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[ToonyMan]

Oh, and Duke took my Zoolandar avatar, yeah I still remember that.  I thought it was funny.

[Caesar]

Something that made me sad today:

The realization that however hard I'll try, I will never really fit in at school or probably anywhere else during the course of my life, forever awkward in normal social situations.

[ToonyMan]

Hey hey hey hey hey!  Don't ever think like that, you can fit in.  People are different, people fit in different places.  Seeing as you are here you are fitting in just fine!  Work your skills over time and you will succeed!  I myself am training myself everyday without even knowing it.  Everyday is better than the one before, I cannot look at my past self because it isn't me!

[RAM]

Deathworks is right, bullying can be innocent from the bully's perspective but fatal to the victim. Deathworks is also right, being able to choose how you represent yourself is a perfectly valid right. And even Sir Pseudonymous is right, there is overlap between those two in which they exclude each other. And moderation further complicates the issue in needing to maintain familiar standards and policing the situation without having to track down all the involved parties and attempt to discern their exact motives. (Of course, by choosing to represent themselves as a public figure, Armok has a somewhat reduced claim to their identity...)
 This just highlights the fact that freedom doesn't work, which makes me sad...

[Sir Pseudonymous]

I don't like the way you talk. Please stop it. It offends me and I don't like how you express yourself. It pisses me off.

"radically alter your rhetorical style" is an unreasonable request

Except that it was never done to piss people off. Even with the point raised to him that some people don't like it you have to consider that he has a purpose for typing like that. He had some form of debate in his head whether it was better to express how he feels better or not offend a couple of people.

There is no evidence that he's not just doing it to piss people off, and even if there was he has been made well aware that it has that effect, yet he continues. All that's being asked is he stop adding "Hi" to the front, and stop adding his name to the bottom (protip: your name shows up in a little bar to the side, you don't need to fucking sign it at the bottom ).

Because people were being dicks. Granted I don't know much about the armok bit, but I do remember some dickery with impersonating another dude who told them to quit it.

I didn't see Armok, the supposed "victim", anywhere in the discussion. The people bitching about it were all random third parties with inexplicable motives (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were just trolling, and weren't actually so emotionally traumatized as they made out to be). Perhaps it did turn into a clusterfuck, but it's pretty clear which side is to blame for that.

Not a hypocrite. It's a different problem.

That's pretty clear cut hypocrisy. Deathworks goes out of his way to do something he knows pisses people off (antisocial behavior), and then condemns the armok trend as being antisocial. The pot calling the kettle black and whatnot.

[ToonyMan]

Hehe, you're still typing stuff.

[Sinistar]

Now now Sir Pseudonymous, that are some quite hars words, claiming Deathworks continues to write like he does just to piss people.
And saying he should stop writting "Hi"...don't you think that's a bit pushing it?

[Duke 2.0]

Nop nope no more. I don't think Janet would want me continuing this.

[Caesar]

"radically alter your rhetorical style" is an unreasonable request

It is as much as it is an unreasonable request to alter your style in writing posts whatsoever.

Hey hey hey hey hey!  Don't ever think like that, you can fit in.  People are different, people fit in different places.  Seeing as you are here you are fitting in just fine!  Work your skills over time and you will succeed!  I myself am training myself everyday without even knowing it.  Everyday is better than the one before, I cannot look at my past self because it isn't me!

I know that you're right there, but I am already certain that I'm pretty unappealing to the 'layman'.
I can be very irritating in person, due to the fact that I'm not quite sure how to handle being in a social situation.

[Karnewarrior]

Karnewarrior has been Unhappy lately. He was forced to attend school functions lately. He has been drawn into an argument lately. People have been stupid lately. No-one has shut the hell up and left the subject well enough alone already lately.
He is a member of America the Nation of Freedoms. He is a member of Florida The State of Old Folk. He is a member of Hate-Hate the Hating of Hatred.
He is of medium hight and skinny build. His nose is large and bulbous.
Karnewarrior enjoys videogames, Dwarf fortress, "Survivor", and Ruby. He absolutely detests stupid people.
He is slow to anger. He is forgetful. He is quick to forgive, and goes out of his way to be nice to others. He is incredibly confident.

