07-18-01 @ 6:38 am EDT

All righty. At this point in time I'm convinced that some people simply LIVE to bitch and moan about nothing and everything in particular, or else there's a bitching gene scientists haven't discovered yet.

Case in point: My apparent inability to post ANYTHING, anything of ANY sort, on certain other sites. The best recent example is my dream posts. (They're in my other diary. Go check 'em out.) I started posting those sporadically last year in a certain location, and around January of this year it started to become regular. I'd post first whenever I had an interesting dream, and lately I've been posting whenever I've had any dream I remember. Most members who comment say they either like to read the dreams or else don't mind that I post them. And so that's why I continue to do so...because there ARE a few people who enjoy them.

HOWEVER (and you KNOW there's always an "however" )...

There is also always SOMEONE who will decide to bitch. And usually for the stupidest reasons possible.

It's happened with my dream posts at least three times--well, make that three and a half--so far.

Let me just outline them for you...

Number One I'll call DB. This person is on the verge of being a religious fanatic. I would say he is, but he isn't, he's just ULTRA conservative and a bit not to my liking. Too pushy. Jesus this, God that, bla bla bla. There is another user there who IS a bona-fide religious fanatic (he answers everybody's posts with "Repent or burn in hellfire for eternity!" or some variation), but that's another story. Anyway. DB, who I would say is obsessed with his own topic of choice (religion), came into one of my dream posts not that long ago out of nowhere and was quite rude, IMO.

After I had finished typing up an exhaustive description of my dream (it was the "Hummer-Hooters" one), he stepped in to pout, "So what? So you had a dream. Big deal. Everyone has them. Why are you so obsessed with dreams? Tell you what, the next time you wake up, just make yourself consciously forget everything you dreamed. It's nothing more than the results of the stuffed pasta you ate last night anyway."

Well, number one...I don't eat stuffed pasta. ;P Number two...I remember reading somewhere that what you eat before bedtime actually has very little to do with the weirdness of your dreams afterward. Who should do their homework? And number three...who is he to ask me if I am obsessed? He's obsessed with his own topic, religion. Just about every post from him has to mention God or something. Not every one of my posts mentions dreams. I don't say he's wrong or nuts for being obsessed with his own topic, as we all are. In fact, though I had seen several downright offensive posts from him in the past (including a VERY rude, unprovoked anonymous insult aimed at a then-friend of mine), up to this point, I had never had a problem with him. We had never so much as even communicated with each other. So, why this sudden attack?

And why in THIS particular post when I had been posting them since around January?

Hm, most odd...I think it was the obvious sexual aspect of the dream that pissed him off. Religious types are often touchy about sexual subjects...granted, I'm touchy about them too, and it's evident from the way I word my entries. Some of my dreams have much more overt sexual aspects to them, and when I'm too embarrassed (as in the dream when I was at my brother's house with the dogs), I simply cut it out altogether. I believe I know the boundaries on good taste.

But still, there was SOMETHING that must have set him off, to go off in that particular post and no other. I replied to him, to ask him why it had bothered him so badly. If he did not like it...he could just click around it. That's the joy of the Internet--you don't HAVE to read everything that pisses you off! I don't make myself read his stuff--he doesn't have to read mine.

"Understood?" I asked him sweetly, and signed off.

Well, do you think such problems with users who take offense at every little harmless thing you post would end then and there?

No, they would not. As I said before...some people are born to bitch.

Number Two I will call SF. Again, another user I had never had a problem with before, although I did find him very annoying. On the site you are rated for answers you provide, and every time he gets something lower than a four he throws a hissy fit and posts a vulgarly phrased gripe about it. He gets VERY offensive, all over little yellow stars. Just today some other users got in a fight and he stepped in to snipe, "Grow up. All of you." A short while later, he got a one for answering a question rudely and then posted, "Hey Dickweed! I've gotten ones on better questions than YOURS!"

WHO needs to grow up?

In any case, as I said, I had never had a problem with this person before, until he too decided to start griping about my dream posts. He answered other people's questions, complaining about how boring I was, how tedious my posts were, how he WISHED I would just shut up. Whine whine whine.

What I'm wondering is...

How does he know I am so very tedious if my posts are so boring he doesn't even read them?

Get the logic here?

Those are the people who will ALWAYS complain the loudest--those who do not even read what you say. They will DISPUTE YOUR RIGHT to even post your opinion. I had NEVER contested his right to whine and cry about poor ratings when he didn't deserve them and even when he did. That was his right, to bitch and moan. But to then try to bully me into giving up MY right to post things that aren't even offensive, aren't bitching and moaning endlessly like he is, aren't even controversial, are just DREAMS I had?

