This is completely off-topic, but I had to come here and thank every
one of you that is still around after all these years. I've always
known that alt.tv.frasier was a special group. We used to always talk
about how civilized it was (still is) here compared to everywhere else
on the internet.
But....tonight it was really brought home.
Ya see, there's this fan site dedicated to several popular TV shows
I've been lurking at for the past four years (I only lurk for one
show). I never posted because it was so heavily populated with people
whose sole contribution amounted to little more than OMG!!!!! Can u B-
lev how totall awesome last's nites episode was *SQEEEEEEEE*!!!!
I also wasn't too fond of the mods, all of whom seem to be extremely
rude and incapable of accepting that they might be wrong about
anything. In the four years I have lurked there, they have not once
apologized for the numerous times they have been hurtful or even
spiteful. Not once.
For the past eleven months, something bad has been brewing behind the
scenes of this show. These bad things behind the scenes had been
getting increasingly worse (and more public), and everything came to a
head about a month ago when we foud out that all these bad things have
resulted in something devastating coming up on-screen. This hurt me so
much (Yeah, I *know* it's just a TV show) that I finally broke down
and started posting. It became a form of group therapy.
Well, things were fine at first. There really are some intelligent
people on the site, and I had a good time for about a month until
things got bad recently. There is a huge segment of the site's
population that is annoying, and apparently hasn't figured out how to
spell or use the Caps Lock key appropriately, but they are easy to
ignore. What has upset me is that there is another, albeit smaller,
segment that is quite vicious.
I got into a discussion with a member concerning how I thought that
something that has already happened this season was rather cruel of
the writers to bring about. She kept giving reasons as to why what
happened wasn't cruel in her opinion, and I responded to every single
one. After going back and forth for not more than three or four posts,
she flipped out a bit and pretty much told me to stop complaining
because there was nothing I could do about it and far worse had been
done on other shows. This offended me because it wasn't like I gave
the same reason to every single one of her reasons. She just accused
me of being purposefully negative to shut me down instead of
responding to what I thought were valid statements.
This all shocks me, though it shouldn't, because I thought I was being
pretty tame. It was nothing compared to some of the epic arguments we
used to have on this group. It wasn't even an argument. It had barely
progressed beyond the level of a mild discussion, and I can't imagine
anyone here reacting the way she did.
We used to discuss everything to death in this group. And if people
disagreed, they disagreed, but I don't really remember anyone telling
anyone to shut up about anything unless someone had been going on and
on about a particular topic for a long time. I remember that there was
a time when some, myself included, had gotten quite negative in our
posts concerning the show; but no one really complained about us all
that much, and I remember explaining why I was negative and my reasons
being excepted (or at least tolerated <g>) by you guys.
The worst part is that the reason I kept responding to her is that the
reasons that she gave in response to mine weren't completely valid nor
were they well thought out. I always respond to something like that. I
know for a fact that if she had brought that level of reasoning to
this group there would have been a line of people waiting to pick her
posts apart.
/rant
I apologize for my wording in this post being so tortured, but I felt
that coming here and announcing which site I was ranting about was
tantamount to talking about someone behind their back.
I also apologize for this incredibly off-topic rant, but I just had to
share why I thought this group is so wonderful. It is such a rare
treat to be able to converse with a group of people that are mature,
civilized, witty and, above all else, polite.
Thank you.
Dorcie
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