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lady_t_220Feeling a little odd right now to be honest. Blind curiosity has been leading me places, namely re-visting old fandoms I had abandoned and hunting down the homepages of people I used to talk to, just to see what they've been up to.
I think it was brought about in a roundabout way by quite a few people both on and off my friends list having problems with the communities they're part of.
hearing other people's current round of problems always leaves me unsettled. Usually because they're the same isues I've had with people online as well, so I know how upsetting they can be sometimes.
I think it's the element of backstabbing that gets me. As Oscar Wilde once said, "A true friend stabs you in the front."
So I looked up the homepages of some people I used to be pretty close to. Well they were pretty much like they always used to be. A few years older, a new layout here and there, some new obsessions thrown into the mix, and I really can't be bothered to get in contact with any them because we probably have about this much in common these days.
One or two of them I actually kind of miss, but online friendships can be so fleeting. I find it a little strange sometimes, but then I have to remind myself that the face most people show online is the face of their obsessions. They go where their current interests lead them, stay there till their interest wanes then go elsewhere.
I'd say something about people being fickle but I know I'm just as bad. I get e-mails now and then from people I used to know from one of my previous online existances, and I read them and wonder why the hell they're writing to me. They have nothing to say to me that I find of interest because I just don't care any more. Obsessions come and go and with them so go the people you meet.
Fleeting... fleeting and fickle.
I don't like it. I worry sometimes what'll happen to all the cool people I know at the moment if we all start wandering off on different interests and the friendships don't follow.
On the old fandom front however, there's not a one I regret leaving. I took a look back at one of the old boards I used to frequent and it's still full of the exact same people talking the exact same crap and having the exact same arguments.
Can't be doing with it, don't care, don't wanna' know. Very glad I left. Just looking at the titles of each post and the name of the person who posted it, I can feel my blood pressure rising to the cold dread level I used to get just before yet another pointless flame war broke out and yet more stupid people started whittering about pointless trivialities.
I remember on one memorable occasion there was a 4 page argument about whether someone's eyes were brown or greyish brown or greenish brown or hazel or, as one person memorably insisted "Smoky Topaz".
*beats head bloody against the desk*
I'm not even going to get started on the politics... the cliques and gangs and inner circles, the in-fighting... *shudders*
All present and accounted for, all containing the exact same people they used to. I'm amazed the whole thing hasn't self-destructed by now.
It's left a residual uncomfortable feeling though, a weird niggly twitch that reminds me of the crap side of the internet. All the things I know I'm not good at coping with. Flames, arguments, total loss of enthusiasm and the slow death of fandoms... Especially if it was something you were once very involved in. The fandom became your home so it's sort of like standing around watching your village burn.
Definitely unpleasant.
I'm wondering exactly what it was that brought about this random introspective turn and I don't rightly know.
I was going to spend today writing and maybe enjoying the snow. Instead I find myself feeling deeply unsettled and kind of anxious.
And the snow's melted.
I think it was brought about in a roundabout way by quite a few people both on and off my friends list having problems with the communities they're part of.
hearing other people's current round of problems always leaves me unsettled. Usually because they're the same isues I've had with people online as well, so I know how upsetting they can be sometimes.
I think it's the element of backstabbing that gets me. As Oscar Wilde once said, "A true friend stabs you in the front."
So I looked up the homepages of some people I used to be pretty close to. Well they were pretty much like they always used to be. A few years older, a new layout here and there, some new obsessions thrown into the mix, and I really can't be bothered to get in contact with any them because we probably have about this much in common these days.
One or two of them I actually kind of miss, but online friendships can be so fleeting. I find it a little strange sometimes, but then I have to remind myself that the face most people show online is the face of their obsessions. They go where their current interests lead them, stay there till their interest wanes then go elsewhere.
I'd say something about people being fickle but I know I'm just as bad. I get e-mails now and then from people I used to know from one of my previous online existances, and I read them and wonder why the hell they're writing to me. They have nothing to say to me that I find of interest because I just don't care any more. Obsessions come and go and with them so go the people you meet.
Fleeting... fleeting and fickle.
I don't like it. I worry sometimes what'll happen to all the cool people I know at the moment if we all start wandering off on different interests and the friendships don't follow.
On the old fandom front however, there's not a one I regret leaving. I took a look back at one of the old boards I used to frequent and it's still full of the exact same people talking the exact same crap and having the exact same arguments.
Can't be doing with it, don't care, don't wanna' know. Very glad I left. Just looking at the titles of each post and the name of the person who posted it, I can feel my blood pressure rising to the cold dread level I used to get just before yet another pointless flame war broke out and yet more stupid people started whittering about pointless trivialities.
I remember on one memorable occasion there was a 4 page argument about whether someone's eyes were brown or greyish brown or greenish brown or hazel or, as one person memorably insisted "Smoky Topaz".
*beats head bloody against the desk*
I'm not even going to get started on the politics... the cliques and gangs and inner circles, the in-fighting... *shudders*
All present and accounted for, all containing the exact same people they used to. I'm amazed the whole thing hasn't self-destructed by now.
It's left a residual uncomfortable feeling though, a weird niggly twitch that reminds me of the crap side of the internet. All the things I know I'm not good at coping with. Flames, arguments, total loss of enthusiasm and the slow death of fandoms... Especially if it was something you were once very involved in. The fandom became your home so it's sort of like standing around watching your village burn.
Definitely unpleasant.
I'm wondering exactly what it was that brought about this random introspective turn and I don't rightly know.
I was going to spend today writing and maybe enjoying the snow. Instead I find myself feeling deeply unsettled and kind of anxious.
And the snow's melted.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-08 08:03 am (UTC)Ain't that the truth? Inevitably, the scales will fall from your eyes and you'll realize that some people are snivelling trolls.
Just looking at the titles of each post and the name of the person who posted it, I can feel my blood pressure rising to the cold dread level I used to get just before yet another pointless flame war broke out and yet more stupid people started whittering about pointless trivialities.
A very familiar feeling that.
Flames, arguments, total loss of enthusiasm and the slow death of fandoms... Especially if it was something you were once very involved in. The fandom became your home so it's sort of like standing around watching your village burn.
Another familiar feeling. I think that you've got to enjoy the fandom fellowship feelings while they last, and bail right quick when you see it spiralling into crap, as it inevitably does. Or, at least, that's what works for me.
Re:
Date: 2003-01-08 08:18 am (UTC)True, yet oddly maudlin. You have to wonder why a group of supposed adults can't ever seem to get along without eventually resorting back to a schoolyard mentality.
Grown-up but never actually grown up.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-08 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-08 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-08 10:34 am (UTC)LOL! I love that.
I remember on one memorable occasion there was a 4 page argument about whether someone's eyes were brown or greyish brown or greenish brown or hazel or, as one person memorably insisted "Smoky Topaz".
ROTFLMAO!!! There were the exact same pointless arguments in Hugh Jackman land. Are his eyes green, brown, or hazel? Is his height 6'3" or 6'2"? How much younger is he than his wife? Ad infinitum. :-P
Re:
Date: 2003-01-08 11:07 am (UTC)What kinda' car does he drive? What colour is it? Do you think he ever watched Richard and Judy the last time he was in the UK?
Just frankly, who cares...? XD
no subject
Date: 2003-01-08 02:37 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-08 02:41 pm (UTC)