Today I stopped by to look at the Funny Bunnies, and thought I'd check my mail inbox. Talk about a surprise: ten "We'll miss you!" messages from ten different people! Thank you, all of you, you brought a tear to my eye. I want to share two of these messages, that really moved me a lot.
DarkAsh wrote:Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:02 am
Your leaving is a punch in the stomach. It has been a pleasure reading your posts and learning from your interpretations of the on the stories, characters, and their possible motivations, and getting to know a little bit about you. Your absence will be a great loss to the forums. And It is sad that there is undoubtedly some out there who will see your departure as a boon to the forums.
I completely understand your frustration with the conditions of the forums as of late. I began posting because I enjoyed what I had been reading up to that point and it felt like a good place to converse with fellow enthusiast. But those with negative views have been the most vocal on the forums souring the experience. And that is not fair to those that enjoy the works of PTC and want to express our enjoyment of them.
If you find your self overwhelmed with delight for one of the pages and you want to express yourself, send me a message. I would be happy to listen.
Farewell, ghost of Pizen Bluff, may you find peace now that you are no longer condemned to roam the forum of torment.
DA.
worldshaking00 wrote:Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:14 am
Sorry to see you go. Yes, at times the forum can get quite vitriolic and asinine. Sad state of affairs, but that is life. Going anywhere, one will wander into those who have differing and frustrating-to-deal-with opinions. I work with people - most of whom I wouldn't even want to know what postal code I live in - but I still have to deal with them. I say my peace, be polite, and move along. Life is too short for dealing with assholes.
I don't fault you for your decision. Sometimes complete removal might be necessary. My skin is just thicker than most... or my faith in humanity has dwindled to such a depth that I don't even care what written diarrhea some posters make. Net effect is the same: I am there because I enjoy expressing my point of view and I sometimes can be surprised by meeting others... and if I am lucky, become illuminated by a clever post(er). Sometimes that might mean having to wade through some offal. I find it rewarding, but I try to not feed the trolls too. Giving them a sense of satisfaction and giving them attention, only emboldens them more often than not. Ignoring them is good in concept; making them eat crow is another. Ideally a moderator would chastise or castrate the worst offenders. I grew up without the 'safe spaces' of today. I've learned to tune out the rabble noise, and only tend to really notice the blatantly rude ones. But as the guest in their forum 'house', it is not my job to call out people's behavior. Leaving, as sad as that might be, is an alternative... as is turning the cheek and ignoring.
Sayonara seems appropriate, considering our tastes in anime.
It comforts me to know that, in my few years in the forum, I did make a difference. I suspect that if it was someone like, say, Fluffy, nobody would miss her Bible-thumping rants.
One thing that several people mentioned in their messages is that moderation
still hasn't reacted to the gross violations of forum etiquette I wrote about before. Something is really wrong here. They tell me Alex seems to be the only moderator still active. If that's the case, he sucks at moderating -- so much it's outrageous. The problem he's ignoring is not a minor one. We're talking here about loonies who accuse Giz and Dave of advocating racism, rape and pedophilia. We're talking about slut-shamers who call a pre-teen girl "a slut whose goal in life is to suck dick for dimes." We're talking about
fan haters who unleash abuse at anyone who says they like the comics. None of these are tolerable in a forum. We know from exchanges in previous threads that the offensive messages were reported, that many people wrote directly to Alex, that there were public calls to action -- mine included... and yet, he hasn't lifted a finger. The mind, it boggles. What's wrong with his moderating? How can he suck so much? How can he fail so hard? These are questions that should be asked. Not by me, seeing as it ain't my concern anymore -- but by the forum regulars.
This is a later codicil:
Actually, there's another reason this problem should be tackled by forum members. It's that there's absolutely no chance of Giz doing it, because she doesn't give a flaming rat's ass about the forum. It's sad, really sad, but it's true: Giz and Dave don't read the forum, don't care about the opinions of the people who write here and don't pay attention to their messages, praises or flames. I've had confirmation from Giz herself -- she wrote to me (in reply to a pm) and stated it candidly:
https://image.ibb.co/eMogFV/Giz-message-Clipboard01.jpg
Mind you, this also explains why the trolls and haters in the forum have so little success when they try to pressure the creative team. People like Fluffy or Error of Logic practically spend their lives glued to their screens, writing in this forum every single day, posting huge bricks of text to bash the comic and denounce the evils of the authors... and they are systematically ignored, as if they weren't there. Of course, knowing that Giz and Dave have never read their messages, this comes as no surprise. I kinda wonder, though: do these little trolls know the truth? How would they feel if they knew they have wasted years of their lives writing here, trying to influence Giz & Dave, for nothing? (Oh, the schadenfreude of it all.)
I'll stop here and leave the rest to y'all. Me, one who has left the forum, shouldn't really be speaking. Bye bye, everyone. (I know, I know, I had already said a final goodbye in my previous message, and look at me now. But this time it's my last post for realz.)