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The Canaries Are Dying

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The Canaries Are Dying

we lose another blogger -- something is wrong

from JoeUser Forums

        Well, we lost another blogger. WrecklessEric has deleted all his articles and dropped out.

        In the old days, miners would carry canaries into the mines with them as a gas meter. The poor little feather balls were more sensitive and more quickly subject to the effects of poison gas than their much larger human companions. If the canary died it meant there was poison in the air and time to beat a hasty retreat.

        We've recently seen a flux of articles about how nasty things are getting around here, how certain individuals pollute the experience and make others feel worthless. While there is a certain ebb and flow to this sort of thing, I think this may be far more serious than the norm. Bloggers are dropping like canaries. And not the toxic bloggers either.

        Others have criticized the criticizers. It's the old blame the messenger routine. "As long as I keep my head buried in the sand, as long as you don't rock my delusional little boat then nothing is wrong. You are the problem! You are the problem!" Well, you know the old saying -- "If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem" -- and you my ostrich feathered friends are part of the problem. If only you were a little smaller you wouldn't find it so easy to dismiss and dis. You'd already be laying legs up on the bottom of your cage.

        There's something wrong here. The canaries are trying to tell us that. This is more than just the normal comings and goings. This is death whispering in our ears. These aren't people leaving because they lose interest or find other things more pressing. These are people leaving because of the nastiness. If the good people continue to leave while the "evil doers" flourish things will only get nastier and nastier till only the hateful survive.

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Reply #51 from JoeUser Forums Top

My health can't take this


I hear you there.  I think I have gained more grey hairs and lost more sleep in the past few days...!  That's why I said it's not fun anymore.


If you ever want to vent away from here, my email address is on my page under 'contact me'.  I'd love to hear from you.


 

Reply #52 from JoeUser Forums Top
Smartaz: you're a grownup. It is your responsibility to see to it that your stay here is tolerable and that you enjoy it. There's no reason to ever apologize for deleting or blacklisting someone. You do what you need to do, because you know damn well none of the rest of these people are going to ensure you enjoyment, especially when they disagree with you.

Let them go and make their own blogs and not piggy back yours to make you miserable. You're under no obligation to read the abuse anywhere else.

P.S. Dunno about the locking thing, I'll try it out on a thread with no messages and see.
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Reply #53 from JoeUser Forums Top
You were right. The comments when you choose "no one" stay in the forum, you just don't see them on the regular article view.
Reply #54 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I suppose I will close this thread. It seems to no longer be serving any useful purpose. I'd like to stop it before it works its way into my top 5 articles.

Dharma: I'll write you. If I don't get to it tonight, I'll do so tomorrow.

BakerStreet: Thank you. This is exactly the sort of online tumult I never wanted to be a part of again. I'm not even sure how it happened because I didn't mean to cause any harm.

To the two I felt compelled to blacklist:

Look, it was meant to be temporary. I had hoped you would step back and reevaluate what was going on. You got worked up beforehand and based on that started ascribing motivations to me that just weren't there. I pulled from the forums the article which offended you so much, though it is still on my blog. The only intent of that article was to introduce my philosophy of how I wanted to run my own feature. There was no hidden meaning. There were no slights or jabs at anyone, no matter how much you wanted to read that into it. I'd have thought you'd know better.

I had hoped you would step back and see that. As I said, I didn't want to blacklist either of you, but I can't come in here and have that on my blog. It is too upsetting, especially when I didn't intend any of what you accused me of.

i have seen nothing but spite in your post's lately, and it's not really what I expected from you...


Maybe that should have told you something. Like -- I don't know -- you're misinterpreting them? Once you decide I'm being spiteful it's all too easy to start ascribing that to everything I subsequently write. I would have thought with all the superlatives y'all have used to describe me in the past you would have known better.

I said,

If that's how little you both think of me, please do not return to my blog. Ever.


If your response is not to return I can only assume you did indeed think that little of me.

It was meant to be temporary till y'all calmed down and could reconsider. I did not want -- in fact could not take -- a bruising back and forth with the entire Aussie contingent ganging up on me because one member imagined I was dising her over an imagined slight. I had no choice but to end it right there.

It was meant to be temporary, but ultimately that is up to you.