There goes the neighbourhood

This screenprint from when I logged in this morning to enjoy the blogs.



"Ignore the ones you don't want to read."

Oh, okay, that's barely legible. Well, not worth looking at anyway. There were two actual blogs. There were five 'fists up' blogs cruising for a bruising, three about Trump, the two actual blogs, and one announcement for those who missed that there's another royal baby.

Merc, I played a very, very old race card and reversed it as soon as I played it by saying that being a yob has nothing to do with colour.

Not so much living in the past as trying to push for a future.

That's so funny biff I've just come back from a discussion group, here's how it went.

I have just noticed how lots of white south Africans have come back to homelands, some got out with their money others did not. They all talk down to you like the coulerd servants they used to have.!!

Miss r you usually jump in with both feet on discussions and debates and you've never uttered a word.

I'm dumbstruck I said and drank my tea

We cannot shape any social media according to our wishes, unless we own them.

I've seen many sites at their peak and followed their numerous changes and decline in popularity. I also saw people leaving those sites, new people coming and old members changing. I left many sites myself, too.

Social media actually constantly change. Maybe this site was more entertaining once and more serious now, but - there's nothing much to do about that.

I come here once a day or once in two days, read blogs I find interesting, sometimes I comment, most times I don't, I write something myself if some thoughts come to my mind or I feel like it, I find most comments on my blogs interesting, but I don't always feel like replying and - I really like that kind of freedom.

Places like this one are rare nowadays.

Took me a moment there, the who what?

Oh aye but if his special warning was about that particular interaction half the mailboxes on CS will be flashing red

Considering the topic of the blog, I really do hope he wasn't the only one to get told off, but he is definitely the only one who would ever admit it in a million years, the rest will be astonished and indignant. I was looking at the definition of a sociopath - for a book, not for here, but couldn't help but notice a similarity

Sociopaths will never admit to having made a mistake. They are incapable of seeing any view of the world bar their own. Things have to be their way or it's the highway.

Those who point fingers inevitably have exactly the flaws they are accusing others of, so I am not pointing fingers

sill no internet and still dumbstruck, your blog content ALL CHANGE how can you expect comments, as when given you then change contents. I

Everyone wants a different neighbourhood
I don't have that issue
It's true that everyone has a colour
Yet it's more about the person themself

Elegsabiff, I understand - you like Connecting Singles and don't want it to be closed down.

Sometimes we forget that we are only the users of free internet services and that we are not co-owners of them. People feel the same about all social networks they belong to and like. It's natural to do so, but it's unrealistic.

If the owners decide to change this website or remove some of its sections - it will be just a business decision and the contents of blogs won't matter much (if - at all).

Take Google+ as an example. It never became another Facebook, as Google hoped. But, it had millions of members and some very active communities. However, Google decided to shut it down. It wasn't profitable enough and it made other Google services vulnerable to hacker attacks. Its devoted members protested, but it didn't change Google's decision. My Google+ profile was deleted a couple of months ago and I was a little sad, although I hadn't used it much. Active members were probably devastated.

Political discussions won't kill this site and they don't prevent people from writing about other topics. Blogs aren't popular as they used to be and that's the main reason why there are less and less people writing them. Even Facebook loses its members every day, because people are getting bored with it.

I think that you should relax and enjoy this place as long as it is here and don't think too much about its future. It's not in the hands of ordinary members. Maybe it's a good idea to find some other social media where you can also spend some time in order to detach yourself from one place. "Good old days" can never return.

Hi Biff

About the "chosen one" thingy, did it refer to the one who sent the message or who got the message?

I know that's off topic. I will bear the consequences.

Psst! even in real life I tried my best to avoid communication with toxic neighbors.

Daears, sorry sorry I was rushing earlier to log in for school and didn't see your comment and yes I completely agree, putting people into boxes for being different is dividing the world into me+and+people+like+me versus the Scarily Alien. We're all individuals - even within a family there can be completely different people.

Xanthea, thanks for going into such patient and gentle detail. I never used my Google + account much so wasn't too distressed when it closed. FB is certainly losing members but not so much boredom, at least among the people I know. They're more fed up with the loss of personal content - because people are now afraid to post personal stuff - and the replacement flood of repackaged reposted nonsense.

