I've found this community can be particularly bloody cruel when it wants to be. Without saying any names, I can cite at least 3 examples where I either personally had to deal with someone turning others against me, or have had it happen to a friend and had to act as fucking mediator.
Let me give you the harshest example, with some vagueness to preserve anonymity.
About a year ago, I was removed from a LS by a "mod" if you will, not the LS founder, for being a bit too irritable at the time, which is understandable. However, I noted that I had not received a warning, and the mod in question had a habit of knee-jerk ban-hammers, so I contacted the higher-up to discuss the ban and whether it was appropriate, as well as talk things out regarding my behavior.
Not halfway through the resulting conversation, I was informed by a friend that said higher-up had been feeding the LS my every fucking statement to them for purposes of mockery. I had been made a laughing stock.Â
To quote the higher-up,
"I'm sorry you were offended by something said on the internet."
At that point, the entire thing changed. No longer was this about due process for breaking the rules. Instead of merely giving me the proper punishment, it was now suddenly appropriate to make of me a total laughing stock and ruin my reputation. Friends started receiving messages telling them I was a joke. My RP attempts got knee-jerk "Oh god it's you" responses from people. I was harassed by random individual after random individual. You get the gist of it.
Again, this was over a year ago. I have yet to fully live it down. I'm still getting harassed, and as far as I know, I'm still the butt of the LS' jokes. I've openly apologized for my behavior, before, and yet the harassment continues. It all went from an aesop on not venting openly in a LS to a case study in how to ruin someone's life.
When shit like this happens, I honestly feel like the RP community is a bunch of trolls. Which is really bloody sad, because I migrated here from a community that objectively was a bunch of fucking trolls.[sup]1 [/sup]
Our attitudes toward OOC drama and behavior needs to change, because people can and will be hurt by this. It's intolerable.
[sup]1[/sup]Said community is about as populated as the Sahara, nowadays. They are effectively dead.
Let me give you the harshest example, with some vagueness to preserve anonymity.
About a year ago, I was removed from a LS by a "mod" if you will, not the LS founder, for being a bit too irritable at the time, which is understandable. However, I noted that I had not received a warning, and the mod in question had a habit of knee-jerk ban-hammers, so I contacted the higher-up to discuss the ban and whether it was appropriate, as well as talk things out regarding my behavior.
Not halfway through the resulting conversation, I was informed by a friend that said higher-up had been feeding the LS my every fucking statement to them for purposes of mockery. I had been made a laughing stock.Â
To quote the higher-up,
"I'm sorry you were offended by something said on the internet."
At that point, the entire thing changed. No longer was this about due process for breaking the rules. Instead of merely giving me the proper punishment, it was now suddenly appropriate to make of me a total laughing stock and ruin my reputation. Friends started receiving messages telling them I was a joke. My RP attempts got knee-jerk "Oh god it's you" responses from people. I was harassed by random individual after random individual. You get the gist of it.
Again, this was over a year ago. I have yet to fully live it down. I'm still getting harassed, and as far as I know, I'm still the butt of the LS' jokes. I've openly apologized for my behavior, before, and yet the harassment continues. It all went from an aesop on not venting openly in a LS to a case study in how to ruin someone's life.
When shit like this happens, I honestly feel like the RP community is a bunch of trolls. Which is really bloody sad, because I migrated here from a community that objectively was a bunch of fucking trolls.[sup]1 [/sup]
Our attitudes toward OOC drama and behavior needs to change, because people can and will be hurt by this. It's intolerable.
[sup]1[/sup]Said community is about as populated as the Sahara, nowadays. They are effectively dead.