Monday, July 06, 2009

Support... or lack thereof

I took another look at the dress and I discovered that it didn't properly fit. It was too big at the sides by far. I've made some adjustments and taken it up by about half an inch. I do have to make a change to the gusset under the arm to raise the underarm, but I've figured out what to do there.

The dress looks so much prettier now and I feel so much better about it. I also took another look at the fabric (there are two layers) and I'm very happy with it, too.

That was the best stuff that happened today.

The worse stuff involves the young survival board. There was a message thread on not posting links to people's private blogs without their permission. Someone had posted such a link and I'd asked her privately and nicely to remove. The person who's blog was exposed isn't doing well and has been feeling stalked by people who have been reading that blog. The person who posted the link didn't think there was any reason to remove it... and didn't seem to understand why the issue mattered in the first place.

I was completely floored by this, but after some thought and talk with others, I'd decided to drop it.

But then the general thread exploded today. A friend of this other woman's started posting, and the whole thing blew up. I'm ashamed to say that I got angry in that thread and I swore, which is something I rarely do in messages. In my justification, I was called a liar by someone who hadn't read what I'd written. Not that this made anything better.

This isn't the first time a thread has blown up like that, but it's happening more often lately. Things have changed there recently... where before people would argue but not really take sides, now there is an out-and-gang of bullies there. When posting, they paraphrase what people say and twist the words that were written - in post after post after post - until you look like a fool trying to defend yourself. But the allegations are so preposterous that you can't not defend yourself, you know?


This was an awful experience. At several points today I was so tense I was shaking and had a terrible headache, just from the stress on that board. And mixed in with all the anger was my inability to understand why it was even an issue... why people think it's ok to post a link to a private blog, and then justify by saying people had thanked them, and that other information about that person could be found on google. I don't get it.


The only way out of that mess would have been to not get involved, which I didn't do. The thread has now been closed by moderators (in an unprecedented move), prompting other threads by the bullies. I'm staying away from that gang. Life's too short. And besides, I have a dress to make.

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