Bitsy Buccaneer

Does this mean you've abandoned this secondary position then? Look back at my first reply to you. It's what I quoted.

My sentiment was that it was humiliating and devastating to know with complete certainty - at the very young age of five - that I was being rejected by my classmates. I was far too young to have anything remotely like the coping strategies needed to deal with it effectively. I didn't know how to talk about it with anyone. I was a tiny, lost, hurting child. When schools and teachers do their best to avoid putting a child in that position, it gives the child a chance to grow up a bit more normally. I didn't have that. I got stuck in a crippling shyness which became self-perpetuating. Because I was bullied and isolated early, I didn't develop the social skills needed to avoid being a target for further bullying and isolation. Thank heavens we've learned some things over the years. If it spares one tiny child from going through that kind of hell, it's worth it. In other words, your position isn't just wrong. It is cruel.

Not at all. That's YOUR line. Why are you reading your sentiment into my words?

And change them regularly. So they don't get smelly. Like old socks 👍

Runway. Check. Box OVER head. Check. Have I got it this time? 🤔

Suit yourself. When I was, couldn't've been more than 5, may have been younger, I very carefully went through the box of wee cards I'd very carefully selected from the shop and decided on one for each member of my class, trying to choose one I thought they'd like. I was a serious child and took the whole thing seriously. It mattered to me that they had a card they'd liked, whether they were funny or flowery or loud or quiet. On the day itself a few classmates went racing round the bags, dropping one in each. Others had also written names on theirs, they took longer. I was slow and I had cards for everyone, but I managed alright. When we were given leave to get our bags, everyone gleefully dumped theirs on the floor. They all had lots. It was a big class. I found a small handful inside my bag. One from our neighbour Steven. A couple more with my name on the envelope. A few more from the kids who gave one to everyone randomly. I was five years old and I knew without any shadow of a doubt what I was already starting to figure out. It was humiliating and it was devastating.

Landed on, Rey. Landed on. Being a passive conduit for the take-off, and successful landing, of a long, rounded tube full of squirming passengers is quite a metaphor for Valentine's day. No wonder I'm supposed to hide my head in an empty box 😢😢

Fashion rules are SOOOOO complicated 😢

Am I doing this right or should I stick to wearing furniture for my fashion statements?

nuqneH

I got a box with a box in it for Valentine's today. As a metaphor for my love life, it is really quite apt.

Happy (belated probably) Friend's Day Wulfie

We supposedly pay more attention to negative stimulus and it can evoke the good old fashioned survival mechanism from humanity's rougher days, the fight or flight response. But flight's an incomplete option on the internet - we can turn the computer off but the discussion continues without us (oh noes!), or we worry that it will, or we keep arguing in our minds. Unless you've learned how to truly step back or walk away from it altogether, fighting at least appears to address the negative stimulus. Of course it tends to magnify and prolong it. But it all gives off brain chemicals with addictive properties, which makes for quite a feedback loop. Especially difficult for walking away from things on the internet is that the argument will still be there to be dredged up again if it suits. In person, it's just easier to get over it and move on. And to see the "opponent" as more than the monster you've created in your head in the heat of the argument. That's not the whole picture of course, but important pieces (IMO) to add in. Anonymity is part too, but I feel it's too simplistic to make it the primary focus. If nothing else, there can be legitimate needs for some to remain anonymous (like certain jobs or relationship history) and given how much of our social business is being conducted online, we really do need to get a handle on ourselves soon.

Considering my av comes up the belly button of some of the mesh giraffes on the grid, that's really quite apt

The Ruth option would be one way to dodge the social pressure to get a mesh body I don't want

Internet usage is that a flounce is a drama-laden exit. Leaving on a certain date for a stated reason isn't a flounce. Talking about it repeatedly is. Regardless of who starts it, you have been doing that. In making your announcement very early and very publicly, you've given those who know how to bait you yet more ammunition. It's hardly a surprise that they use it, or that you take the bait. This guarantees the addition of drama to the months before your departure. I'm not going to get into another back and forth with you. This is how some of us see it. I made a light-hearted joke and it got some traction because there's a ring of truth in it. It feels like a long, drawn-out flounce. (When I posted my wee joke though, I didn't realise there were several pages of you and Luna going at it and by the time I'd read enough to grasp what had happened, the notification dings were already coming in and since it had been quoted I couldn't edit it out. Fortunately Maddy's quip sent it off in a new direction, and that's often the best way to derail an argument. The thread needed such a diversion at the time. Maddy's good that way.)

/me surreptitiously offers Maddy a year's worth of root beer if she flounces that long

OK, I'll start keeping the book. Let's say 7-3 odds Maddy takes over 12 months to leave the forums. Who wants in?

Is there a record for Longest Flounce from a Forum? I think Phil's after it

If LL won't, it would still be possible for others to. Since we're dreaming here, what if someone else was able to capture the magic of watch it come to life before your eyes, collaborative, inworld building in an open world and do it right this time, learning all the lessons of LL's mistakes? Who knows, it might catch on

I would gladly give up the peer pressure to have an overly smooth hyper perfect avatar for a creative platform with 1/24 LI prims How can we make this happen?

I very much agree with everything else. This one sentence though, I'd like to offer a gentle suggestion on, if that's acceptable. It's simply this - of course we have to work with what SL's given us re mesh, but we can also do our utmost to keep space for and help facilitate co-operative working and DIY within those constraints.

That's all I was trying to do too, that and figure out a bit more of where you were coming from with yours. My apologies for being so bold. Perhaps the emotion I thought I was hearing from you was related to something else. As I can't seem to phrase anything right for you, I'll leave it to you to initiate any further conversation between us on this or other subjects. Good wishes.

I'm sorry then. I thought I might be able to offer a useful suggestion. Clearly this was a mistake. It won't happen again. Good luck finding whatever it is you're after.

So you're looking for a new home, where someone else takes responsibility for admin and moderation. Yes? Perhaps that should be the suggestion then. It doesn't have to be you doing the organising, though you're the one who seems most keen. Do you know others who might be interested? Or is there a way to increase interest in the revamped other one?