Could we accept a presidential candidate...

[spotty_dog]

Kris,

If I'd known you had the IP information to tie this poster to a former username, I might not have taken the time to extend her the warm welcome and benefit of the doubt that y'all have thus far shown me.



-Alison

[PrincessFiona]

alison...I am not tracking her ip..I much too lazy for that...so I could be wrong...it's just a hunch.

[Meenah]

It is so sad to see someone sign in and attack without identifying herself. How pathetic to be so insecure and unhappy, that the only way to feel good about yourself is to cut others down. My sympathy.
Luanne

[spotty_dog]

Oh, OK.

But..."Rapunzel" has a posting history going back to 2002 and maybe beyond? She certainly sounds like a real person, an adult, a wife and mother. Maybe a little bitter, maybe a little...strongly seated in the superiority of her positions and her morals. From what I've seen. But real.

Choosing a *new* username to troll "anonymously" is such an immature, utterly ridiculous act. It's the act of a very young or bored person, or potentially even somebody with a mental problem. I could only see this happening if "Rapunzel" has been pulling the wool over your eyes all these years, and is actually some teenaged boy in his parents' basement laughing at y'all behind the screen. I mean, you didn't ban the "Rapunzel" username from the board, right? There's no reason she wouldn't use it, except to start fresh without y'all's knee-jerk angry response to her posts -- but why, then, use the new name for comments that are upsetting or attacking?

On the other hand, coming to a new board and taking things out of context, presuming we're a lot of...ladies who lunch, as y'all put it, and posting rashly with a harsh, attacking tone is a very common "netiquette" mistake. "adrienne" made a very normal post in review of Spiderman 2, and then jumped into the "Debate" board -- where even I, having been on this board for a couple of months and having been burned by my misapprehensions and my failure to recognize the depth of understanding and friendship some of y'all share, do not presume to take posts at face value any longer. It honestly looks to me like she grabbed some threads at random and painted herself a picture of some evil little women who needed to be taken down a notch.

So, as a relative outsider to this board, it seems that either "adrienne" is a new poster jumping in with both feet and touching off nerves, or she's a teenaged troll out for a laugh. Y'all's theory that she's your former poster Jennifer is also valid, but as I said, seems unlikely from where I sit.

I was so glad to have the benefit of the doubt when *I* jumped in with both feet and touched off nerves. I'm going to continue to offer the same to "adrienne" till I'm proved wrong.

-Alison

[DCJenn]

Alison-

We appreciate your being so accepting, and lest anyone else think that the admins are being overly harsh, we started the debate section after much internal debate among ourselves.

We decided that we did need a place where we could talk about the events of the day without getting blasted. We are all intelligent people with interesting views and experiences. No one expected that we would change others minds, but we thought it would be a great place to come and share opinions.

So, the entire premise of this section of the board is to share opinions, as we state in the disclaimer. We truly try to avoid personal attacks and yes, we will remove posts that are offensive and mean. (we also remove posts from people who are interested in marketing to members, as well)

So, I don't know if this new poster is our very own Rapunzel (who has gone by previous screen names as well, and who was actually one of the first people on the board, going back to 2000/2001. So, we have along history and we get tired of trying to make this place a welcoming and interesting and most of all supportive place for medical spouses. By default, all that any of us should have in common is that we fell in love with someone who has ended up in the medical world- so it would follow that we're not always going to agree with each other. We have lost members and it was really sad to see them leave because they got tired of being blasted by one person with an agenda.

So, I hope that you are right and that we have a new person who hasn't yet understood that debate arguments are most effective when started with "I believe and this is why" rather than "you are wrong and this is why"

Thanks for being the kind of medical spouse we need here!!!!

Jenn

Wow, what happened here...

It's probably unavoidable that someone's going to get offended on one of these topics. However, I really like that we have a debate forum and I think most of us know how to use it appropriately. It's less about having opinions in common with each other than about having respect for each other. I hope new members take the time to get familiar with how things work around here before making accusations.

Admins, thanks for everything you do to make this an open discussion for members.