This is a pertinent question, mostly because I have! LOL!
A few days ago, I declared war on a certain group member from a group that I was quite active on. I can see you all shaking your heads, but let me give you a brief history of our relationship:
I joined this Group around September last year, why? Because I liked the authors books, why else?
Well I’m quite a feisty person, and if I join a group, I usually just get the thread, and join right in, no holding back or shying away for me, I’m afraid. I happened to do much the same thing on this group, for the purpose of this blog we’ll call it Group A.
There was one person on this group (we’ll call her Ms Anal, for the purpose of this blog) who immediately took a dislike to my forthrightness within this group. Now I didn’t actually know that she felt this way, until it was made obvious in another group months later (I have a thick hide) We used to swap mild insults constantly (mine was totally in jest, hers apparently wasn’t) but isn’t this sometimes part of loop life?
I happened to insult one of the fictional characters that she had claimed from the Author of group A, and tried to steal (usurper that I am) one of the other fictional characters from another group member (isn’t this normal behaviour?) Well Miss Anal then took to ‘sticking her tongue out at me’ and ‘ignoring KarenS’ on post. Remember folks, I’m thinking this is still horse play, so I just carried on trying to ‘steal’ her hero, which she took as a personal affront.
Months later things came to a head, and I found out that all our banter had not really been banter at all, Miss Anal had been talking about me behind my back to other group members. I was stunned. Can you believe that she had fallen out with me because of fictional characters. Yep, to her, these characters were real, hello? What? Can we say, ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’?
I once asked her if she realised that she was getting upset over people who didn’t really exist, and she did the usual ‘ignoring KarenS’ thing that she does. She then decided that whenever she could, she would write posts containing thinly veiled insults, generally aimed at me (school playground anybody?) Now I hear ya thinking, why dontcha just rise above it, and be the adult, well I’m sorry, I’ve never been one to ‘rise above’ anything in my life, and I certainly wasn’t going to start now, so I did what any good ten year old would do, when faced with somebody who was nothing more than a bully, and had been getting away with it for years, I ripped her to shreds on post, then went no mail from that particular list, and I am currently living happily ever after!
I’ve found out since then, that I wasn’t the first person that she had taken a dislike to for no other reason, than she felt the other group members were getting too pally with me (hey it happens, I can be nice folks) and basically, her whole attitude towards me was borne out of jealousy! Huh? Go figure!
The moral of the story is you need to have a life outside of the list, or else, you too will start thinking that fictional characters are real people. What a crazy bitch! (In England that’s a very mild insult, and I could have called her much worse, but I’m trying to be ladylike
Sheryl
April 14
12:29 am
Karen I think you handled yourself as respectfully as you could and nothing you’ve said would change my mind about you, but I have to say, I’m glad I wasn’t on the end of your rant.
I too, thought it was in jest until it came to a head but it did remind me of the school playground. Know that I will still talk to you and frankly I’d be glad to call you a friend, especially when you stick up for yourself.
Karen Scott
April 14
9:37 am
Thanks Sheryl, I really appreciate your words 🙂
Paz
April 17
9:25 pm
Sorry you had that experience.
Paz
Anonymous
April 18
9:31 pm
I lurk on the group that you’re talking about, and you’re right ‘Miss Anal’ is a pain in the ass, no pun intended, I think it’s up to the owner of the group to keep her in line, I don’t post mainly because of the drama.
Ella
April 18
10:09 pm
She sounds like a right bitch love, with the post natal depression raging through my body, I’d have ripped her hair out and fed her to Saracen!
Karen Scott
April 19
5:53 pm
Woahhhh!!! I’m scared of you Ella (grin)I take it your hormones are still playing you up?