I'm glad mayhemicdestrvctor is back
Jul 11, 2024 19:54:21 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Jul 11, 2024 19:54:21 GMT -5
I mentioned in another post that I was ecstatic to see mayhemicdestrvctor posting again. I'll explain why.
There's two very important reasons for this.
As many of you know, I've never really bothered to create rules that most forums have. Without ever having created rules myself, many of the people on this forum do understand some aspects of being a compassionate forum member and take some accountability to moderate themselves for the overall betterment of the community. I don't need to specifically tell anyone here to check your spelling and grammar before you hit the post button. I don't need to sticky a 'forum rules' thread to point to in order to remind you to stay on topic. I don't even need to ban people that double or triple post in the same thread.
Many of you do hold some personal responsibility to participate on this forum through some agreed and unwritten rules without me needing to enforce them. It makes sense that you guys do this without needing to be specifically told to do it. It is done through an understanding of mutual respect for one another. Each and every one of you willingly takes some ownership of the quality of this community to ensure that your posts offer a digestible reading experience for the reader. That's good.
This is also why I have so much difficulty computing what happens when I step into a thread and tell the participating parties "hey don't be shitty to people who aren't here to defend themselves or people you don't really know."
Over the last few weeks, days and days were spent arguing back and forth about the necessity of enacting more rules, banning people, enforcing stricter or looser moderating decisions. In the process, I often felt ganged up on, misled, alienated, treated like some kind of an abuser, a sleeper agent, a pawn in some giant incomprehensible psyop. I can't puzzle the pieces together. My repeated attempts at trying to speak with reason has made me feel crippled.
Think about it for a moment; does incoherent drunkposting trespass the boundaries of truly free expression?
The first reason I'm glad mayhemic destrvctor is back on this forum is that I find his participation here to be very grounding. It makes me feel sane again. It's a massive reminder of how much of a phenomenon it is that this forum somehow dodged this primitive stage in a typical forum's growing pains. If the forum housed a few dozen people just like mayhemicdestrvctor, drunk posting, spelling words wrong, and speaking overly casually and informally, it would result in a lot of very easy and necessary forum moderating decisions.
Nevertheless, how could one deny that his posting is jovial, vulnerable, and extraordinarily in the present? Mayhemicdestrvctor's engagement with this forum's community is curious, interested, and unabashedly shameless. I find this beautiful and uplifting, even when it is in extreme violation of the forum's unspoken code of conduct.
The second reason is I was almost positive he was dead. The quality and quantity of his writing and the details of his personal life spilling out on the forum spoke mixed messages. For some, this was an elaborate ruse by a calculated troll, playing a caricature of an immature ingrate with a personality constructed purposefully to annoy people. For me, these same messages were signs that he was a very troubled, possibly disabled, or traumatized person seeking connection. These are two very disparate poles on the privilege spectrum.
To those still questioning, I'm 100% sure it is not, and never was, a troll attempt. I felt extremely alone in my defense of him, and I think an error of judgment this massive could have resulted in fatal consequences. If there had been any verification that what I had feared was true, I really think I would have voluntarily excused myself from the doom community for good.
There's two very important reasons for this.
As many of you know, I've never really bothered to create rules that most forums have. Without ever having created rules myself, many of the people on this forum do understand some aspects of being a compassionate forum member and take some accountability to moderate themselves for the overall betterment of the community. I don't need to specifically tell anyone here to check your spelling and grammar before you hit the post button. I don't need to sticky a 'forum rules' thread to point to in order to remind you to stay on topic. I don't even need to ban people that double or triple post in the same thread.
Many of you do hold some personal responsibility to participate on this forum through some agreed and unwritten rules without me needing to enforce them. It makes sense that you guys do this without needing to be specifically told to do it. It is done through an understanding of mutual respect for one another. Each and every one of you willingly takes some ownership of the quality of this community to ensure that your posts offer a digestible reading experience for the reader. That's good.
This is also why I have so much difficulty computing what happens when I step into a thread and tell the participating parties "hey don't be shitty to people who aren't here to defend themselves or people you don't really know."
Over the last few weeks, days and days were spent arguing back and forth about the necessity of enacting more rules, banning people, enforcing stricter or looser moderating decisions. In the process, I often felt ganged up on, misled, alienated, treated like some kind of an abuser, a sleeper agent, a pawn in some giant incomprehensible psyop. I can't puzzle the pieces together. My repeated attempts at trying to speak with reason has made me feel crippled.
Think about it for a moment; does incoherent drunkposting trespass the boundaries of truly free expression?
The first reason I'm glad mayhemic destrvctor is back on this forum is that I find his participation here to be very grounding. It makes me feel sane again. It's a massive reminder of how much of a phenomenon it is that this forum somehow dodged this primitive stage in a typical forum's growing pains. If the forum housed a few dozen people just like mayhemicdestrvctor, drunk posting, spelling words wrong, and speaking overly casually and informally, it would result in a lot of very easy and necessary forum moderating decisions.
Nevertheless, how could one deny that his posting is jovial, vulnerable, and extraordinarily in the present? Mayhemicdestrvctor's engagement with this forum's community is curious, interested, and unabashedly shameless. I find this beautiful and uplifting, even when it is in extreme violation of the forum's unspoken code of conduct.
The second reason is I was almost positive he was dead. The quality and quantity of his writing and the details of his personal life spilling out on the forum spoke mixed messages. For some, this was an elaborate ruse by a calculated troll, playing a caricature of an immature ingrate with a personality constructed purposefully to annoy people. For me, these same messages were signs that he was a very troubled, possibly disabled, or traumatized person seeking connection. These are two very disparate poles on the privilege spectrum.
To those still questioning, I'm 100% sure it is not, and never was, a troll attempt. I felt extremely alone in my defense of him, and I think an error of judgment this massive could have resulted in fatal consequences. If there had been any verification that what I had feared was true, I really think I would have voluntarily excused myself from the doom community for good.
