Weird freaky forum stuff.
It's freaking me out a little bit, how much the folks on my neighborhood forum, most of whom are no more than anonymous screen names to me, know about who I am and my life in general.
I know these are all people I know, I just don't really ask who's who on the forum, so for instance, someone named "shellcredit", while clearly somebody who knows me, isn't anyone I can put a real name or face to, and I haven't asked "So, which one of my neighbors are you?" I talk to these people all the time and have no idea who in the neighborhood they actually are.
I know who Don is, because he told me. And I know who Tracy is, because she told me. I know who a few are, because they told me. Other than that I don't really know or ask. Yet they all seem to not only know who I am, but way way way too much about other people I know, who have nothing to do with my neighborhood or it's forums, at least as they connect to me.
For instance, a friend of mine, a drummer, was looking for an apartment. I asked on the forum, since there are a number of people on there who own rental properties, if anyone had a drummer friendly apartment available.
Immediately someone asked me if my friend was so and so..and they were right! Further questioning revealed that they don't know him, and only guessed who it was because he's my friend and they knew that. How did they know that? How did they know he was my friend? I've never mentioned his being my friend and I've never once mentioned his name on the forum. EVER. There's virtually no way for someone who's not a good friend of mine to know that he's also a friend of mine. But my good friends wouldn't hide behind anonymous usernames either, now would they? Now, since he didn't, at the time, hang out in this neighborhood, and I have never advertised who my friends are, it just freaked me out that I said I had a friend who was a drummer, and they knew who it was.
Just recently I ran across someone on the forum and got into what I thought was a civil conversation about dogs. This person subscribes to a very rigid, very professional dog handling philosophy, and mine is much more relaxed and leans toward positive reinforcement rather than rigid structure. At no time did I think the discussion ever became other than just that...a conversation. Once the person suggested that I was offended and I made sure to clarify that no, I wasn't at all, that that method just wasn't for me. I thought it was all perfectly civil and interesting. And then the next day I saw that every single comment that disagreed with his/her method of dog handling had been deleted.
Which struck me as awfully childish and weird. I mean..why do that? So I asked. And the post I submitted, asking why they'd erased half of the conversation, was also deleted, along with the rest of the conversation.
So I asked again why they seemed to feel some sense of threat from someone disagreeing with them? I mean what's the point of talking to people if you can only accept people saying "yeah you right!"
Rather than get an answer, this person, again someone I don't know, at least not by their forum name, responded, in another thread that had nothing to do with them, with a post directed at me.
This post asked me if I was Kevin Noonan, saying "I just want to make sure who my new best friend is. I want to make sure I address you the right way the next time we meet" or something along those lines.
Now...this is just too freaky and weird.
Kevin is a friend of mine. A very casual friend, and we're connected only in a musical/photographic way. I've done some photos of him in his various bands, helped him out with a myspace, promoted some of his music in a very very low key way. I would have done it more aggressively but he didn't want me to. That's it. He's got nothing to do with my life in the Bywater. The closest thing to a connection to anyone in the neighborhood other than myself, that he has that I'm aware of or that has anything at all to do with ME, would be the two mutual friends we have who just moved into the neighborhood.
So why in the world ...and HOW?? would this random person suddenly pick the name of one of my friends....a friend who more than likely wouldn't be posting on the marigny/bywater forum about dogs, the dog park, local dog owners, or claiming to have two small dogs, OR to live in the bywater.....and ask if he was me?
Where did this person get that name in the first place, and if he/she knows Kevin, what about my post would ever lead them to think of him???
Kevin plays guitar, writes songs, plays guitar, records songs, plays guitar and um...yeah. And he doesn't even live in town, let alone in the bywater. My debating dog rearing techniques is so far removed from him it's absurd.
Yet somehow this person on the forum grabbed the name of one of my friends and decided I was him.
And it's freaking me right the fuck out.
I have to guess this person is somehow musical, as his/her username is bandini.
But were it a mutual friend of mine and Kevins, they would know I wasn't Kevin. They obviously don't know who I am, if they think I'm him.
But it's too weird that they just picked someone I know kind of out of the blue like that.
