by Kai » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:50 pm
CYRANO (with grimaces of pain):
It must be moved--it's getting stiff, I vow,
--This comes of leaving it in idleness!
Aie!. . .
THE VISCOUNT:
What ails you?
CYRANO:
The cramp! cramp in my sword!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lithaladhwen: Dia?
Female Pretense: arr?
Lithaladhwen: ...May I borrow you to rant a little?
Female Pretense: Sure. o.o
Lithaladhwen: I just haven't been able to say a lot of things with this whole situation for fear of just being seen as one of the parties to the conflict, you know?
Lithaladhwen: Plus, I haven't been around as long, so sometimes I don't feel like I have the right to say anything if the people who've been through more won't do it.
Female Pretense: *nods*
Lithaladhwen: I know that I'm not the one here with the most at stake. I'm not the one here who's put those most effort into Gaera or RPGWW in general.
Lithaladhwen: I know I'm not the person who's been hurt the worst, and I know I'm not the person who'se been hurt most often.
Lithaladhwen: I'm new. I'm an outsider to this problem, since everyone's been dealing with it longer than I have. I wasn't here for the 'glory days' of RPGWW.
Lithaladhwen: But... right now I feel like I'm the only one who cares. About any of it. I'm the only one who thinks that giving up might not do any good since it never has.
Lithaladhwen: I don't want to be the only one who believes she has a right to be angry, because I honestly believe that I'm not
Lithaladhwen: The fact that no one will get an apology.... it doesn't mean that no one deserves it. It doesn't mean we should close off public discussion and go back to sniping at each other over AIM.
Lithaladhwen: I've missed out on a lot.
Lithaladhwen: And it's times like this, times when no one is willing to stand up for themselves, for the RP setting, characters, and players they care about, that I wonder whether I got here just in time to go down with the ship.
Lithaladhwen: It seems selfish to me, but I don't know how else to feel about it.
Female Pretense: People are standing up for themselves, the RP setting, and etc., from what I see. That's what that entire thread was all about. Pervy need not get himself involved for others to get together and declare 'enough'--regardless of shoulds.
Kate closing the thread, I thought, was a good decision. I don't think everyone in the thread is addressing the same issue. Brian and I were talking earlier today, and it seems to me that for him, the issue is more of the fact that Pervy is not being a friend. To me, the issue is more of the harrassment of different posters...etc., etc. It seems like on the surface everyone's talking about the same thing, but then you get people like Spleen who veer way off.
You're right, stopping public discussion isn't a good idea--but waiting until people calm down and figure out what issue they're addressing isn't a bad idea. (To think back, during the war, there was at least one discussion thread that had to be closed in this manner and another opened reorganizing thoughts for the continuation of the discussion).
Female Pretense: I don't see how you're being selfish, by the by. o.ô
Lithaladhwen: I feel like I am. For one thing, people are giving up. They've said their piece and taken the opportunity to take easy shots at Pervy while they still have a crowd behind them. But for a forum full of people who talk about their childhoods in terms of bullies and the damage they do... many seem content to give up when they have a chance to stop one who's been harassing them for years. I don't want to go through and point people out one by one, yelling at everyone and telling them why they're pissing me off because right now no one needs that. It isn't necessary, and it doesn't make me any better than Pervy, bullying people to keep them 'on my side,' whether I believe it's also their side or not.
Lithaladhwen: The harassment is the problem I feel I can do something about, and therefore it's the one I'm most willing to address. If I can help someone else by telling him to back off (which is what I did months ago and it's what started part of this mess), then I'll do it. That's all the reason I need. But I can't protect people from their own stubborn unwillingness to be anything but victims.
Lithaladhwen: I just don't know what to do. I feel like trying to keep people interested in RPing here is no more productive than beating the proverbial horse. Unfortunately, because of some concept of honor or maybe just some stubborn idiocy on my own part, I cannot force myself to give up on something I care about.
Lithaladhwen: So, I'm stuck fighting for people who don't seem to care anymore.
Lithaladhwen: So, who is there left to care about? Just me, I guess. And that feels selfish.
Lithaladhwen: It's not a matter of personal grudges. I've never been particularly fond of Pervy, but it wasn't until very recently that I even knew there was bad blood between us.
Lithaladhwen: I don't care about Pervy. I don't care if he stays or goes. I don't care what he does with his life or what kind of person he wants to be. That's none of my business.
Lithaladhwen: What I don't like is seeing people I happen to respect and appreciate capitulate to him, allowing him to bully him with the same techniques he's used to victimize them all along.
Lithaladhwen: It's like no one knows how to stand up for themselves and, failing that, they don't know how to let someone else do it on their behalf.
Lithaladhwen: Spleen comes to mind.
Lithaladhwen: I don't know what I can do, and that's what really burns me about this.
Lithaladhwen: I care so much about what's going on, and I feel like there's nothing I can say that people will listen to, nothing I can do that will make a damn bit of difference.
Female Pretense: Mn. *nods*
Female Pretense: Have you tried talking to anyone about this, other than me? Tell someone to 'stand up for yourself'? You sound very sure that no one will.
Lithaladhwen: I've talked to Brian about it, and I've read the logs of his conversations with some others when I wasn't there to watch the IM window over his shoulder.
