Reasons

[sroni]

I joined this community to stay in touch with people. I joined because I wanted to read what people were saying. I joined because in a lot of ways, this is a “safe” place for me to post. I can say things, and have people agree. Or if they don’t agree, they will say so in a calm, rational way. And then I can explain why I feel my way.

I’m sorry. I’m crying right now. I’ll explain in a moment. I just read a post … that had 359 comments … and none of the comments were good. Instead, people were arguing with the poster, “How dare he …” and then arguing with themselves. When one person said something, a half dozen jumped on them for saying something THAT THEY DIDN’T EVEN SAY. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to yell. But I don’t know how to do italics. And then, when the poster tried to explain in another post, he got lambasted again, and I don’t think that’s fair.

Why can’t people hear what people say, and not imagine something else? Why can’t people accept that some people don’t like something, and they’re not saying it’s wrong, they’re saying that they don’t like it? Why can’t people look at observations this person has made previously and since, and see that 1) he didn’t mean it the way people are taking it, and 2) he DIDN’T SAY IT?

I’m sorry, this has left me very disappointed. In human beings in general.

Comments

[railtherogue.livejournal.com]

Amen

[draconin.livejournal.com]

Those flame sites are a pain aren't they? Whenever I start feeling optimistic about the essential goodness of people I just have to look at one of those to have my natural cynicism restored in full.

There will always be dickheads in the world; the trick is to spot them and avoid them. They are NOT worth even reading, let alone allowing them to spoil your day. There's a sort of sick fascination in reading them, somewhat like slowing down to look as you drive past a bad car accident but it's better to just close the window as soon as you realise what's going on.

The only good part of a site like that is that it tends to make them gather in one place, sort of like hyenas or flies. That way you can see them from further away and avoid them more easily.

[aadler]

There are two ways to do italics. The first and simplest is to, when you go to make a post, click on the “rich text” option below the text window, and then use the font controls to italicize the text just as in a word processor.

You can also, if you want, just insert open-italic and close-italic codes: <i> for open-italic, and </i> for close-italic.

As far as you being upset about the massive kerfuffle, I was annoyed by it myself, but there’s really only one thing you can do when people are determined to shout you down: let them shout, and go find something else to do. Their problems are theirs; they’re not mine if I refuse to be sucked in.