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forum fruitcakes and their issues

   i have spent a couple of blog posts and many, many comment ping pong moments with mr. ochris, made all the more funny by the fact that my sister is also named chris and we have debated every topic known to man. i went back and read everything leading up to this, and i figured this out: what i was asked to write about flew straight over my one-track head. it turns out that i READ that someone wanted my observations on forum schizoposters, but i immediately thought schizo-bloggers. there are differences between the two, and after i post my very LIMITED knowledge of the subject, i am sure mr ochris will tie my hands to one elephant and my feet to another and have them pull me til they STRAIGHTEN ME OUT!

   this would be a good time to point out a few facts: in the paper we are discussing, the forums are largely anonymous and generate no direct income. perhaps once mr. ocris publishes the book he is having me ghost-write for him, the pure fame of the paper will generate more income. but for now, this is a quiet corner of the world in spite of those who try to rile up participants. so why would someone need more than one name in a mostly anonymous world?

   have you ever noticed someone who, while short in stature, does things in a BIG fashion? one of the guys we grew up with was rather short. we didn't notice til he told us not to notice. he had to "be big." when we went bowling and he missed a spare, he kicked the ball return so hard he popped the top off of it. at a club i was visiting to see my friends in a band play, he showed up and called me over. he wanted to show me a pistol as long as his thigh. i simply wanted to kill him. idiot. but it was his lifetime habit of over-compensating for the six inches in height he felt he was denied. some (mr ochris, did you notice the qualifying start? lol) of the schizo-posters are doing the same sort of compensation for the lack they perceive when looking in the "mirror" provided by a community forum. while the "anonymity" of the forums offers a healthy psyche a chance to write peacefully, the freedom in the very nature of the forum gives already warped folks a place to deepen their weirdness. so those of us who are sane (HA! now THAT'S funny!) become vexed and tormented when, as mr. ochris has pointed out, these people do the writing equivalent to pooping on our lawn.

   another group of schizo-posters is simply timid. happy, assertive people will find this dumber than a screen roof in a rain-forest, but there are those people who are so used to being unaccepted that they wish daily that they could be someone else, somewhere else, someone not so socially awkward. forums give them the chance to start over and see what it will do for them. this aspect of things gets tricky. they are, perhaps, inconvenient while learning to find their own voice. do we act like bigots who say, "green people need educations, but not in MY child's school! they should know their place"? do we act like my father who actually told me not to bring him songs i had learned on my guitar because i would never be any good? as a community that is in love with itself anyway (someone famous said all writers are in a love-affair with themselves), might it be nice if we allowed our less experienced voices to find themselves in our understanding company?

   then there are the tolerance testers. don't you want to punch them in the brain sometimes? they pull insult out of a compliment. they nit pick thinking that they appear intelligent when they actually just look mulish. "i don't care if you have my dinner. i want to kick you." there really isn't a healthy logic behind any such behavior. sure, jesse owens constructively antagonized hitler, but our little forums rarely carry such timeless importance. schizo-forum posters amuse their audience of one. several years back, i had a stalker actually take on two-personalities and send me complicated arguments they had been in supposedly over me. she sent pictures, family histories, things that took work. then one day she said, "i have just been messing with you, but i would like to friends." oh, yeah. that's gonna happen!
   mr. ochris suggests that my advise is simply to ignore them. i absolutely miscommunicated that. it is no secret that i have a Scriptural slant to my thinking. i am NOT a "good" person. i just go to church a lot. i like the people and my personal spirituality includes loving people. but there is a confrontation pattern that the Water-Walker suggested that might service the forum communities. it goes like this: 1) approach them one-on-one in a caring spirit and see if you can affect some change to their negative behavior. 2) if there is no change, approach them with two-or-three others and see if that gets their attention. 3) if they continue to ignore the sensibilities of the group, have the group speak with one voice in one last warning. "this is not the place for your self-centeredness to continue. you are disrupting the atmosphere for the entire group. we would deeply appreciate it if you behaved more politely and had more consideration for the community. if not, we will be forced to block you from future activity here." that way we don't have to give up our integrity to punish their lack of maturity. in the final analysis, this is a community. it works as well or as poorly as its members. matching the schizo-posters insanity-to-insanity is ridiculous. all capitals and angry rhetoric are as constructive as the schizos. i suggest more maturity than the schizos when dealing with them. but that is just me. now the conversation should begin. i have to go get a tooth pulled, but i will look for your responses when i return. i shall see you anon.