Open letter to Censored

[Boris]

sorry

[benfranklin]

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You can PM Boris and PITTM too if you like.

(or just wait for the next popcorn cruncher)

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Hey, we are all just killing time, waiting for Mason McMahon to return and announce the details of the long-awaited Smackdown ModWars Cage Match, coming soon to pay per view.

[MicroBob]

Not a problem. These things happen.
Many of us have been there far more than we care to admit.

[kipin]

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I'm using my admin powers to find out where a couple people live (most notably Tony Paladino) and bringing a baseball bat.

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You suck at the internet.

[nolanfan34]

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Clark, you're being unreasonable imo.

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He's really not. I've watched this trainwreck unfold. Was Elaine an annoying poster? There's certainly an argument that she was. So she got kicked out of OOT.

She wrote a response to getting kicked out of OOT. It was a bit immature IMO. So what?

In response, one of the lamest threads I've seen thus far erupts (this incident has caused around three 150-200+ reply threads, and they're all relatively boring). It's full of nasty and harsh commentary directed at Elaine. Now I don't care if my wife is annoying other people, but if I'm Ed, I'm not quitting 2+2. I'm using my admin powers to find out where a couple people live (most notably Tony Paladino) and bringing a baseball bat.

WTF is wrong with people here? Mob mentality much?

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Clark jumped all over JBB for making his first post in any of those three threads, and all he said was that a passage from Elaine's post was childish; that is unreasonable. It was childish, and she posted it specifically to draw attention to herself. The fact that she left soon after has little to do with whether or not people should respond to it. If she made less of an attention whore out of herself less people would have responded.

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I think the point here is, there's an opportunity for people to take the high road now that Elaine is gone - and most people aren't taking it. Regardless how you perceive her exit from the forums, too many people are using that as an excuse to continue bashing her. "I'm supposed to be nice to her? Look at her last post!!!!!!!!"

Elaine is clearly a passionate person. But I find it extremely hilarious that people are judging her posts and blogs for being too intense, given the thousands of posts most of us have on an internet forum. And we think she takes things too seriously?

To me, that's been the most disappointing thing about this. It's really shown to me people's true colors in some ways, and has been a reminder of just how young and inexperienced people are on here. This is not a criticism of anyone - I was certainly the same way in my 18-early 20s age frame. I guarantee that people are saying things now, or acting in ways that they will be ashamed of when they look back years from now. I can think of many times where I had the chance to take the high road, and let something die, but didn't for my own selfish reasons.

And this point should not be a spot to say "yeah but what about the things that she said blah blah blah, etc". Just step back and let it go, and put some real life perspective behind this all. Clark was dead right that most people wouldn't do or say much of what they do on here in real life. The forum mentality allows them to do so, but it doesn't have to be that way.

[Evan]

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Elaine is clearly a passionate person. But I find it extremely hilarious that people are judging her posts and blogs for being too intense, given the thousands of posts most of us have on an internet forum. And we think she takes things too seriously?

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I don't recall anyone every claiming she was too pasionate/serious. I certianly never said anything like that. I'd point out the reasons I didn't care for her but that would probably just result in someone telling me I was a jerk for not loving and nurturing a beautiful and unique snowflake like Elaine.

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Clark was dead right that most people wouldn't do or say much of what they do on here in real life. The forum mentality allows them to do so, but it doesn't have to be that way.

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It pretty much does "have to" be that way, at least in a practical sense. Internet forums will always foster a mob mentality, maybe they shouldn't, but regardless of your plan they do pretty much have to if you want to maintain any connection to reality.

[jokerthief]

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I don't recall anyone every claiming she was too pasionate/serious. I certianly never said anything like that. I'd point out the reasons I didn't care for her but that would probably just result in someone telling me I was a jerk for not loving and nurturing a beautiful and unique snowflake like Elaine.

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This is clearly the quote of the day.

[nolanfan34]

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Clark was dead right that most people wouldn't do or say much of what they do on here in real life. The forum mentality allows them to do so, but it doesn't have to be that way.

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It pretty much does "have to" be that way, at least in a practical sense. Internet forums will always foster a mob mentality, maybe they shouldn't, but regardless of your plan they do pretty much have to if you want to maintain any connection to reality.

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I disagree with this point somewhat. I don't understand what about the internet forces people to disrespect people and act differently than they would in real life. People make a choice to create their own personality on here, nothing is forcing them to act like a [censored] if that's now how they are in real life. I also think there are plenty of people (not you) who enjoy developing an outgoing and antagonistic personality on here because it fills a void of what they lack in real life.

My point is summed up in the fact that I had a lot of people mention me for "nicest 2+2er". Some people who mentioned me, I have never met in real life. Others I have met in real life, and they have the same opinion. This is mostly because I try to treat people on here in the same way that I would in real life, so there's really nothing stopping others from doing the same.

We talked about this a bit on AIM, but I think there's a difference between people who get in legitimate debates with posters, and the hangers on who subject themselves to the mob mentality you speak of, and pile on for the sake of piling on.

[Gunny Highway]

An Internet forum is not real life. Why would you expect people to act as if it were?

Clark is right. I wouldn't berate Elaine if Ed were there in real life. However, that's not out of any fear of Ed. It's because I simply don't belive in belittling anyone in front of their loved ones. It's kind of like not kicking some guy's ass in front of his kids. If I met Elaine alone, however, I would be perfectly willing to tell her what I think of her posting. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't hold anything back in telling me what she thought of mine.

With that said, I'm guessing that Elaine is not nearly as rabid in person as she comes across here. We obviously have very different views on many things, but we'd probably be civil to one another in a social setting.

I think it's fine not to treat this like real life because it isn't. I think it's good that the internet allows people to say what they think or feel w/o the censorship they put on themselves in real life. At times, it does get out of hand. At times people do make statements they shouldn't. I'm aware that I'm sometimes guilty of that. But people are getting way to emotional about all this.

The real travesty here has nothing to do with whether Elaine continues to make feminazi posts in 00T, or whether any of the other posters are happy or unhappy to see her go. That's all just entertainment. The travesty here is that people have taken this seriously enough that it played a part in Ed leaving. Ed's leaving impacts people in real life. It impacts people's ability to earn their living or play profitably as a hobby. Whatever the other issues involved are, this is the issue that needs to be resolved for the benefit of all.

[Evan]

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I think it's fine not to treat this like real life because it isn't. I think it's good that the internet allows people to say what they think or feel w/o the censorship they put on themselves in real life. At times, it does get out of hand. At times people do make statements they shouldn't. I'm aware that I'm sometimes guilty of that. But people are getting way to emotional about all this.

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This is just about exactly what I wanted to say.