I've managed to miss all the recent "shenanigans" - wonderful word Dan
which is just as well I reckon
I nearly left this forum a while back after someone attacked a post I made that was I felt uncalled for, I was excited about something and felt slapped in the face by a complete stranger so I just shut up for a while and stopped posting anything personal rather than strictly animal practicalities which I felt was a shame but the only safe way to proceed. I chose not to leave because I value the information resource, particularly on chook matters where I have only a year experience and blessed little expertise
so just changed my use of the forum for a while.
I reckon being at home when posting gives us all a sense of being among family and friends, and as we maybe meet a few members in "real life" we post as if we know everyone else too, and maybe share too much sometimes to be really as safe as we imagine given all the members we won't know or know how they'll react.. The forum is primarily about smallholding which is so integral to most of our lives, or a dream for others, that we do feel passionately about it, both when we find folk that share our passion and, sometimes, those who feel passionately but don't share our opinion
Our lives are so woven into our work that it is harder to separate what is "personal" and not post about it
and that leaves us vulnerable to taking things personally because they feel that way.
I've been a member of another forum since it started and always felt safe being myself there despite the growth of membership, until recently when I fell out with someone outside forum territory, in a very brief encounter, a newcomer I'd never met but trusted as "a member, one of us" and shouldn't have. The external situation is now resolved, but bad feeling remains on both sides and while I've tried to be careful not to post on her threads in case it is inflammatory, and frankly because I want nothing to do with her opinions or experiences, she has felt it necessary to post attacking me overtly and responding to my own threads with snide comments, further allegations and basically calling me a liar at every opportunity even where she could not possibly know what I had been thinking or what decisions I'd discussed with others but not herself
I complained and all these threads have been deleted but it leaves me unwilling to post where she has or might, and unable to say anything directly related to my experience or opinions because I know for sure she'll be there with a dagger
I've been thinking hard about it since, hence this post
but am coming to the conclusion that, as a passionate and perhaps occasionally opinionated person
it may do me good to spend some time purely supporting others or providing information on some topics, but putting in nothing personal whatsoever. It's a challenge to my ego as in some cases I reckon I "know the answer" or have valid experience to share and to choose not to do so is unusual - but hey, unusual is good sometimes right? Maybe I'll become a better person for not having so much to say about myself
At least on here I know I know much less than most, where there I feel slightly more knowledgeable in areas I've spent 25 years actively and my whole life to some degree, pursuing as a "lifes work". Until now anyway, at this point I reckon that dream has been achieved, lived and is coming to an end. So much still to learn about the other aspects of my life, so many questions and right now they're about baldy chickens, infected plum tree and decimated brassicas so I'm here looking for answers and trying to keep my head down on the personal front (for a while anyway
)
