Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Open thread

Please use the first comment link (to the left of the post count) to sound off.

By JohnMcG at 1:05 PM email
labels

4 comments:

Dawn Coyote said...

Schad banned me from the wikifray forum earlier today, so I could not respond in the forum even if I wanted to, and I no longer want to.

I've deleted my membership to this blog and the admin forum for the blog. I've deleted my Fond Adversaria blog, and handed Write, Bitch over to Karen, after deleting my posts. I'll leave my posts in place here, because of other's participation in comments.

I suggest catnapping to replace me as an admin. She's already agreed to do it.

Many lessons to be learned, here. Good luck with all of that.

Do let me know if Schad manages to recuse himself from forum moderation.

You're all fanatastic. It's been fun.

Seeya,

Sheryl

Aug 14, 2007, 8:28:00 PM  
Gregor Samsa said...

I am pretty clueless, as I said yesterday. Even if I had a clue, would be a waste of time to dredge it up all again. The Pharaoh’s unjust kingdom is one thing, but what’s the point deleting your own posts from your own promised land? Martyrdom is so 90s! Goddamned hysterical wymyn, Jesus Christ!

I don’t think Wiki users see it as a formal board governed by a control hierarchy like the Fray, but an informal (even more pertinently, anarchic) meeting place patched together by cyber acquaintances. It will take a pretty heavy hand to dispel that notion and institute hierarchy, and the evidence is far from in.

The sobering fact about WikiFray is that it is an inbred pool formed by cannibalizing on a one-time basis some of the saner posters from BOTF. Unlike the Fray, it has no long term viability, because it lacks an inflow mechanism to match the inevitable outflow (people’s interest trailing off with time). Therefore, any PR role of the Wiki moderator is imagined, in my opinion.

Of course these are red herrings. The real issues are (a) Schad is a sexist prick who can’t help stomping on anyone questioning his comfy certitudes (b) you are a feminazi bent on emasculating him. After careful consideration, I think there is merit to both accusations. Not surprising, given my bias towards both of you.

So you could still hang out with your cyber friends, have some semi-interesting conversations, float a few half baked compositions, get into a roaring fight or two, till the party breaks up (as it inevitably will). Even more worthy is to end this endless prattle and work full steam on your dreams (write a novel, climb the Everest). What is quite impossible in this la-la land is to die for a good cause (boy, have I ever searched for one). And whatever you do will not be particularly consequential on people’s opinion of either you or Schad (impressions are sticky). For the most part, life ain’t dramatic. It’s hum drum.

Can somebody put a sock in my mouth? Schad, perhaps?

Aug 15, 2007, 3:41:00 PM  
Thy Goddess said...

Forget the sock, how about my tongue...deep in your throat?

Seriously, were you wiretapping my cell conversation with her this afternoon?

Bad boy.

Aug 15, 2007, 7:47:00 PM  
Dawn Coyote said...

I’m always grateful when these little dustups bring you out, especially when you’re moved to provide us with a theoretical framework for the events.

They seem to bring a lot of us out, don’t they? I’m a little ashamed of how giddy and invigorated I become. I’m sure there’s something terribly wrong with me. I find, though, that having accepted my own low-grade insanity, I’m much more prepared to enjoy others’.

And who needs a clue, really? Or a promised land? It had been in my mind to make a bunch of my accounts inaccessible because of the “War on the Feminazis” being conducted recently by a group of hackers (seems the word’s gotten around). I guess that idea remained there when I was making my dramatic exit the other day. I admit it was a little rash to delete my blogs, but the posts are tucked away on another private blog. I’ll put them back into an active blog eventually.

Honestly, I’m feeling liberated without those blogs. They were like a pair of kites that were always aloft in my sky. I felt the imperative to do something with them, simply because they were there, but I’m only sporadically creative, so I was an ineffectual blogger. The only project I’d been keeping up with in recent weeks was a series of pictures with this image of me photoshopped onto various backgrounds. It was easy to do and it gave me an inordinate amount of pleasure. I had some more lined up for that one, but I put it down and forgot about it.

I wasn’t interested in imposing a formal hierarchal structure on wikifray. I like flat organizations best. I wasn’t thinking of the attrition problem, though, even though I recall someone mentioning it before. Are we destined then to become a rag-tag band of wandering Fray urchins? Going from project to project, until our brains calcify?

Power struggles are ugly. I’ve been a real bitch lately. I’m going to try to calm down and stop being so combative, just for the week, maybe, while I’ve got Angelina with me.

I’ve found myself wishing you were party to some of the blamer conversations because I think you’d find the shaping of the discourse quite interesting. Different rules, different norms. I’ll see if I can listen more closely, and offer a better description.

I’ve added myself back to wikifray. Schad’s removed my suspension. I’m going to flit gaily about, go wherever the wind blows, and not concern myself with doing anything more than finding “some semi-interesting conversations, float[ing] a few half baked compositions, get[ting] into a roaring fight or two [next week, maybe], till the party breaks up (as it inevitably will) [*sob*].

What is quite impossible in this la-la land is to die for a good cause (boy, have I ever searched for one). And whatever you do will not be particularly consequential on people’s opinion of either you or Schad (impressions are sticky). For the most part, life ain’t dramatic. It’s hum drum.

Are you telling me that one day I’ll have to get by without the pearls you scatter as you pass though the pen? That will be tragic, indeed.

Aug 16, 2007, 6:33:00 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)