increasingly self conscious

[Dorothy Wood]

about posting here and anywhere.

internet used to be a refuge for me. I used to not care what I said. and now I do. some of us know more about each other than people in real life, which never seemed to be problem before, but now I am paranoid. Not gonna lie, I am still affected by the ms. crafty deluge.

Do you think people would ever try to ruin someone's real life because they were annoyed by or hated someone on here? do you think anyone would just for a joke reveal a person's identity, or link to here to be like, "that person's inner thoughts are like this, check it out".

The more connected things get, the more I hold back. But then I don't, and then I feel like I've done something wrong.


Obviously, a lot has been shared here. At one point or another, I've revealed my involvement with this site with about 4 people who aren't members. And when I've alluded to it without naming it, the person seems super fucking interested.

Maybe I'm just saying this because I recently deduced and figured out the username of an old boyfriend of mine on a forum he posts on. We are still friends, and I only just guessed what forum he'd be on, and I found it right away by their own "family album" thread. I didn't really read much though.

Just wondering how people feel.

[Adam]

Must admit, I censor myself a lot more than I used to. But that is true for all social networking sites

Back in the day a tasteless joke would have been a standard but too many fell flat and read back as being a weird misogynistic creepy guy.

Maybe it's what come with growing up considering I started this board a teenager and now I'm in my 30s. The net in the 90s and early naughties was still fairly niche especially when making friends, now admitting I met my other half or made friends online is less weird than saying we met in a club (cus who goes to clubs still?).

I also know that potential future employers or clients might google my name. It's not a massive leap to find this place and look up archives of some of the stupid shit I've said.

Having said that, this forum is still a refuge I think. A little bit of the internet that shouldn't really be still getting traffic, but the little it does get are from people who get the beastie-free section.

I dunno what I'm saying other than "yeah, I get what'cha on about".

[Lyman Zerga]

i always kept my real private stuff real private

the "worst" pictures i showed to people were cleavage shots of myself and if they got shown here then i would probably just masturbate to them

i dont think anyone has the power to ruin my life

[abbott]

everyone has something to hide except me and my monkey.

[ms.peachy]

It's not something I worry about a great deal. I've never really been down with the whole notion that somehow "real life" and "the internet" are distinctly separate spheres. More like a Venn diagram. There's not much out there on me that would be so awful if it was somehow all made public. I haven't created elaborate alternate identities. There aren't loads of naked pics of me out there. I've never stalked or harassed anybody. I'm not too fussed about what any potential employer could find on me.

BUT. I'm old, so that means I got to do all my crazy stupid drunken trampy early 20's shit in an era before everyone had a camera phone and was wired into the net 24/7. Thank fuck for that. You kids today, I feel so sorry for you.

[TurdBerglar]

I'm sure a lot of you remember that creepy hornball douchey shtick I had going here a few years ago. I still kinda play into it but the main reason why I stop was because of ms crafty. she got totally obsessed with me because of that and it completely creeped me out. that's when I realized this place is a little more real. with real people and not just some interactive television show full of nutjob characters. these nutjobs aren't characters they're actually real people... real people that see this place more than just an interactive tv show.

[Yetra Flam]

I was thinking about this today, when I was posting on reddit. I was posting what I thought was really well thought out, sensible advice to help people out. Nothing inflammatory, not trying to start shit, just some advice.
People's reaction to it really just skeeved me out, their PMs, the responses, how they always resort to personal attacks. I don't post any personal information on there or anything, but part of it upsets me a little bit.
Maybe this is my payback for previously having been a jerk to people on the internet out of boredom, and, I don't even know why.
I'm sorry for that everyone :( I like this place, people here are cool.

[Lex Diamonds]

I'm sure a lot of you remember that creepy hornball douchey shtick I had going here a few years ago. I still kinda play into it but the main reason why I stop was because of ms crafty. she got totally obsessed with me because of that and it completely creeped me out. that's when I realized this place is a little more real. with real people and not just some interactive television show full of nutjob characters. these nutjobs aren't characters they're actually real people... real people that see this place more than just an interactive tv show.
She did that to a few people. I know of at least one guy that did bang.

[Bob]

i'm not as self conscious as i probably should be. it's not like i'm well disguised

i haven't sent the link to this place explicitly, but i think i've alluded to it in just enough detail to give people enough information to find it if they cared enough to look

i post less about personal stuff now anyway though. i don't have any new and exciting problems i guess. i'm bad at meeting new people, relationships are still hard, i'm still bad at sex, ho hum, what else is new, how many times can you guys read about any of that?

[Fern]

Meh.

I agree with Adam. It's the prevalence of the Internet that made the atmosphere change. What's this shit with Ms. Crafty?

[Waus]

Yeah. I'm pretty open about internet stuff.

The funny thing is that when I consider sharing the deep dark unpleasant things of life (and everyone has a few) I find I don't really care what totally anonymous strangers think, and I don't really want to share most of that with any but a select few in real life.

Boards like this occupy a nice twilight zone where you sort of know the people (or in some cases marry them or have them officiate at your wedding or whatever) - but the point is you can talk and share with people who know you just well enough to actually offer real advice and have some little piece of concern for you, even if it's usually filed away somewhere they don't think about.

Maybe the move from Facebook to things like tumblr reflects that need for semi-anonymity. Maybe we'll all give up on real life relationships because we're too self-conscious, or maybe real life relationships will end up extremely superficial because dealing with actual issues with other people is painful.

: /

[Lyman Zerga]

Meh.

I agree with Adam. It's the prevalence of the Internet that made the atmosphere change. What's this shit with Ms. Crafty?

she is obsessed about some guys and posted pictures of helvete's dick here

didnt you post your nasty ass dick pictures on kate d's board btw? atleast i didnt have to see those!

[Micodin]

Whoa! What happened here? Pissed chick posting dick pics?

[bigblu89]

I never posting personal facts or opinions on here that I was uncomfortable about letting you all know.

I've always been more of an outsider looking in on this site. Never got overly involved in anything. Only met one of you in person. More or less kept my feelings and opinions to myself.

And now that I'm older and more self aware, I'd be more likely to share less now than ever.

[Lex Diamonds]

I never posting personal facts or opinions on here that I was uncomfortable about letting you all know.
I never posting that either. Really though, who does?

[bigblu89]

I meant, things like "I met a guy and he's the best, and then we broke up, and now I'm depressed, but then I met someone else and it got better, and look at me I need attention from strangers."

[Dorothy Wood]

who doesn't want attention from strangers?!

[Waus]

We're not exactly strangers. If you posted anonymously somewhere you had no member history that'd be strangers.

[zippo]

when did ms.crafty do that? i dont remember, unless it was recently when i havent been on

[Lyman Zerga]

yes, recently and you didnt miss much