Misty: Thank you so much for all your help in my art show! Coming in at 8:30, being there for the opening...you've been such a big help! It means a lot! :D If there's anything I can do, name it!

Love,
Megan

Awww, you're so very welcome. I feel a little embarrassed, being thanked, for doing something that I enjoyed. What can you do? Keep painting. Keep dreaming. Now -- onto the important part: selling!

I will! And I hope I'll sell, lol :D OMG The night I first thanked you, I clicked the link of the unofficial bio of msscribe...isn't that nutz??? she was a freak! i am so glad we kicked her out of my fandom. not that i ship h/hr or h/g...nope, I'm Harry/Draco all the way. But our fandom goddess had such a problem with her... anyway, thanks for putting the link up, i read all 10 chapters in one night!

Wow - bet you had no idea at the time what a bullet you were dodging. She sounds positively in need of professional intervention.

You read all 10 in one evening? Ah, the joys of being out for the summer.

When someone's online behavior makes Old Blevins look good, you know it's bad.

I've been following that with horrified fascination and, just, wow.

*snort* Funny how I, too, kept thinking of old Blevins. And Hector.

Nothing will make either of them look good to me - I'm still of the firm opinion that they're toxic - but it gave me some perspective on levels of toxicity. They couldn't have pulled that shit with Mattnet because we had too many tech savvy folks who would have had no qualms about tracking down the IPs and gleefully exposed all. Then again, we weren't a fandom so we didn't have the bizarre twist that "BNF" seems to give the dynamics.

Yeah, "OMG, tracing IPs!" did not sound nearly as impressive to either of us as I suspect it did to many of the fandom types.

I was thinking of old Blevins and the Guppster, myself. That wank was going on when I joined Mattnet and seemed about the right level of bitterness, and a lot of the Hector stuff ended up in my killfile.

I really miss Mattnet. Not only for keeping me in touch with people I know in real life and care about - but also because the intellectual stimulation kept me on my toes. I had to think about what I wanted to say and how I was going to do so before opening my big mouth. It helped me better define my reasoning for myself.

True, the bitterness was rife and there were some very hard feelings. I'm probably naive on this, but I had the impression that while things were heavily slanted in the liberal direction (there were just more of us to pick apart the absurdities), someone with a coherent conservative reasoning could find respect for his or her opinion. Not necessarily agreement, but respect.

I miss it too. I miss it keeping me on my toes intellectually. I feel less smart and less interested without it.

On the other hand, it taught me a lot of valuable lessons about how not to act on the intarwebs, some personal, and some vicarious. "Fat ho from Leningrad", "Gene bags" and "You don't know the meaning of fairness" come to mind. And there are people I will never speak to again and never forgive for shit that was said there. I don't have to have a killfile now that I've left Mattnet and the Amber mailing list.

I don't think there were any conservatives on Mattnet, really. I think you had liberals, anarchists, and libertarians, but no genuine social conservatives. They couldn't have lived with the regime there.

...no genuine social conservatives. They couldn't have lived with the regime there.

You're correct. Social conservatives would have found us worthless, I imagine, and the feeling would probably have been mutual. I was thinking more in terms of more traditional ways of thinking and people with very different economic philosophies. I don't think any of us ever changed any of each others' minds but I found some I could disagree with and still respect because they had thought through their beliefs and could defend their positions against challenge. 'Course, they were still wrong, but... ;-)

I'd forgotten the pleasure of plonking. Hector and one other guy (he may have joined Mattnet after you left) are the only two I recall ending up in the trashbin but my life was so much happier for it.

I want a thread-level killfile in gmail soooooooooo badly.

I know. It's like I'm suddenly at peace with the world.

I feel so -- sane.

I feel for the poor souls who just liked the Potter Universe and wanted to enjoy sharing with other fans but who ended up caught in the crossfire, mudslinging, and general nastiness that some people fomented.

*blinks* Wow. I have no interest in the HP fandom and I doubt I ever will, but that made for some very compelling reading. Thank you for posting that link! I never thought I'd say the Stargate fandom was sane, but compared to *that*....

What a fascinating, scary look at what human nature, especially when combined with possible mental illness and/or a lust for power, is capable of doing.

(I hadn't seen that icon before. I could stare at Daniel all day...*sigh*)

You're certainly welcome for the link. I didn't think I'd be interested in the essay since I've spent no time in the particular fandom but it's a compelling case-study of misbehavior and group dynamics.

I've met this general personality-type before, though the case laid out here is certainly more comprehensive and the apparent behavior more extensive than I've ever previously encountered. I've started to suspect anyone whose life is one thrilling tale of witty bon mots and/or compelling brushes with "the dark side" after another. I hate to suspect people because I prefer to think of everyone as honest but so far, 100% of the people I've known with fascinating lives of endless adventure from one high point to another have been heavily embellished or outright fabrications.

Or, it could be that I'm boring and so are my friends. :)