My opinion about bullies

[XOXO]

Sox: maybe you should delete your post to Lex like CA girl deleted hers to you. Apparently, that will mean you are not a bully.

[soxfan22]

No Ruth, your post had two objectives:

1. To have Anthony revoke my account
2. To have me apologize to Lex for something that does not warrant an apology.

There is a long line of people who have been rude to others on this board. Yet you choose to single me out. Did you start a new thread when I was called a douche-bag last year?

Was that rude? I don't remember the thread you started asking for a apology. I'll start looking now.

[nowah1965]

There are definitely "bullies" on both sides of this fence.

I am generally a "right leaning" person and many times I have seen comments on this forum that rub me the wrong way, but I'm a bit of a coward and just didn't want to deal with any backlash so I keep my opinions to myself for the most part.

We obviously are a passionate group, and that is good. But, I would like to feel comfortable disagreeing with some of the pronouncements on this forum without fear of attack. Sadly I think we are still a long way from that. Some bipartisanship would be nice.

I don't think censoring forum friends is the answer. That puts one group of people right and the other wrong. Some mutual respect would be a great start. Attack/criticize the argument, not the person. If one sees a thread that is obviously political, and you don't feel like playing, don't click on it. Easy, peasy.

My general rule with these sorts of things is before hitting "submit", I take a second to read over what I wrote and if my mother would be ashamed of me for posting it I go back to the drawing board.

I think mom would be ok with this one.

[soxfan22]

Wow...Suddenly, I feel like Jorge.

[California Girl]

Gina, I don't understand what I did to piss you off at me so bad. I'm sorry if you can hear a "tone" in my typing, too bad your hearing is off, as there was no tone. I did think we were having fun, but as I stated, I was apparently wrong and that was not the time or place to try to have fun.

I deleted my other post because after you asked me to "explain" what I wrote, I read that as inflammatory and decided not to "go there", so I deleted it.

Now I'm done apologizing and explaining to you and anyone else who thinks I'm such bad person. What's with this board anyway? Sheesh!

[LysaC]

I probably read almost every single post on this message board and I just think that sometimes the "bullies" don't even know who they are

i totally agree with you connie.

first off- i am not a down-the-line conservative or liberal or democrat or republican. i am a true independent searching for truths in order to make decisions that i can live with. i used to lean left but lately i find myself leaning right.

mob mentality has unfortunately had a stronghold on the off-topic forum for quite sometime.
it's ok to be a "bully" if you are a liberal bully because liberal-mindedness is the majority here.

and when it comes to apologies- i saw part of a thread where someone misspelled or mistyped a word and they were accused of being drunk. really?

seems as if you are liberal-minded, you can pretty much say whatever you like? that makes me sad.

these days, there is no place to find truth (media bias), no place to disagree, no place to debate and be other-minded. if you are not liberal-minded, you are branded as racist, predjudice, stupid, classist, greedy.

i will be very disappointed if anyone here is voted off the island. this is a pretty darn tame forum. have you been to other virgin islands forums? people are insulted for asking questions about the virgin islands!

[XOXO]

Well said. The voice of reason. If you were my kid I would be proud.

There are definitely "bullies" on both sides of this fence.

I am generally a "right leaning" person and many times I have seen comments on this forum that rub me the wrong way, but I'm a bit of a coward and just didn't want to deal with any backlash so I keep my opinions to myself for the most part.

We obviously are a passionate group, and that is good. But, I would like to feel comfortable disagreeing with some of the pronouncements on this forum without fear of attack. Sadly I think we are still a long way from that. Some bipartisanship would be nice.

I don't think censoring forum friends is the answer. That puts one group of people right and the other wrong. Some mutual respect would be a great start. Attack/criticize the argument, not the person. If one sees a thread that is obviously political, and you don't feel like playing, don't click on it. Easy, peasy.

My general rule with these sorts of things is before hitting "submit", I take a second to read over what I wrote and if my mother would be ashamed of me for posting it I go back to the drawing board.

I think mom would be ok with this one.

[XOXO]

Gina, I don't understand what I did to piss you off at me so bad. I'm sorry if you can hear a "tone" in my typing, too bad your hearing is off, as there was no tone. I did think we were having fun, but as I stated, I was apparently wrong and that was not the time or place to try to have fun.

I deleted my other post because after you asked me to "explain" what I wrote, I read that as inflammatory and decided not to "go there", so I deleted it.

Now I'm done apologizing and explaining to you and anyone else who thinks I'm such bad person. What's with this board anyway? Sheesh!

First: I did not remember who "congratulated" Dave007 and it didn't matter to me. The point I was making was lost somewhere. I was trying to point on that "a bully", aka Sox, is being singled out. I disagree with that.


But when I read your response to me I saw it as inflammatory. If I am wrong. I am wrong. I am sorry.

