You know I do get myself worked up....
This whole GGA "Cheating" thing frankly is stupid.
When you come to think of it... I'm worked up because my first response with the examples were totally overlooked. That's what usually sets me off. Me not getting listened to. How hard would it have been to just acknowledge the examples, said..."Thanks for the input. Any other Examples?" But totally ignoring me and repeating the line "Who Does it Hurt or effect?" really sets me off.
I may be wrong with my examples - (which I don't think so... because I was speaking from experience)... but just pretending they weren't there... is pretty insulting.
When things got down to brass tacks in that discussion we finally saw the true goal of this topic. It was to teach me a lesson. Of not placing personal judgements of others on the forum. Which is a good point, but something I didn't do. I never mentioned a name. I mentioned an incident. It was a response to a post made by Owl. And it was an unrelated person's incident that was mentioned.
I spoke with someone this morning who said that my comments were contradictory. When I said no ... He said of course I would disagree because I don't listen to others opinions. I know that I am hard headed. I know that I am very opinionated. But If there is a compelling argument... I have been known to change my opinion. The contradictory comments were (This is paraphrased)
1.)Personally, I don't care how people cache as long as it doesn't effect me or my caches.
2.)And then pretty much every other statement I make in all the other posts.
it isn't contradictory... I answered the questions of "Who does it hurt?" and "Who is effected?" by giving examples from personal experience without saying it was personal experience or who actually committed the exampled behaviours. Now to tell you the truth (which I have all along anyway...), I really don't care how people cache. Yes, I was effected and hurt by some bad behaviour... but It really doesn't matter in the end. I let that stuff go shortly after it happened. In the grand scheme of things it just doesn't matter. The sting to an ego fades quickly. At least for me it does. Now that's not to say it didn't used to really chap my behind. Because it did. It really did. It used to irk me to no end. I actually felt it took the fun out of caching for me. Then I realized it was me not them. I am a competitive and achievement oriented person. So with Geocaching I made things more personal then they needed to be. But I have changed my thinking on caching in general. The game itself is fun. But it isn't a priority. I don't think it lands in the top 10 anymore.
The friends I have made are awesome. And I hope I haven't offended them too much with my hardheaded, loudmouthed, opinion-laden, bulldozing manner. I think they know I'm a big softy in the end and I would do nearly anything for them. Hell, I'll even take on a bunch of belligerent tarheels who verbally jump fellow GA caching buddies. You can count on me.
Am I mad at Lakebum because of the forum thread. Not at all. He was just livening things up; Trying to be heard; Sticking up for something he thinks is right. How can I be mad? It surely sounds familiar. I defended my position. He defended his. We are both right. We just haven't gotten to that compromise on the page yet. I think once that compromise is reached, publicly of course... then this whole discussion should be put to rest.
I finally found out what he was really disturbed about. It would be when I wondered aloud the parenting skills of those who used "shortcuts" - stage skipping... I wondered if they thought that "short-cuts" were an ok thing to teach their kids. If not then it must be wrong. It was where my logic was. It may have been a little extreme, but it should have been obvious that it was a device used to make my point. Of couse it was lost. Most of the points I try to make on the forums are lost. People get hooked on the words and focus only on themselves - "She means me", " this changes the game for me!" "Me, me, me". Instead of Looking at things generally. How things effect everyone as a whole. Is it good for the entire game, activity, hobby whatever? Personally, I don't even like to post there.
I have only used the GGA forum as of late to sell the gym equipment and to try and cover my bases on the spawn cache. I was trying to get Greg's attention and to make sure I had some things out there "In Print" for CYA purposes. And maybe shame someone into actually responding, by email or just hiding the darn thing. I was angry this was happening and scared of what GC.com would do. In a kneejerk reaction I just typed. I really didn't have time to calm down, breathe and reassess the situation. And having my emails ignored just made things worse and I just typed faster. Because lakebum started the new thread, I can't get rid or alter the other one. I was going to clean it up and explain the progression of events... tone down the anger and hopefully get FiremanBrad off the hook. But now, I'm kind of stuck with it. But that can happen when you type when you're angry. That is my regret. I can't completely fix it.
I will finish this last bit of discussion on the boards. Then I'll be done for a while. As long as People just leave me alone. As for my caches, I have mentioned this before, I will probably just get rid of them all. I don't need the hassle of maintaining the caches. It seems it's all about getting that find anyway. The effort I put into creating, hiding and maintaining the cache isn't appreciated anyway. So why should I bother anymore. So I'll probably start pulling the caches. I know I have to get rid of the ones here in Alpharetta, because I won't be here anymore. So I guess it's time to slowly start gathering them up. And while I'm at it... start pulling the others. Slowly of course. The mountain caches will probably stay, but the ones that are in the city parks... I'm going to let them go. I'll address this in a seperate post when I start pulling them.
