Ignore really is your friend. (Post-Mortem)

The forum drama queens are all cramped up over the fact they can't make people accept them, they can't make others agree with them, and they can't force others to grant them validation. They wail and gnash their teeth about how 'unfair' and 'unjust' it is and insist there is some required action which 'must be taken' to 'make others' do as they wish or the gloom and doom of all the ages will fall upon Linden Labs and destroy their product, their forums, their lives.

In actuality, they are demonstrating better than anyone could hope the validity of the forum as a self-policing arena. The various whines and melodramatic declarations actively demonstrate the validity of the existing system and its strength in handling socially dysfunctional people and their methods of attack.

If one actually keeps track of who is fostering these little soap operas, one sees they are restricted to about ten people out of the overall number registered. New alternate accounts are added as needed to provide the appearance of support... usually exposing themselves by referencing events or history their registration date demonstrates impossible for them to know.

It seems to be the belief of these social inepts that, if they scream loud enough, everyone will magically agree with them, they will be ushered into the realm of acceptance, and life will be a bowl of cherries. Barring this, they believe if they scream loud enough, Linden Labs will descend from the mountaintop and set them up as endangered species to be cosseted and handled with kid gloves.

In reality, most people don't notice them and when they do, it is with a vague disgust not unlike the feeling one gets when the office mooch shows up to bum another $10 for lunch when they never paid you the $50 they've mooched over the last six months. Or perhaps like the feeling you get when you see some totally drunken panhandler approaching you, their reeking, alcoholic breath slapping you in the face from 20 paces.

These poor social inepts simply do not 'get it' that acceptance is not a right. They don't get it that trying to use guilt or politics to wheedle their way in doesn't work, either. They come up with some of the most amusing and pathetic 'rationales' you could imagine... from asserting that they're 'fighting for justice' to insisting that they wouldn't at all be so annoying and clingy and needy, nosireebob, it's just what about the huddled, unspoken masses who agree with them (only they never actually say so... they are, conveniently, lurking... no doubt in mortal fear of the letters on the monitor screen, which we all know have the power to KILL... KILL I SAY!).

When all else fails, they stand with solemn and pious face and invoke the holy of holies, the ToS.... By the gods, we will accept them or we'll face the wrath of the Lindens!

Pitiful. In every possible way, the social inept strives to wear any mask that will gain them admission. And, in typical fashion, shoot themselves in the head at the same time by speaking out both sides of their mouths... slavering to join from one side and condemning from the other.

And they actually still wonder why no one cares to believe a word they say or why their full frontal 'OH GOD LIKE ME PLEASE AND LET ME BELONG' garners not welcome and interest, but horror and disgust.

Driven to the cliff from which the reality of their own ineptitude yawns in their face, they turn, cornered, to snarl and slaver and attack, acting out and deliberately disrupting things in a somewhat 'dog in the manger-ish' last ditch effort. By golly, if they aren't going to be accepted, then let slip the dogs of war... no one will enjoy... 'No Justice, No Peace', etc. etc. etc. .... (yawn)... et al, ad nauseam.

Linden Labs refusal to be consistant has resulted in an environment where the socially inept are encouraged to act out and disrupt the community, and where the act of doing so insures a cycle of repeated episodes that increase in frequency and invective as the socially inept declare war on the rest of the community.

I know, I know... it's not nice to kick a fool. On the other hand, the fools never really notice the kicking, else they'd learn to avoid it and act in a manner that would gain them the acceptance they are so unusually needful of.... which is, of course, only more support for the pitiful reality that they are, indeed, social inepts.

But no, they're stuck with the party line now... they've invested too much time in it. Any reason is better than admitting they aren't fitting in because... well... they have trouble fitting in.... (they may as well admit it, it isn't like we haven't noticed, is it?)

The worst of all, of course, is the wolfish fervor with which they immediately pounce upon anyone who expresses any degree of annoyance or frustration with the forums. Desperate to have a group to which they might belong, they turn into the most morbid of ambulance chasers... looking for blood not unlike sharks and presenting the most eerie and cultish
'love bombing' and agreement, eagerly stoking the fire of dissent in hopes of gaining another bit of cannon fodder to run point for them.

Most of the targets of this type of manipulation figure it out and run like hell. But every now and then you'll see one, leaning over and panting, with a curiously puzzled look on their 'face'.... wondering how the hell they got duped into the mess. (I stop here to wave to the latest victim... you poor sot.)

Personally, I've been religiously placing folks on ignore for a stretch of time, then removing them in hopes that they've blossomed into normalcy. Alas, I am consistantly disappointed. It's enough to turn one to cynicism. I recently decided that, as much as I dislike it, I'm just going to have to accept that some of these folks truly are that socially inept, they're not going to mature or grow out of it, and I'll be doing myself an enormous favor to just pull the trigger on them and ignore them permanently.

This has been a post-mortem (sorry about the dreadful pun) of things... a clearing of the air and airing of things as I see them.... a great place and time to gag the socially inept and move on.

And so I am.

"social ineptness" comes in many forms.

One of these forms is the inability to effectively relate or be sociable with people who one considers to be "beneath them". It also manifests itself as an inability to muster even the most basic of courtesy to the same "lower" people.

And finally it also manifests itself sometimes as an inability to write clear, cohesive posts using non-judgemental language.

Kudos!

Cienna-

By far, this is one of the most impressive posts I have ever seen on this forum. Simply amazing.

Well what do you know, it works.

I do wonder if he has yet figured out just how well he was played. (chuckle)

You spoke too soon...

Hardly played.

And if you have been, as you say "playing" me, it proves that there really are people here who's main goal is to irritate others.

I really have no idea why people would choose to keep picking at it, but I guess if it gets them off, who am I to argue?

Oh right. I'm "dismissed".

Sweet.

.

What a pointed, silly post.

There's some irony in the fact that people have taken me to task for being public about some of my ARs while at the same time making a big dramatic public display about how they've put me on their ignore list.

Does someone want to remind me again about how there aren't people here who get their rocks off by inflicting pain on others?

Oh, btw, can I play too?

Can someone please tell me what this post is about in a few concise sentences? My life is too short to read through the original post.

It's just some forum politics silliness. Ignore it. You'll be better off.

Just read the title.

Oh yeah I ignore those guys.

See! It works!

Susie, can you tell me who you think "those guys" are?

This is a fun game!

And no worries, I'm done now.

Anyone who spouts off as if they know all of the answers and who talk down to anyone who dares to dispute their declarations of supreme wisdom. I don't think I need to mention names as they speak for themselves so to speak.

Ahem. I think we can all agree that the dispensation of sage advice from on high should be left to those of us of sublime temperament. Perhaps you would profit from a refresher course in forum rhetoric as well as... umm... a cheddarwurst and big gulp from 7-11.

Yeah...

I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to ask you to name names.

Thank you.

Holy crap. That was by far the most brilliant and incisive analysis of this problem I have yet seen rendered. I'm impressed beyond words, Cienna. You've absolutely got it down to its core, for all to see. I think we have here the definitive word on SL forum drama. Pity the drama queens you lament will see to the locking of this thread.

Until then, though, bravo.

Right now I am at a slumber party with my girlfriends eating toasted marshmellows in the hopes that this will increase my IQ into the triple digits so I can stand a chance against these Forum Einsteins.

What was that?

Yes, ignore really is your friend.

Strangely... hypnotic... oscillating... head...