Francis king
Well-Known Member
don't know if this is an appropriate place to post this, but thought I'd have a ramble/rant, and this seems as good a place as any... regardless...
...I have been online now for a while, and have spent a few years involved in a specific online community... I like to think I am relatively intelligent, and am generally observant, and thought I had most of the personalities there pegged... I hung around as I liked the place, and in the beginning we had a laugh and the ppl were friendly enough...
recently though I was advised by another member to open my eyes, and look a little further at the group, and so I have, and I have noticed a change in a few of the members' conduct there, as individuals and also in their behaviour towards me, and I am a little unsettled by this...
individually, these changes amount to nothing, but taken together they seem to suggest that I am actually oblivious to the real motives of some of my fellow participants, and these motives may not be especially savoury...
when ppl first join (and yes, they do pay subs) most ppl seem not particularly knowledgable but personable... of course, the "gurus" look for those who will play follow the leader, but it's not a game I play and so tend not to get involved with what I call site politics... eventally we all get to know a little about each other, and we learn of each other's passions, and we generally all rub along okay...
regardless, things have started to change...
it started a while ago- a new member disclosed in chat that they were hearing voices, and they thought these were spirits... the member thought they had "attached spirits"; souls of the dead haunting them who had latched onto their consciousness, and this was effecting their lives... at the time i was working in an acute psychiatric ward, and was concerned about their mental health, so spoke in-depth to the member and it transpired that this person was currently on anti-psychotics and these attached spirits were telling him to kill his girlfriend...
unfortately, several of the members had confirmed the person's suspicion that these voices were not hallucinations, but spirits, and this new member was coming to the conclusion that they did not need the anti-psychs anymore and should start to work with these voices, and allow them to have more significance than they already did.
I of course, was bothered by this, and suggested, perhaps wrongly, that we should not be encouraging a person who is hearing voices telling him to kill that he should become a medium, for very obvious reasons, but I think I put somebody's nose out of joint...
after this, our ability to pm each other was taken away- we were told this feature was now disabled because members had been talking about others and stirring trouble, but I myself had never been made party to anything salacious, as i am not in the right gang, obviously...
around the same time I noticed that my some of my posts were not being submitted- I assumed I had some kind of glitch- connection problems, etc, and then some of my posts started to be deleted... when mods move stuff around yes, sometimes things go missing, but they were shall we say, treasured posts, ones i'd put a lot of effort into, and a lot went missing in a short space of time...
anyhow, a while later the site was hijacked and the shop and boards were hacked, etc, and basically I was informed that it was considered I was the culprit, and my ability to edit and delete posts etc was taken away...
since then the members have become a bit cold towards me, and well, if they think I'm a hacker then, hey, fair enough, but I have problems resizing photos, never mind hacking...
now there appears to be a deliberate site policy to ignore me- previously friendly members leave as soon as I arrive, to the extent where I feel like Moses parting the Red Sea, my comments are ignored, etc...
now as nobody can pm now, apart from the mods, for this to be happenning deliberately, and not just be my paranoia, it has to be my fellow mods who are giving the old ignore orders...
I spoke to another member, who suggested that, in truth, nobody there actually likes me and they never have, as I upset the status quo- they have simply been waiting for me to submit the rest of my class notes (yes, I run a class there) and then I will be superfluous to requirements and will suddenly find myself shut down and banned from site. My class will then be retitled and delivered by another member, who they have already chosen...
how much does that suck!
...I have been online now for a while, and have spent a few years involved in a specific online community... I like to think I am relatively intelligent, and am generally observant, and thought I had most of the personalities there pegged... I hung around as I liked the place, and in the beginning we had a laugh and the ppl were friendly enough...
recently though I was advised by another member to open my eyes, and look a little further at the group, and so I have, and I have noticed a change in a few of the members' conduct there, as individuals and also in their behaviour towards me, and I am a little unsettled by this...
individually, these changes amount to nothing, but taken together they seem to suggest that I am actually oblivious to the real motives of some of my fellow participants, and these motives may not be especially savoury...
when ppl first join (and yes, they do pay subs) most ppl seem not particularly knowledgable but personable... of course, the "gurus" look for those who will play follow the leader, but it's not a game I play and so tend not to get involved with what I call site politics... eventally we all get to know a little about each other, and we learn of each other's passions, and we generally all rub along okay...
regardless, things have started to change...
it started a while ago- a new member disclosed in chat that they were hearing voices, and they thought these were spirits... the member thought they had "attached spirits"; souls of the dead haunting them who had latched onto their consciousness, and this was effecting their lives... at the time i was working in an acute psychiatric ward, and was concerned about their mental health, so spoke in-depth to the member and it transpired that this person was currently on anti-psychotics and these attached spirits were telling him to kill his girlfriend...
unfortately, several of the members had confirmed the person's suspicion that these voices were not hallucinations, but spirits, and this new member was coming to the conclusion that they did not need the anti-psychs anymore and should start to work with these voices, and allow them to have more significance than they already did.
I of course, was bothered by this, and suggested, perhaps wrongly, that we should not be encouraging a person who is hearing voices telling him to kill that he should become a medium, for very obvious reasons, but I think I put somebody's nose out of joint...
after this, our ability to pm each other was taken away- we were told this feature was now disabled because members had been talking about others and stirring trouble, but I myself had never been made party to anything salacious, as i am not in the right gang, obviously...
around the same time I noticed that my some of my posts were not being submitted- I assumed I had some kind of glitch- connection problems, etc, and then some of my posts started to be deleted... when mods move stuff around yes, sometimes things go missing, but they were shall we say, treasured posts, ones i'd put a lot of effort into, and a lot went missing in a short space of time...
anyhow, a while later the site was hijacked and the shop and boards were hacked, etc, and basically I was informed that it was considered I was the culprit, and my ability to edit and delete posts etc was taken away...
since then the members have become a bit cold towards me, and well, if they think I'm a hacker then, hey, fair enough, but I have problems resizing photos, never mind hacking...
now there appears to be a deliberate site policy to ignore me- previously friendly members leave as soon as I arrive, to the extent where I feel like Moses parting the Red Sea, my comments are ignored, etc...
now as nobody can pm now, apart from the mods, for this to be happenning deliberately, and not just be my paranoia, it has to be my fellow mods who are giving the old ignore orders...
I spoke to another member, who suggested that, in truth, nobody there actually likes me and they never have, as I upset the status quo- they have simply been waiting for me to submit the rest of my class notes (yes, I run a class there) and then I will be superfluous to requirements and will suddenly find myself shut down and banned from site. My class will then be retitled and delivered by another member, who they have already chosen...
how much does that suck!