Gina

[LysaC]

Well said. The voice of reason. If you were my kid I would be proud.

There are definitely "bullies" on both sides of this fence.

I am generally a "right leaning" person and many times I have seen comments on this forum that rub me the wrong way, but I'm a bit of a coward and just didn't want to deal with any backlash so I keep my opinions to myself for the most part.

We obviously are a passionate group, and that is good. But, I would like to feel comfortable disagreeing with some of the pronouncements on this forum without fear of attack. Sadly I think we are still a long way from that. Some bipartisanship would be nice.

I don't think censoring forum friends is the answer. That puts one group of people right and the other wrong. Some mutual respect would be a great start. Attack/criticize the argument, not the person. If one sees a thread that is obviously political, and you don't feel like playing, don't click on it. Easy, peasy.

My general rule with these sorts of things is before hitting "submit", I take a second to read over what I wrote and if my mother would be ashamed of me for posting it I go back to the drawing board.

I think mom would be ok with this one.

yes- this is what i was thinking too. nowah1965 was much more eloquent and uses capital letters - kudos !

[soxfan22]

Pete said to Cypressgirl:

Re-read your post when sober and ask yourself if you really meant half of it.

Report back.

Rude?

Mrs. Pete said to Cypressgirl:

Wow. Diseaster? As Anthony suggested, let's not drink and post. Everyone, have a good night's sleep and we'll pick this up in the morning.

Rude?

In so many ways, these are insensitive remarks, at best.

Flip said:

The right wing and the terrorists seem to have a common agenda now

Inflammatory?

Where's the thread, Ruth?

[pipanale]

(struggles for words here)

I see everyone's points and can wag a finger at about 40 people here for not playing nice in the sandbox.

In the end, I always see this place as fun. Even when it gets nasty, perhaps because I love watching disasters, I still find it fun. But, if I don't want to read something, I don't read it. Nobody's forcing anyone to click on a thread.

And, if someone's goading you through PM's (It's been done to me) then the goader needs to be slapped.

I don't know. None of this is worth elevating my blood pressure. I have bigger things to worry about.

But...being civil is always important. It's too easy to hide at a keyboard. As I also have learned, your words on a screen can come back to bite you in the ass...when a villa owner corners you at the Beach Bar to rip you a new one over a less than positive review.

It can come back to get you.

So...be nice. It's easier that way

[designbyroe]

thank you pipanale......very well said

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

Sox, you are correct, my comment was rude and I apologize here and now to Cypressgirl.

Ruth, thank you for your extremely well phrased expression of disgust with what has happened here on the OT forum. I agree completely with you and again, I am sorry for any disrespectful comments I have made.

[augie]

In other words, if you do not agree completely with the OP, then you have hijacked a thread.

Dead wrong. And you know better. An example of hijacking is responding to a post that's intent was to say "I saw the US president today and I think that's cool" with slams against said president, what he was doing in Denmark, how well/poorly he did it, etc.

Having an opposing point of view would have been expressed something like "no, you didn't think it was cool", "no, you didn't see the US president", or even as far as "I don't think it was cool that you saw the US president."

You seem to be intelligent enough to actually understand the difference, but also come across to me as condescending enough to think that I (we?) aren't smart enough to know what you're really doing when you do, in fact, "hijack" every thread that provides you with the slimmest opening to repeat ad naseum the same things you've been saying for months on this forum.

I have chosen to stay out of the threads where politics are discussed because the signal to noise ratio (in this case the amount of meaningful information versus the rhetoric, name calling, and inflammatory language) is so low. That and the fact that I'm sure that there must be forums somewhere whose purpose is for the discussion of such things.

I'm not advocating censorship or banning, and if someone on "the other side" says that Obama isn't the anti-Christ, then by all means empty the bag defending your counter argument.

As to the reply on Lex's post that seems to have been the catalyst for this one, my take was this: You were fine asking why he didn't respond on the five page thread that was already up. Left at that, he may have felt compelled to give you a reason (or not) as to why he felt a new one was warranted. But the personal attack that followed was what, for me, seemed out of place and out of line.

A good message board rule that everyone would be well advised to try and heed is, when debating a point, attack the message, but not the messenger.

That's more words that I've posted on the off-topic forum in quite some time, and probably more than I'm likely to for some time to come. Maybe I'll take some pictures of dinner tonight so that I can post on your new food thread!

[RickG]

Blech. I hate conversations at home that start with "Oh my God, did you see what's going on with the OT Forum?" It's time to put a stake in heart of this beast.

Selective reading is a skill; I'll continue to ignore the thrash of angry words. Anger is a drug and self-righteousness is a crutch.

Off to chat with Jorge on email. Ruth, see you soon!

Cheers, RickG