Blister":22ziiweq said:
Maybe I should send each comment / post to a Mod first for approval ?
I can sort of understand where you are coming from - I can be a hothead sometimes too and fire from the hip; also been kicked out from game related websites (and gaming groups) for doing so.
Took me several iterations of the same behaviour before I found the answer that works (for me anyway) - if I write when annoyed and start using big poncy words (always a bad sign for me), I "save as draft" instead if I REALLY feel I need to make my point. Then I sit on that for a few hours or overnight.
If it still reads ok, I publish it. If not I either heavily edit it to the salient point(s) and remove my personal comments from it - or just plain delete it.
and yes, I've had to do that here a few times too when other members get snarky for no real reason other than to make up for previous slights, little better than 5 year olds in a school yard.
Now I know you cannot make everyone do the same, but if one does not do that, then one really has little basis for taking a moral high ground with anyone else, and not doing so just sets you up as a target; there are scant few members here who could make such a claim as not having thrown the first stone at some point.
But at the end of the day Blister, no-one is forcing you to come here, or read a thread or any reply therein. Moreover you are not here to be liked by everyone, or in fact liked by ANYONE at all; this is meant to be a place where likeminded individuals share a passion and advice, not some "inner peace and harmony retreat in the middle of the woods where we all hold hands and go OHHHM". After 11 years you REALLY REALLY REALLY should know to filter out the advice from the dross.
People are people and won't agree with you WHEREVER you go, and won't have much of a care if they occasionally yank your chain with what they say / write - goldenrule #1 of the internet - it's anonymous and you have no "right to emotional harmony" whatsoever, and even though a few members here have met, the majority have not and likely never will; you and the rest of us are just an avatar name with opinions on various subjects that you may agree with or inflame your innermost demons.
This inherent behaviour that comes with the internet isn't going to go away, so either get used to seeing it and learn to shrug it off like so much rain, or disconnect and live in a cave somewhere.
Personally I LIKE the bluntness of the anonymity, because you learn more about that person in a handful of posts than you may ever learn face to face; you get the "real undiluted" version in most cases, because they don't have to speak to you personally and use one of the socially required filters necessary in face to face conversation, and from 17+ years of floating around the web and having discourse with many thousands and thousands of people in online gaming - I've found this method of communication to be the most accurate marker of a persons psyche that you'll get outside a psych ward.
However I also know this after several years of being a member here; if you (Blister) posted a thread about a difficult personal event / illness / whatever a significant portion of members who read your thread would post their support and or condolences, no-one would wish you harm - not even those that have been poking you with a 35deg sharpened stick in this thread or anywhere else.
I treat all internet sites and the people in them the same way I would a river full of Piranha, you can glide through it unscathed as long as you remember a few basic rules.