Some other social media, yikes, I have 3 writer pages and a house page to maintain on FB, an active RL blog, two writer profiles on Goodreads, 3 writing groups, Quora and Twitter, I don't think I can take on any more. This, as I said earlier, is my off-duty cyber cafe where I bring my coffee to relax, or it used to be, and if I ruled the world CS would be cheerful and whacky for ever

As it is, all I can do is point out how bloody awful some comments look removed from the heat of the moment and hope people who actually read the blog might draw in their horns, just a little. That was all.

Hey Kal look at Blue's blog, he's feeling very special

Yes I too avoid toxic neighbours. However if everyone tippy-toes past the obnoxious they don't always realize they are obnoxious. Sometimes it is worth being a little obnoxious in turn, to make a point. Certainly everyone notices and disapproves when I do it, but hey, could have a knock-on effect.

Hey Red looking forward to your gym pics but think I am more likely to be impressed than laugh

Babe, I am not friendly with sociopaths! nobody is. They don't want friends, and don't need them. The book I am working on has nothing to do with CS, or even with singles, for once I was looking up the clinical difference between psychopaths and sociopaths, the lines can be a little blurred and you know I like to have my facts straight. (One thing I learned, your hug could help a sociopath, as the condition is triggered by nurture not nature, but not a psychopath, as that is physical in cause and, at this point in medicine, incurable) (but still probably safer to keep a distance )

Your group sounds a good mix, almost a kind of real-life CS

Yep biff I had occasion to study both conditions. Not much between them, yes if you upset one they will dog you for years.
But still I say but for the grace of god and all that. Also fear them as they wont be beaten.
Sad as like you remarked they dont know themselves only what they want

Elegsabiff, I see what you mean. I used to have a similar virtual place, where I could go to relax, have a chat and some laugh after work, but also a serious discussion about anything in some decent manner. But, it changed. Most people got bored or occupied with their real life and left, some began to drop by only occasionally and new members that joined were simply different. They preferred more serious topics, some of them only came to fight and some craved attention simply too much. The atmosphere got so dark and toxic that I often caught myself feeling bad after being there for some time. In the end I left that place for good. Before leaving I wrote about some different and better times that place had seen and new members' opinion was quite the opposite actually. They thought that they were the ones who brought quality to the place with their aggressive discussions. I suppose one could say that we were both right - from our own point of view.

I'm sure my eyesight is going. Can't see a thing on that screen print...

Now I remember why I looked up sociopath. It was a long time ago and I lived next door to a 25 year old so afflicted. Neighbours said he was strange but held job down with council. His mum and dad divorced and he lived with his mother. She died and then he was found by police wandering middle of road. Another time he threw telly out of back doors. I was concerned so asked him why, he said (they told him) he slept at his dad's now and again, his father said he slept with knife under his pillow. He reported that but got nowhere, no help. The lad spoke to me through a window only, I felt so sorry for him. Cutting long story short, he killed his dad with the knife and then went to secure lockup unit. How is he doing now? This was over 40years ago. He did seem strange but held good job and was always polite. So reckon a lot more to sociopath nature than we know.

-blogs in wonderland....
- first it was fun, and even a bit exiting...

- then you get used to it...but still slightly entertaining...

- now it`s mostly old news, running on repeat...

- numb!

hi Viking long time no see.
This blog is like Chinese whispers forever changing.
Sorry biff now I remember again that young man had schizophrenia going so far back to sealed files takes some doing. I keep the body fit I should maybe give my brain a workout.h

Red, hope your former neighbour feels safe from the world where he is - life can be alarming enough without contradictory voices in the head.

Xanthea, as you say, it is perspective. Sorry you lost your virtual coffee shop and hope CS can replace it for a while longer

Luke, I know, how annoying was that pic? I think it would have been bigger in the main body of the blog. Anyway, several of the blogs have been deleted or dropped away since.

Viking, hello stranger, and yes, nowadays what we get is newsbites, some of doubtful origin, and I guess very little of interest to international members in, say, Norway. Still - you too could post press releases, it would remind some that there is a entire world out there?

Vier, good advice, but you've sent a few zingers out in your time .... was that before or after deep thought? In fairness the examples in the blog were taken, most of them, from hot arguments and things can be said in the heat of the moment which may be regretted afterwards. Some of course were prepared carefully for several hours, with who knows how many crumpled pieces of virtual paper lying on the floor by the time they were posted...

(Note to self - shut up now)