, others disagree with you on them. Many posters over the years have expressed enjoyment with my commentary and the additional ease of viewing they provide. You may be quick enough to do the ratio conversions on the numbers, but most others aren't. And pretty much everyone enjoys the ordering of data by highest responses first. Besides, I usually have fun doing them, even if they can eat up some hours.
I will be doing less of those (maybe only half as much?) but I feel they still provide some unique opportunities for fresh observations and off-the-wall humor.
And by god, that's never stopped me or the Bulgarian Navy before!
posted
I appreciate your finally being more specific about PMs. If you ever do care to get feedback about your postings or presence that's not shaped by its being placed in a public forum -- and with some honesty that isn't inhibited by its being said in public -- well, you know what to do.
And as for "ratios": All I can say is that you and I learned fractions and proportions by the third grade, and I can't quite believe that the current government schools aren't even bothering to teach them. (The nuns and private and home schools are.) Still, I've had that particular bit of self-delusion before {rueful smile}
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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