The forum folk more and more just squick me out with this kind of stuff.
I know these are all people I know, I just don't really ask who's who on the forum, so for instance, someone named "shellcredit", while clearly somebody who knows me, isn't anyone I can put a real name or face to, and I haven't asked "So, which one of my neighbors are you?" I talk to these people all the time and have no idea who in the neighborhood they actually are.
I know who Don is, because he told me. And I know who Tracy is, because she told me. I know who a few are, because they told me. Other than that I don't really know or ask. Yet they all seem to not only know who I am, but way way way too much about other people I know, who have nothing to do with my neighborhood or it's forums, at least as they connect to me.
For instance, a friend of mine, a drummer, was looking for an apartment. I asked on the forum, since there are a number of people on there who own rental properties, if anyone had a drummer friendly apartment available.
Immediately someone asked me if my friend was so and so..and they were right! Further questioning revealed that they don't know him, and only guessed who it was because he's my friend and they knew that. How did they know that? How did they know he was my friend? I've never mentioned his being my friend and I've never once mentioned his name on the forum. EVER. There's virtually no way for someone who's not a good friend of mine to know that he's also a friend of mine. But my good friends wouldn't hide behind anonymous usernames either, now would they? Now, since he didn't, at the time, hang out in this neighborhood, and I have never advertised who my friends are, it just freaked me out that I said I had a friend who was a drummer, and they knew who it was.
Just recently I ran across someone on the forum and got into what I thought was a civil conversation about dogs. This person subscribes to a very rigid, very professional dog handling philosophy, and mine is much more relaxed and leans toward positive reinforcement rather than rigid structure. At no time did I think the discussion ever became other than just that...a conversation. Once the person suggested that I was offended and I made sure to clarify that no, I wasn't at all, that that method just wasn't for me. I thought it was all perfectly civil and interesting. And then the next day I saw that every single comment that disagreed with his/her method of dog handling had been deleted.
Which struck me as awfully childish and weird. I mean..why do that? So I asked. And the post I submitted, asking why they'd erased half of the conversation, was also deleted, along with the rest of the conversation.
So I asked again why they seemed to feel some sense of threat from someone disagreeing with them? I mean what's the point of talking to people if you can only accept people saying "yeah you right!"
Rather than get an answer, this person, again someone I don't know, at least not by their forum name, responded, in another thread that had nothing to do with them, with a post directed at me.
This post asked me if I was Kevin Noonan, saying "I just want to make sure who my new best friend is. I want to make sure I address you the right way the next time we meet" or something along those lines.
Now...this is just too freaky and weird.
Kevin is a friend of mine. A very casual friend, and we're connected only in a musical/photographic way. I've done some photos of him in his various bands, helped him out with a myspace, promoted some of his music in a very very low key way. I would have done it more aggressively but he didn't want me to. That's it. He's got nothing to do with my life in the Bywater. The closest thing to a connection to anyone in the neighborhood other than myself, that he has that I'm aware of or that has anything at all to do with ME, would be the two mutual friends we have who just moved into the neighborhood.
So why in the world ...and HOW?? would this random person suddenly pick the name of one of my friends....a friend who more than likely wouldn't be posting on the marigny/bywater forum about dogs, the dog park, local dog owners, or claiming to have two small dogs, OR to live in the bywater.....and ask if he was me?
Where did this person get that name in the first place, and if he/she knows Kevin, what about my post would ever lead them to think of him???
Kevin plays guitar, writes songs, plays guitar, records songs, plays guitar and um...yeah. And he doesn't even live in town, let alone in the bywater. My debating dog rearing techniques is so far removed from him it's absurd.
Yet somehow this person on the forum grabbed the name of one of my friends and decided I was him.
And it's freaking me right the fuck out.
I have to guess this person is somehow musical, as his/her username is bandini.
But were it a mutual friend of mine and Kevins, they would know I wasn't Kevin. They obviously don't know who I am, if they think I'm him.
But it's too weird that they just picked someone I know kind of out of the blue like that.
The forum folk more and more just squick me out with this kind of stuff.