[bjlong]

CHANGING THE TOPIC ENTIRELY.

In the book I'm writing, I'm at a section full of boring-but-necessary political machinations. I have to write a letter and a transition, then I can get back to the crazy sexist, racist, and violent views of the characters, and after that, I'm in the clear for a violent conclusion. I just don't know if I can get through this one section.

[Duke 2.0]

 @Caesar: Dude like I was like that for forever. Hell, I still am. When there is a circle of conversation I'll just be standing slightly behind people, and if there are some dudes at some event I'll be helpless to strike up a conversation. And more than likely I'll kill what conversation halfway through because I don't know what to say.

 Still, my life was a lot better when I decided to do that crap anyway instead of stand on the side and be quit, convincing myself that I'm just a quiet guy. As painful as it was between ages 6-12 to try fruitlessly to be social it was better for me than the few years of total isolation I subjected me to.

 Go for it dude. As unappealing as you may be, I found people somehow respect you more being useless in a conversation that just giving it up.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Duke 2.0: Thank you for your support. It is appreciated.

Sir Pseudonymous: As Karnewarrior quite correctly points out, these are two completely different issues: My posting style does not try to pretend to copy the style of someone else and it only involves items of either common speech ("Hi!/Greetings!/Hello") or my own username/pen name. In addition, my actions are not singling out any single person for a special treatment.

In the Armok affair, people copied the avatar of another member, sometimes modifying it slightly. Thus, they are not limiting themselves to common objects or their own items but actually used items owned by or linked to another person (I am not sure whether Armok created the avatar himself or obtained it from some other source). And in doing so, that action was clearly linked to and directed at a single person who got special treatment.

So, you as a group are giving a single individual a special treatment. And I am pointing out that regardless of whether you intend to hurt their feelings or not, there is the distinct possibility of doing so. Of course, if and as long as Armok is okay with it, there is no problem. But if it becomes a burden for him in any way, we ought to respect that as these are things that are clearly in his personal space.

And because of that, I think this is something we need to make ourselves aware of. Seeing how the discussion after the moderator intervention included people voicing dismay at the intervention, I felt that that point should be stressed.

As for my salute and signature, I already explained in this very thread my personal reasons for doing these. And I have taken note of the critical statements that have been around (actually, my introducing that topic in this thread was meant to deescalate things before something unfortunate happens again). However, none of the arguments by some members have convinced me that a change is necessary, which is why I stick to my habit, which I actually use on other forums as well with no anger like that (except for one case where it posed a technical difficulty which did force me to abstain from it there).

And truth be told, the way I see some of the arguments and statements, giving in to those arguments now would only encourage a culture on the forums I would rather not see.

Caesar: ToonyMan is absolutely right: Are you not a participating member of this community? I also agree that you have a chance to improve at those things you feel insecure about.

Deathworks

P.S.: Given how fast people write (or how slow I type), I take the liberty of not incorporating the last few responses in this thread into this post - otherwise I will be typing at this till Monday (T_T)

[Sinistar]

I was just to add something about "fitting into society" from my point of view...but reading what ToonMAn, Duke 2.0 and Deathworks wrote, I decided to spare you my less optimistic opinion, seeing how their words touched even me, heheh. And I think that's right.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

@Caesar: Dude like I was like that for forever. Hell, I still am. When there is a circle of conversation I'll just be standing slightly behind people, and if there are some dudes at some event I'll be helpless to strike up a conversation. And more than likely I'll kill what conversation halfway through because I don't know what to say.

 Still, my life was a lot better when I decided to do that crap anyway instead of stand on the side and be quit, convincing myself that I'm just a quiet guy. As painful as it was between ages 6-12 to try fruitlessly to be social it was better for me than the few years of total isolation I subjected me to.

 Go for it dude. As unappealing as you may be, I found people somehow respect you more being useless in a conversation that just giving it up.

This.


The only way to know how to handle being in a social situation is to simply throw yourself into social situations. You might fuck it up at first, but you'll probably learn from your mistakes/people won't give a shit that you're a bit off. And even if they think you're odd, they really won't give a shit about that once you get the hang of it and it becomes "Oh yeah he was a bit weird back then but he's cool now". There is no other way.