Everything has changed ( Archived) (42)

My seventh year on the forums...damn, a lot has changed indeed...
And not for the better...well, that's the truth...

you look different

Ah darling, I remember

I was a member around 8 years ago. At that time I joined CS mainly for forums. I was also single and didn't mind meeting someone. Forums were a lot of fun back then. There were a lot of Irish people and I remember having a good laugh every day. I rarely wrote anything, but I did exchange PMs with some men and they were in general pleasant and fun. However, those men were all far away - mostly from the USA, Canada and other English-speaking countries. I soon left (I met someone on some other site).

But, I remember getting a very good piece of advice on CS, something I never forgot. There was a lady from some Eastern European country (I cannot remember which one). She said that there were a lot of Western European men on dating sites who pretended that they were interested in serious relationships, but they only wanted weekend romances. It was cheap for them to travel to Eastern European countries and they considered it to be some sort of a short enjoyable holiday. She said I should be careful. I hadn't thought about that ever before (didn't even consider a long-distance relationship), but thanks to that advice, I managed to avoid many situations that could have turned very bad for me in the years that came. I don't remember who she was, but I'm going to use this opportunity to thank her if she's still around.

I came on CS once again in December. I was heartbroken and wanted something fun to get my mind occupied. I joined many pen-palling and similar sites and then remembered CS. I expected to have a good laugh again, practise my English and make some new virtual friends. Of course, the moment I came - I started getting messages from "weekend romance predators" which disturbed me, since I had already been heartbroken and the last thing I wanted was to be someone's entertainer. There were a lot of messages from scammers, too, a lot more than before.

Forums also changed (except some members I remembered who looked just the same as 8 years ago - never changed their profile photo ). Forums and blogs were not so much fun any more. A lot of people constantly fought and quarreled. A couple of days of fun and peace and then - some fight again! I exchanged some messages with people who were nice and friendly and thought I made new virtual friends. Then I started receiving other messages with some crazy conspiracy theories about my virtual friends (and other CS members). They said that people were not real, but fake profiles, that they used many profiles (male, female, young, old), that they just wanted to get someone's personal data and share them all over CS and internet, etc. etc. It did scare me - I must admit and - I stopped all my personal correspondence with all people from CS. I simply didn't know who to trust. I felt rather confused.

The internet has really changed considerably. It's not much different on other sites. There are many fake profiles and scammers everywhere and most forums are like CS - almost empty with a small number of new members (mostly people who are there for years).

My conclusion about CS today is that - it's a good place if people don't spend too much time here, if they don't get themselves involved into quarrels, fights, gossips, etc. and if people don't exchange any PMs with people from blogs and forums. It's also good to take breaks - shorter ones and longer ones. The problem is that places like CS are highly addictive and it's hard to limit your coming here and to keep the distance from all the turbulence that constantly takes place. I find CS fun for a couple of days, a week at most, then I get exhausted and have to leave.

But, what exhausts me, might be thrilling and fun for someone else.

so...have the aliens abducted you ,or you accidently walked in to a time portal ...or has your dog been digging in your back yard ...and found some skeletons