Why I joined the Feminist group.

[iverglas]

34. just check whom my post was in reply to, and what was said

The flamewars and pile-ons make me uneasy too. They make all of us who are the constant victims of them uneasy. Seriously annoyed, actually. But hey, when people are gunning for you, it would be silly not to sleep with one eye open.

I can't offer any guarantee that you won't have someone climbing down your neck for something you say. Inquisition appears to be the modus operandi here. Conform to the party line that some want to impose on this forum, or suffer the consequences all over DU.

If you click on my profile and then look at my transparency page, you'll see the ridiculous lengths that will be gone to, to achieve the goal. I alerted on a post (that had nothing to do with me) tonight that said, in the subject line, "You are a liar". The jury thought that was just fine and left it to stand. Someone alerted on a post of mine that asked whether a poster's game wasn't old and smelly, and enough of their friends on the jury that that was just horrible that it got hidden. I'd feel like an idiot alerting on something like that, myself, but when the stakes are so high -- and they seem to be, not that I have ever had a clue what they were -- that it's worth looking that silly, I guess.

I wish I could offer guarantees. I wish you could be assured that if you say something in this forum, someone who hasn't had anything else to say about anything won't leap out from behind a bush and holler that you have just insulted some group or other and must now either admit the error of your ways (even when you have not erred) or forever after be hounded around cyberspace and mud thrown at you until you go away.

Many people do go away. This forum is missing, oh, a couple of dozen posters from the old DU who have no intention of wasting their time on this nonsense. It's dead before it gets started. But what they want, they have got, so we can only wish them well in their future endeavours.

Meanwhile, you can always just read a thread that looks actually interesting, and if you see no one lurking behind a bush, add to it. Many people here actually like reading other members' thoughts about any number of things. Heck, I've just posted about soap operas in the thread about intimate-partner violence. Come on along and join in. One or two people did try to start something up there (you know, women aren't so special, children are victims of violence too ..), but it hasn't worked yet, so maybe that thread can be preserved. Jump in and have a say!