You'll also find fewer survivors speaking out and participating on this forum now, particularly in the toxic atmosphere of suspicion, accusation and acrimony imparted in this thread. While I acknowledge that the intention was to clear the air, the opposite - a cloud of suspicion, confusion and calamity -has been the result. Good people have been hurt and left. Others angered. Most disappointed to see the devolution of what has otherwise been a fine forum, being currently gutted by gossip and rumor and unfounded fears.
I've been reading here for years but seldom participate by posting. I've also followed the other forums at issue and am familiar with most of the names being pejoratively pinned as probable puppets and as a conspiring, covert crew in paranoid panic. I can attest that most are innocent of what is being implied and attributed to them, directly and by innuendo, except for two main antagonists targeted. The two disruptors were OSR and, separately, Delgado.
Otherwise the "named" (attributed and projected by inaccurate assumptions about their identity and motives) have included LilyPat2 (Patricia Davis), Susano (11:11, Thomas Paine) and LabRat (Second Wind) as OSR's "crew". That name-calling net was also cast to include others deemed sympathetic to them and thus summararily painted/tainted with the same broad brush and so similarly condemned. Even recent regulars here got smeared by that grouping.
They are accused of destroying forums for fun and ARG frolic. Bullshit. UC continues, as does the BV, as does GLP, as does this fringe frontier too. Dreams End's forum, blog and bullhorn were victims of his own panic over ARG, separate from OSR and Cosmic Cowbell's contrived "OSR crew" conspirators. Cowbell has had this particular crop in her craw (or cud) ever since LilyPat dared submit that many alleged alien abductions were done by human hands, and she has chewed to death that perceived personal challenge to her beliefs.
Like compared2what?'s precipitating post about her own deep distrust of other regulars here based on her own personalized misinterpretations of motivations, each instigator in this forum furor has a personal hobby horse to beat upon, but rides it recklessly like a rodeo roundup to lassoo all the unusual suspects.
Add into that fear fomentation a deeply offended and outraged administrator's ally who was unfairly and personally skewered in another forum, that had a few loose ties with some unwary, enabling participants from here, and the clucking ladies suddenly have their black knight protector crusading vengefully for their kills -weilding the duel weapon of righteous revenge and Jeff's ear.
The net result is a tangled net of negativity that captures everyone's angst, and culminates in a caustic atmosphere of confusion, condemnation and chaos.
Hardly an inviting environment for welcoming inclusion to those many victims watching and waiting for an avenue of investigation and informative research.
Like most forums, the regulars here have become too caught up in drinking their own bath water and swallowing it whole, based on loyalty, seniority and friendship. The self-absorbed acrimony about others has become poisonously paranoid. Fear of forum collapse is driving the owner to demented distraction, buying into the bullshit his henchmen and women have ladled on vicariously.
The rest of us watch in somewhat stunned dismay, knowing the barricades have been built, the banners blown and the ban blade sharpened for more heads to roll. We wonder when there will be a return to tolerance, inclusivity and more rigorous intuition.