I'm sorry, I have to end the description of that part of the story. I'm getting too mad. I do NOT understand the people who whine and cry over things they DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO READ!! Is someone sitting there holding a GUN to their head saying, "READ TEHUTI'S BORING POSTS OR I'LL PULL THE TRIGGER!"?

Sheesh...

Anyway...on to Number Two And A Half. I say half because this guy is purely a flamer anyway. I'll call him P. Someone posted about the Vietnamese selling dogtags from missing soldiers and this piece of slime made JOKES about it. >:( DISGUSTING! My dad fought in that war. Granted, he is no POW, but there are some things one should NEVER joke about. Things such as rape, child molestation, bestiality...and eating the ears from missing GIs.

DISGUSTING.

I argued with him over that until I realized he has not one bit of sense about him--he's a garden-variety flamer--and gave it up. Later on I posted a dream post and he replies with "Jesus! Are you housebound?"

To which I replied:

"Yes.

"Are you stupid?"

"Never mind. It's already been answered."

Wow, mocking the socially avoidant is just as fun as mocking missing soldiers! I won't let him bother me much anymore as it's obvious he's a piece of slime anyway, not worth my time.

And now on to the most recent, Number Three...

This is another user I haven't had much trouble with, though like the rest I've observed him and DAMN is he annoying. Always griping about the "status quo"--I bet he doesn't even know what that means. Bitches and moans because he is a longtime user, and of course those who came after him are worthless and are bringing the site to ruin. Yet he can't quite convince himself to do anything POSTIVE about it except whine.

But I have never argued to him, at least in length, to my knowledge.

Well, well, well...I guess JD, as I'll call him, was just feeling bored yesterday.

I posted my dream post, and he came back with "OK, so why did you post this?"

I replied: "Because I post it every day, and because I like to. Why do you post anything you post?"

He ignored my sincere question, with "That's still not a good reason to post it."

Well...I copied and pasted the site guidelines to posting anything on the site. It pretty much says that the message posting area can be thought of as your own personal diary where you can share your thoughts and opinions with the world. "Hm, that sounds like a good enough reason to me," I mused. "I've been posting these since January. I have to wonder why they bother you so badly right now. Bored? I always click around those things which bore me..."

(I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Besides, you just posted a message about the new picture of Ron Jeremy you put on your profile and how much you love him, if that's not unworthy of being posted, I don't know what is." )

I finished with "It's also kind of funny how, whenever one of these people griping about my posts decides to finally shut up, ANOTHER one always pops up to take their place...I guess they must be incredibly bored with nothing better to do..."

JD's CHARMING reply..."Well, go ask Freud, but I still just think somebody hit the smack vile (sic!) a little too much last night."

...

Which just leads me to believe that...he didn't even READ that which led him to believe I've been "hitting the smack vial" (that's the correct spelling, JD) a little too much...because if he's ever read anything I've posted, he'll know that the strongest stuff I've ever partaken of is iced tea. ;P

Still, I found it very rude and even hurtful. For God's SAKE! As if political debate isn't good enough for him, now he has to step into somebody's HARMLESS NONINSULTING DREAM POST and insult them, too? What is the DEAL? I mean, COME ON! I'm not being offensive, I'm not taking up too much space (they have a thing about posting "too many" messages there...apparently it's very difficult to scroll on a screen), I'm just using the posting area in the way it was meant to be used. Plus, this was a very TAME dream, nothing to lead one to believe I'm on any kind of drugs.

If people are going to be offended by things, fine. If they want to complain, fine. But why are they always offended by that which is not offensive?

Trust me, I've had gripes about EVERYTHING I post there. Doesn't matter WHAT it is, how long it is, how often I post it. There will be somebody waiting in the wings to jump out and whine and complain. It is SICKENING!

Arguing with them--telling them the simple truth of the matter, "YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!!"--does NO good whatsoever. Even though I'm just about positive they don't read my stuff anyway. They'd make more sensible comments about me if they HAD read it! So that's even stupider! Why complain about having to read that which you do not even read?

A click of the mouse to go to the next screen, a touch of the scroll bar, is not that much muscle work.

They have yet to figure this out. Apparently, it's easier and takes less time to post a long whiny gripe about my posts than to scroll past them.

Am I the only one who sees the reasoning here? Sometimes, I really feel like I am. As I said, as soon as I get rid of one, another one pops up to take his place. It's like the friggin' Hydra!

Also like I said when I began this...I think there is a bitching gene...or else there are some people who are just so out of their minds with boredom, the evil which apparently has no cure, that rather than close their browsers they feel compelled to complain about it.

I do so await the day when they realize that little X in the top right corner of the screen actually serves a purpose...

Either that, or they do not have anything more important in their lives to worry about. Perhaps I should pity them!

...Nah.