Cheese killing...

PhotoNut · August 31, 2006

Hey y'all. I think the people that were trying to lighten the mood and turn nasty accusations at a truly sweet person away from a witch hunt and more toward laughter have all stopped and have also apologized. Noone felt self appointed to censor anyone. What was happening in the Moderator thread was nothing more than a vicious attempt to turn everyone into an angry mob that was ready to lynch Penni. And, it was working until the cheese stuff started. It was about more than just "dont read the thread if it bothers you". This was about friendship and wanting to stand by a friend. If you read that thread, reasonable attempts were made to calm things down and get people to see that the accusations were being made by someone who had been in an RL (real life) friendship with Penni and was now pissed at her and wanting to destroy her reputation and the trust that we have in her. Those reasonable attempts failed because a select few made a point of getting in the thread and saying just the right things to make it appear to new people that there was a sincere concern about this, when in fact it was just the original poster's friends helping her stir the crowd into a lynch mob.

Now, I know that all of this has been hurtful and upsetting, annoying and frustrating, and downright destructive to LBT. I know that many feel that I've done my share in keeping it going. Perhaps I'll even be accused of that by posting this. But its become very hard to sit back and watch people form such negative opinions of LBT and its moderators. For example, Penni was accused of playing favorites because she was "suddenly seen posting on the Gone for Good thread when she had never posted on there before". Well, Penni joined the Gone for Good Club in the first month it started (March of this year) and has been an active member since. But people who read that accusation took it as fact. The frustrating thing is, while people's reputations are being attacked and the trust of LBT under fire, if anyone tries to respond in defense or to share the truth (like I am doing now) we hear people who are exasperated, and rightfully so, complain that we are keeping the issue going.

Anyway, if you will all look back again.. the people who participated in the cheese posts have all explained AND APOLOGIZED for frustrating people and they have stopped. There is no "group of people" called the Cheese Killers or Thread Killers. No one need fear people who were just trying to help a friend who didn't deserve to be destroyed publicly. So please, accept the apologies and lets dont let these offshoots of the root of the real problem begin between people who have had no issues with each other until now.

Truce everyone. :yield:

Yoda · August 31, 2006

*shakes head in disgust*

sleepyjean · August 31, 2006

I have no idea what this thread is about. I've been part of this group for almost a year (holy crap, has it been that long?) and I have no freaking clue what's got everyone fired up.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a thread where some people were fighting. I don't remember the name of the thread, but the whole thing was lame, so I didn't go into that thread anymore. And now cheese? Threadkillers? People getting banned? People insulting each other? I just spent ten precious minutes of my young life reading through this entire conversation. I still I have no idea what's going on...

...and I am SO glad

Elisabethsew · August 31, 2006

Photonut, I think it's very nice that you and others have a friendship with Penni. Many of us have no idea what the bigchick (I think that's the name) incident was about that involved Penni and Lisa or Delarla, etc.

However, most of us are not friends with moderators. We don't spend that amount of time on the forum to be able to generate these friendships. We see moderators as peace keepers, diplomats, guides who model the behavior of the mission of the forum. We need to be able to trust them.

Penni publically admitted and apologized that she did in fact interact to some degree with this Lisa, Delarla, etc. person for the express purpose of targeting a certain forum member. Based on that confession, some people (check the moderator locked thread for specifics) expressed that they felt Penni should step down as moderator because they lost trust and respect in her. Thus began the "discussion" that led to taking sides that led to Penni's friends "lightening the mood" by the cheese talk.

You are correct in your assumption that many new people saw the "invasion of the thread killers" as playing moderator and because it was a group of people, individuals were afraid to "speak up."

Since I started this thread (and regret doing so) I want to publically thank you, Dawg, Funny, and everyone else for seeing an alternative (not better) interpretation to the purpose of thread killing. I don't think any of you need to apologize because I KNOW none of you had a hurtful intent and it's nice to see things calming down.

Sincerely,