Lithaladhwen: If you honestly believe it would make a difference, I still don't know how I would approach any of them.
Lithaladhwen: I don't know what I would say other than what I've told you.
Female Pretense: If that's what you can do, then why not try? You care about this a lot, you say, and it sounds like it, so there's not a lot of point in giving up before trying. It's not like you're some newbie, except maybe to Pervy. :0
Lithaladhwen: Well, I'm glad you think so. But it's like everyone here is still seven years old. I don't think it's my job to save them from things they could easily stop themselves. I would do it if I thought they'd appreciate it. I would defy the common sense that tells me people will dismiss everything I say because I have already been set up as Pervy
Lithaladhwen: 's enemy.
Lithaladhwen: (Got a little enter-button-happy there)
Lithaladhwen: Isn't a single goddamned person on this forum sick enough of being bullied and made to feel like their opinions and feelings are "not worth the time" to address?
Lithaladhwen: This defeatist attitude is very discouraging, but I can't stop caring. I can't just give up like some of the others, because quite frankly I'm not used to it.
Lithaladhwen: If I'm wrong, I'm usually proven so and move on.
Lithaladhwen: Nothing has happened here to make me feel unjustified.
Lithaladhwen: So there's nothing to stop me. There's no way I can just go along with some of the others and bend over for the same things that have kept people on this forum unhappy for years.
Lithaladhwen: I don't know whom to talk to anymore. I don't know what to say. I don't know who'll listen at this point.
Lithaladhwen: It's like I'm surrounded by faceless cowards I thought I knew.
Lithaladhwen: I feel like I'm not better for having not said anything. But I'm about to. And it's not going to be pretty.
Female Pretense: *nods*
Lithaladhwen: Along that vein, do you mind if I keep this conversation and post it somewhere? Probably just LJ, since this is apparently "LJ-angst bullshit" anyway, according to some.
Female Pretense: s'fine by me. o.o
Female Pretense: I didn't say much, at any rate. ;;>.> *cough*
Lithaladhwen: Does anything I've said... I don't know. Does it make sense to you?
Female Pretense: Yes. o.o
Lithaladhwen: I wanted the opinion of someone who won't think I'm just pissed at Pervy for disliking Myrnal's sheet.
Female Pretense: 9.9;; It's possible to be pissed at someone, and bring up legitimate criticism against them.
Female Pretense: And even be and sound angry while doing so!
Lithaladhwen: Do you think I'm being unreasonable? That's not a rhetorical question. I've gone too long without an outside opinion.
Female Pretense: Mmm. o.o;; No, not on the issue of Pervy, bullying/bullied, etc., but I think you kept your opinion to yourself for much too long. I know you didn't receive the best first impression of RPGWWers, what with the related topic and all, but people keeping their opinions to themselves is part of the problem, too. Everyone else thinks they're alone and no one speaks up, or reasonable people don't get introduced to another way of looking at an issue, or don't get challenged on their way of thinking, and so forth.
Lithaladhwen: That makes sense.
Lithaladhwen: Incidentally, Brian has reopened the thread that I may post this there.
Lithaladhwen: It seemed only fair to let you know.
Female Pretense: *nod*
Lithaladhwen: Since, you know. You're the one I'm talking to.
Female Pretense: gotcher
Lithaladhwen: I disagree with Priam that no one has a right to complain because RPGWW has only itself to blame. I don't want my position to be grouped along with that, because quite frankly I think that's an erroneous judgment. But what's the good of yelling "I'm Spartacus" if no one else stands up to do it with you?
Lithaladhwen: The thread has gotten off-topic at times because people have been more concerned with bashing Pervy or alternately defending him with their lips firmly pressed to his ass.
Lithaladhwen: I don't care about him. I care about RPGWW and Gaera.
Lithaladhwen: I care about the people he's hurt, even if he doesn't. But him?
Lithaladhwen: I can't care about him now.
Female Pretense: RPGWW is not a person that makes uniform decisions. Until it is, it is not to blame for anything. ;;>.>
Female Pretense: I don't see where someone who's under less-than-optimal circumstances doesn't have a right to seek to better their circumstances. Especially given that when there's a problem, blame will rarely fall solely on that one person's head. That's what discussion is for, and all that jazz.
Lithaladhwen: I agree. I'm not interested in blaming the victims, and I'm not interested in blaming Pervy. That doesn't solve anything. I just want assurance that this is going to stop and RPGWW is going to recover. Whether that comes in the form of an acknowledgement from Pervy that he's hurt many people who trusted him (which I'm certainly not counting on), or simply an assurance from forumers that whether or not he cares, the shit stops here. This isn't about punishing Pervy by exiling him from the herd. It's about making sure that this never, ever happens again.
Lithaladhwen: Whatever gets us there is enough for me.
Female Pretense: Nn. *nods* And that's it, right there, exactly.
Female Pretense: I'm with you on that.
Lithaladhwen: Thank you for that. And for letting me type at you for a good long while. I feel better, and I'm going to go post this to the thread.
Female Pretense: Rightoy. No problem at all--I feel better after this, too.
Lithaladhwen: *nods and copy-pastes* <p>-------------------------
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Sandman "The Kindly Ones" </p>