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Sunday 2 September 2012

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

You'd be forgiven for thinking this was about ancient Rome, but actually it really is about forums.

I'm a member of a few, have been for ohhhh about 15 years now, covering very random and different subjects. One, associated with an inmate penpal site, often has colourful arguments and falling outs, and when those happen some members post that they wish everyone would just play nice and "aren't we all here for the same thing?" and even recently "grow up"! It makes me chuckle when I see those kind of posts because (as I have been known to say on the forums) humans are not very good at playing nicely and it happens everywhere.

The disadvantage with public fall outs on a forum related to inmates, is that any passer by could get the impression that those who write to inmates are all a sandwich short of a picnic. The stereotypes must be true if that's how we behave!Well, some are, but most arent. We just have strong views on things and generally when you feel safe somewhere, you feel more able to discuss meaty subjects, and it's usually those that turn into the major slanging matches.

So I thought today I would just mention that a similar thing has happened on another forum I have been a member of for about a year. Now, before you go jumping to conclusions and think I might be the causal factor in all this, I have hardly posted anything on this other forum for weeks, mainly because I didn't feel I had anything to contribute. But I went for a look today and found that one of those fall-out things has occurred. In true human fashion, the forum has divided into factions, with one side taking their metaphorical ball home, and others setting up camp elsewhere.

What could this forum be, I hear you ask? Could it be a sporting forum, as we all know that passions run high with sport supporters. Could it be politics, given the frantic American presidential posturing at the moment? Could it even be a forum about the use of the hyphen in the English language (certain to raise the blood pressure of any pedantic academic)?

Nope. It's a forum about knitting dolls.