Thread: People Don't Read

People will be people and the internet will always be the internet. A massive, bubbling cauldron of individuals from everywhere and all walks of life. From the one's who seek to do nothing more than make everyone else's life a living hell online by trolling to people who simply want to experience what is beyond the physical realm of which they can access in real life. With such vastness there is obviously bound to be plenty of not so nice incidents involving others. Whether it's on purpose or a simple misunderstanding just as in real life its the same online. It all comes down to how you approach and handle it. From personal experience on this site I can tell you I had a few personal experiences with being messages out of no-where by individuals with requests for rp of which I had no interest in.... and these were before I even had a request thread posted up anywhere on the forums to link to. I had nothing on my profile. I hadn't even made any official posts yet on the forum but had been engaging in the 'game threads' as my only form of interaction on the boards when I received my first message. An individual messages me wanting to do an rp involving a character themed after Elsa from Frozen. Considering the fact I had no information up, no request thread, no f-list, jack squat...and when I clicked on this person's profile I found they had registered very recently themselves....within a few days of myself and also lacked any posts, information, request thread, or f-list. I responded to them short and sweet and told them I was not interested. They responded and continued to ask me to rp via laying out their idea albeit it was only one or two lines per message. All I did was continue to repeat myself that I was not interested and I even gave them an alternative by suggesting they make a thread over in the advertising for role play section of the board as they would stand a better chance of finding a partner. I thanked them again for their interest in me but remained firm on my original statement of not being interested. They stopped messaging me after I made my final statement of not being interested and asking them to please stop contacting me. That was the end of that. Now I will say if they had continued to bother me after this point with the same thing I would have placed them on my block list and been done with it. I come to the internet as a place to relax, not stress. If someone is bothering me even after I ask them to stop I will place them on my ignore list. No muss, no fuss, end of story. Unless the individual starts targeting me directly rather than constantly pestering me about rps and they continue attempting to contact me even once I block one of their accounts then I will take the situation to the site Staff but until then I am perfectly content to block and ignore it. It's not worth the stress to me or the stress I know it causes others. Now several weeks ago after I've established an F-list, character bio and so forth and proceeded to link them in my signature of my profile I also received a random message to rp from someone. This one looked more like a cyberish advertisement personally then again it could have very well been an 'in character approach' which is something I listed as a 'no' on my F-list. Either way I know from experience despite the fact you lay everything out for others in terms of making threads and extensive lists of onsoffs people are not obligated to read them. They will do whatever they want. Understandably this can become very annoying if it happens constantly but to me, it's no skin off my back as all I'll do is slap them on my block list if I get irritated enough. Yes it's annoying to have to do this but the block button was invented for a reason. To get people to leave you alone. Too bad it doesn't exist in real life. Either way this other individual approached me and I gave them a short and sweet response detailing that I was not interested, thanked them for their interest however, and pointed them in the direction of making their own request thread to find what they were looking for. This person was nice and did not message me further after I sent that response. Even when you are in a seriously annoyed mood....the method of 'killing people with kindness' works wonders. Even if it makes your blood boil to do so it's honestly better than running the risk of stirring up major drama. After all misery spreads like wildfire and it could very easily come back to bite you if it gets around on the site that someone says horrible things about you, thus brings down your reputation and level of respect on a given site or even others. If you react too negatively to someone, even if they are annoying the crap out of you, that person could still come back and get revenge on you by dragging your name through the mud of the community and turning others against you and or your friends. Consequences can be very drastic online....just as they are in real life. It's better to be safe than sorry. Least that is the rule I've always done my best to stick by. Sometimes it's damn near impossible especially if someone manages to push all my buttons at the same time...but I'm too stubborn for my own good. And personally, I'll be damned if I will allow someone to ruin what I come online to enjoy. Anyways, that is my two-cents.