AF Bureau of Missing Persons

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I thought he was generally awesome, with a few odd/paranoid ideas that caused him unecessary problems.

I think that's probably accurate. But maybe add in the inability to say "I was wrong, I'm sorry" which goes a long way to making people be okay with the occasional tuss up.

People tend to enjoy mischaracterising us. It seems like a hobby almost for some members. 

How odd.

It's easy to point fingers at people in charge instead of realizing your own perspective is probably skewed.

We recently had a guy in CAA say something along the lines of "I need to know what the rules are" (they're posted on the side of the FB group) "because it seems like since I joined I've met 1000 people who have been banned from this group for one reason or another" (we have 1500 members, that doesn't make sense).

I calmly told him that in the past 12 months we have banned exactly 2 people and that "self-imposed exile" (read: butthurt ragequitting) doesn't equal banning. Moreover, both of those people received pieces of administration detailing exactly why they were banned. Records, you know. For that exact purpose.

Took the wind out of his sails, really. I expect he had been fed all kinds of lies by the two people who are no longer welcome, as well as several people who don't show up anymore because of their anti-social personalities and habits.

Because of course, when you get banned, it's all because the admins don't like you, not because you're acting like a complete twatwaffle. And when you feel you aren't welcome anymore, it's because the group is full of cliques and the officers are power-hungry, not because you're an angry, raging alcoholic or you're incapable of letting go of your ego enough to make friends or you don't recognize that your social anxiety is technically NOT our problem so maybe meet us halfway and let us help instead of expecting us to beg you out of your mental shell? Or maybe you just  don't like that not everyone is agreeing with you, so of course it's the rest of the group's (or forum's) fault, not yours.

Feels are hard, yo.

Word.

What really confuses me though is both the idea that this little forum out in the wilderness of the internet is somehow the source of all of a [member]'s problems. And also when someone is temp banned (as you know, there are extensive logs kept here of every staff action), which we do very rarely, and a comprehensive reason and clear violation of the rules is documented and given to the banee[sic], yet they come back and utterly misrepresent the reason they were removed as though the staff are out to get them. Or part of a conspiracy to silence them (like you say).

I've been on several forums in my life and never once fallen foul of the given rules. You obviously have it the same on CAA, and obviously had it the same here when you were staff. Just weird as shit. I really don't get people. I guess it takes a certain type of personality to post on a forum of anonymous goons, and obviously I must be that personality. I also must be a glutton for punishment being staff too.