So I have this super good friend that had some list trouble, and I won’t put her name here because doing so would just make this a place to come play at being mouthy about a situation that could be avoided if common sense were used. We all know in RL ya wouldn’t consider saying the stuff you do in cyber space. Don’t tell me ya would either, cuz some of you are truly of the meek and mild and you’ve found a voice in the cyber black hole called Yahoo groups.

Cool, now use it wisely.

Unless you’re me–I WOULD say the stuff in RL that I say here because I’m all about honesty and I try like hell not to be an ass in cyber space as much as I do in the real world.

Yeah, I crack wise–yep, I’m the quintessential one-liner queen, but I never hurt anyone ever. I know people and how far they can be pushed–teased–tormented. I adore people, I’ve said that so much it makes my teeth hurt. I want to learn about them–understand them–make friends with them. I never want to see anyone be cruel or unkind for any purpose and I’m mostly about diplomacy. Honest, if more people were like-minded–we might bore the hell outta ya, but the world would be crap free.

That said, I just wanna rant here a bit.

Indulge me, K?

These Yahoo groups allow far too much contact with one another in a manner that sometimes is foolhardy and without thought to anything other than the pretty send button and sounding off, when under normal circumstances you’d skulk off and hide behind the water cooler if faced with controversy. However, shit happens and it doesn’t have to turn into the third world war if someone makes a mistake.

Oh, but it does, because e-mail is empowering and it allows you the freedom to turn into SUPERMOUTH and today–it got me in my craw. Like a burr in my saddle–I’m pissed off and because I’m all diplomatic–I won’t go rushing off to throw myself into the frenzied mosh of people who will surely jump on the bandwagon.

I’ll just blog the hell out of it.

K– why is it that when someone makes a mistake on a list, owns up to it, publicly apologizes for it are they then slammed (with some rather crass language) by people who are supposed to be called professionals?

My defintion of a professional is someone who expresses their opinions with tact, dignity and courtesy to their audiences no MATTER the slam they’re given in ANY forum. What would make you think that calling someone a crude name is anything other than what it is–CRUDE–DUH! Certainly not professional.

And why is it that when someone makes the old faux pas–all the folks who have like nada nice to say in an e-mail and call themselves lurkers– crawl out of the woodwork and spew venom? Half the time it has nothing to do with the 700 people who jump in, but they jump the hell in anyway.

Why is it that you can’t take that crap and do it offlist? Because ya just gotta have an op and show yer ass about it–that’s why. in front of people who will glom onto your every word. Crap that’s so old. I really thnk sometimes it’s just so you can feed your ego and see your own typewritten words.

But that’s just me and I could be accused of the same thing here, but I don’t much care because a friend of mine was attacked and that’s just not ok. She said she was wrong–she shut up–to pummel her in a slew of e-mail and make her a public parriah (sp) on every list from here to Kingdom Come is professional?

Nah–that’s taking the power of your words and abusing the shit out of it because it makes you feel superior. That’s also, immature and incredibly insecure and I’d wonder sometimes if the people who are so vocal, are the ones who spent some time as wannabe prom queens in high school. Relegated to geekdom and now, as writers, behind a comp screen, where no one can see them, they have a modicum of control and it’s turned them into Pinky and the Brain and they want to take over the world.

But when someone is hurt–called cruel names–picked on–ganged up on–you’re just like all those freaks that picked on YOU in high school and that sucks, yes?

So take the big fat grown up pill and stop behaving like this is auditons for the cheerleading squad and you didn’t get picked. Keep your op to yourself unless the battle is with you personally–and if it is–be an adult and have a war of words in your PRIVATE inbox and leave the public flaying OUT of it and don’t pick on my friends–cuz it really pisses me off and that’s not something that happens a lot to someone like me.

In a phrase–GET OVER YOURSELF.

Rant over.

Dakota

Okay, so the guy in Podunk Idaho that runs Yahoo singlehandedly, with his pocket protector firmly in place and his bandaged together bifocals– really FUCKED UP TODAY!

I dunno if his finger slipped off the red button that said Yahoo group TTABB, but I can tell you this much, he damn well needs a new pocket protector now after all the freaking out we babes did.

So, it goes like this…I’m all hanging around at the comp–did some writing–go to check on my girls and NOTHING. Not an e-mail to be found–my inbox is empty but for three or four personal e-mails.

K–now if you know my girls, you KNOW that nothing and I do mean nothing, not a peep from that group and either beubonic (NO CLUE how to spell that) plague has killed them off in one fell swoop, or SOMETHING is drastically wrong.

I’ll take drastically wrong for 100 please, Alex.

Yahoo has literally gone MAD. I got oh, I dunno, maybe 20 e-mails from panicked babes all around the world, wanting to know WTF?

Now, I wanna know WTF–our group has disappeared–gone–KAPUT. Yahoo says it doesn’t exist. Not an e-mail for about 8 hours either

Um, dude? what are you thinking? The world has literally gone mad and forgotten to tell me. Soooooooo–I e-mail customer service and I get the obligatory, we are experienceing operating difficulties CRAP they dole out to us because it’s FREE.

Well, ya know what they say–NOTHING is for free. Yahoo wrote that–I tell ya–it’s in their handbook. I’m convinced, because I can tell you this–the only free thing today was the panic that set into babeville.

I don’t know that I knew how much we all relied on each other until we were incommunicado. I do know, that no matter what, there is always someone around to talk to in babe-ville. We’ve spent a great portion of our lives chatting and when one of us is missing–the cyber search party goes out. Phone numbers are exchanged–pictures are printed to place on milk cartons–the FBI and SWAT team are called in–flyers with stats go out to all of the Yahoo groups asking, “Have u seen this babe?”–in general, we stalk the crap outta ya until ya come back to babe-ville.

but for ALL of us to lose touch at once?

It was earth shattering–mind boggling–BAD–VERY BAD.

Pam was astounded–Jaynie was pissy and demanding (I know, I know, go figure, LMAO)–Michelle was baffled. Any number of us were seriously thinking of doing mass private e-mailings.

And then, lo and behold, the moment I thinkI’m going to have to drive to Idaho and beat the snot out of this guy–we have e-mail–in droves, wave after wave of backed up stuff.

I dunno about Yahoo. They’ve made so many changes and I honestly think it’s just because someone got bored and though, “how can I fuck with millions of people today? Ohhh, look, I’ll just change the format of your group so it’s so screwed up it’ll take week to firgure out what we did and then, maybe I’ll toy with your IM. While I’m at it, I’m going to send your Yahoo group into cyber oblivion.” I just know that guy in Idaho is cackling maniacally right now.

And it pisses me off.

However, camraderie, love of a good rant and strings of e-mails with some Tom Jones tunes and peace has been restored to babe-ville.

I don’t know how we lived 8 hours without each other–even if we’re not in contact intentionally for whatever reason, ya kinda know the babes are there, know what I mean?

All I gotta say is–LONG LIVE BABES and sckee-rew Yahell to damnation and back for taking away my girls. LOLLOLLOLLOL

Dakota