When you come to think of it... I'm worked up because my first response with the examples were totally overlooked. That's what usually sets me off. Me not getting listened to. How hard would it have been to just acknowledge the examples, said..."Thanks for the input. Any other Examples?" But totally ignoring me and repeating the line "Who Does it Hurt or effect?" really sets me off.
I may be wrong with my examples - (which I don't think so... because I was speaking from experience)... but just pretending they weren't there... is pretty insulting.
When things got down to brass tacks in that discussion we finally saw the true goal of this topic. It was to teach me a lesson. Of not placing personal judgements of others on the forum. Which is a good point, but something I didn't do. I never mentioned a name. I mentioned an incident. It was a response to a post made by Owl. And it was an unrelated person's incident that was mentioned.
I spoke with someone this morning who said that my comments were contradictory. When I said no ... He said of course I would disagree because I don't listen to others opinions. I know that I am hard headed. I know that I am very opinionated. But If there is a compelling argument... I have been known to change my opinion. The contradictory comments were (This is paraphrased)
1.)Personally, I don't care how people cache as long as it doesn't effect me or my caches.
2.)And then pretty much every other statement I make in all the other posts.
it isn't contradictory... I answered the questions of "Who does it hurt?" and "Who is effected?" by giving examples from personal experience without saying it was personal experience or who actually committed the exampled behaviours. Now to tell you the truth (which I have all along anyway...), I really don't care how people cache. Yes, I was effected and hurt by some bad behaviour... but It really doesn't matter in the end. I let that stuff go shortly after it happened. In the grand scheme of things it just doesn't matter. The sting to an ego fades quickly. At least for me it does. Now that's not to say it didn't used to really chap my behind. Because it did. It really did. It used to irk me to no end. I actually felt it took the fun out of caching for me. Then I realized it was me not them. I am a competitive and achievement oriented person. So with Geocaching I made things more personal then they needed to be. But I have changed my thinking on caching in general. The game itself is fun. But it isn't a priority. I don't think it lands in the top 10 anymore.
The friends I have made are awesome. And I hope I haven't offended them too much with my hardheaded, loudmouthed, opinion-laden, bulldozing manner. I think they know I'm a big softy in the end and I would do nearly anything for them. Hell, I'll even take on a bunch of belligerent tarheels who verbally jump fellow GA caching buddies. You can count on me.
Am I mad at Lakebum because of the forum thread. Not at all. He was just livening things up; Trying to be heard; Sticking up for something he thinks is right. How can I be mad? It surely sounds familiar. I defended my position. He defended his. We are both right. We just haven't gotten to that compromise on the page yet. I think once that compromise is reached, publicly of course... then this whole discussion should be put to rest.
I finally found out what he was really disturbed about. It would be when I wondered aloud the parenting skills of those who used "shortcuts" - stage skipping... I wondered if they thought that "short-cuts" were an ok thing to teach their kids. If not then it must be wrong. It was where my logic was. It may have been a little extreme, but it should have been obvious that it was a device used to make my point. Of couse it was lost. Most of the points I try to make on the forums are lost. People get hooked on the words and focus only on themselves - "She means me", " this changes the game for me!" "Me, me, me". Instead of Looking at things generally. How things effect everyone as a whole. Is it good for the entire game, activity, hobby whatever? Personally, I don't even like to post there.
I have only used the GGA forum as of late to sell the gym equipment and to try and cover my bases on the spawn cache. I was trying to get Greg's attention and to make sure I had some things out there "In Print" for CYA purposes. And maybe shame someone into actually responding, by email or just hiding the darn thing. I was angry this was happening and scared of what GC.com would do. In a kneejerk reaction I just typed. I really didn't have time to calm down, breathe and reassess the situation. And having my emails ignored just made things worse and I just typed faster. Because lakebum started the new thread, I can't get rid or alter the other one. I was going to clean it up and explain the progression of events... tone down the anger and hopefully get FiremanBrad off the hook. But now, I'm kind of stuck with it. But that can happen when you type when you're angry. That is my regret. I can't completely fix it.
I will finish this last bit of discussion on the boards. Then I'll be done for a while. As long as People just leave me alone. As for my caches, I have mentioned this before, I will probably just get rid of them all. I don't need the hassle of maintaining the caches. It seems it's all about getting that find anyway. The effort I put into creating, hiding and maintaining the cache isn't appreciated anyway. So why should I bother anymore. So I'll probably start pulling the caches. I know I have to get rid of the ones here in Alpharetta, because I won't be here anymore. So I guess it's time to slowly start gathering them up. And while I'm at it... start pulling the others. Slowly of course. The mountain caches will probably stay, but the ones that are in the city parks... I'm going to let them go. I'll address this in a seperate post when I start pulling them.