Marvie's Crochet Corner

Drama, drama, drama!

Wow.... talk about drama! First the prayer thing, now everyone is jumping down Beth's throat. Well, I agree with Beth. I'm staying out of the thread, after having read it just to see what all the hooha was about this time, but I can't resist posting my thoughts on the subject here in my space.

I've drifted away from Crochetville quite a bit in recent months. It started because I couldn't see people's pictures (which seems to have mostly resolved itself, don't ask me how, but I can see more than I can't now) so I stopped going to the Show and Tell sections. I couldn't see anything, so I couldn't comment on them. Since I couldn't comment on other people's work, I stopped posting mine in there too bc it didn't feel right. Then I stopped going into Off Topic because the entire page was nothing but happy birthday wishes, which got moved to their own thread and I was very happy about that.

It's not that I don't hope everyone has a wonderful birthday or anything, but it got to the point where it was overwhelming and I spent too much time posting in those threads, so after thinking it over and deciding that I couldn't feel right about wishing some but not all people happy birthday on the forum I just stopped altogether. At that time, I went into my settings and (hopefully) removed my birthday listing so it won't show on the forum and doesn't get a thread started by someone that I'll never even see since I don't go into that topic. I wish people a happy birthday on their blogs now. If someone wants to send me wishes on my birthday, they can do it right here.

Then the prayer requests seemed to take over OT too, and that got overwhelming. I don't have the energy to send out for everyone's brother's cousin's uncle or whatever that is ill or having a rough time. I try to reserve that for the individual I happen to know. When someone I know from blogs or the 'Ville gets very ill or has a rough patch, then I send positive energy out for them (even if I don't comment about it, sometimes I just don't have time to type out comments, but I can take a second or two to send that person good thoughts)

Someone posted about the old days when OT was a pleasant place to be, with the occasional bad day/don't feel well post. I miss that too. I don't mind reading about people's day, bad or good, but when the negative outweighs the positive, it just drags everyone down.

I happen to agree that a blog is a much better place to be posting about your bad day etc. In my opinion, Off Topic isn't. It just seems that OT turned into Have Sympathy For Me for a while there. I'd rather go in there and read things like recipe requests, what to pay a babysitter (that one fascinated me but I never commented in it) great kitty pics, requests for opinions on various topics (I think those are great bc you can get so many different opinions and it can help you think more clearly about a subject) knitting stuff (that's OT for sure lol) or other non crochet crafty stuff, funny stories..... the list goes on. There's lots of great interesting stuff for that section, it doesn't have to be a downer to go there. It never used to be. Hopefully it won't always be.

So, now I just don't go over there very often. When I do, I check the help sections (always a good way t learn something) and will post if I think I can be of help. I check Other Crochet Topics, and a very few other spots and only post replies, rarely do I start topics anymore. I used to go in every single day, multiple times a day and read just about every single post and posted a *lot*. Of course, that pretty much became impossible as the membership grew anyway (who could keep up?? lol) but it really has more to do with how things have changed.

I still love Crochetville, the ideas behind it, and the sense of community/family/friendship that drew me there in the first place. Hopefully, all this will blow over soon and everything will settle back down. Someone said something about growing pains, and I think they hit the nail on the head. Even small families have issues, but this family has over 3,300 people in it. Even if every single one of them isn't active, that's still a lot of opinions and sometimes there are bound to be clashes. I just hope that we can keep it civil and avoid going the way of so many other forums. I joined the 'Ville because it *wasn't* like all the other places.


On the subject of blogs... I read a *lot* of blogs (not all are crochet/fiber related). I don't comment on all of them. In fact the majority of them I have either never, or very rarely commented on. Various reasons for that, some of them I just like to read but never felt drawn to leave a comment. Some of them you have to register to comment and I'll be honest, I don't want to be bothered. Don't take that wrong, it's not that I don't want to be bothered commenting, but I have a hard enough time keeping up with the passwords and login stuff I already have. I just can't keep up. So if I have to create an account just to be able to comment, or if I have to login each and every time I want to comment.... I probably won't. Call me lazy or thoughtless or selfish if you like, but it's true. Sometimes I want to leave a comment, say on Lori's blog.... but then I remember I have to sign in, and I've forgotten my darn password, so either I pass on it or I tell myself I'll come back when I have a few more minutes free but then either I forget completely or whatever so I never get back to it. I dont know how many times I have created an account just to be able to comment on her blog, at least three times. But, as I said above, just bc I don't leave a comment doesn't mean I'm not thinking of that person when they're having a bad day, or a wonderful day for that matter =) I send out the positive as I read the post, or I go light a candle for them before I read the next blog on the list. I'm pretty sure they get the energy even if I don't tell 'em it's on the way.

Then there's the fact that bloglines has been kinda screwy with updating feeds lately. I was weeding through my list recently and discovered quite a few had been updated but weren't showing. I barely have time to read through my list each day, I really don't have time to go hunt down each individual blog to see if it's updated. So if bloglines doesn't show me, I have no idea there are new posts.

Another thing that keeps me from reading a new post is if the entire post doesn't show in bloglines, if it's set to just show a few lines I generally don't go to the site to read it, I just click the next feed on the list. I only go to the actual blog when I am going to comment. Again, call me lazy or whatever, but honestly, I just haven't got the time to go there unless I am commenting. I realize I am missing out, but I only have about an hour a day to do my recreational internet stuff so I have to have some sort of filtering system for myself.


And now... I really need to filter myself off here since it's nearly dinner time and I have no idea what I am feeding my boys lol.

I wish every single one of you a wonderful, happy, relaxing Christmas! I hope you all get wonderful gifts, eat lots of yummy food, and enjoy your weekend, (however you are spending it) be it with friends, family, or complete strangers ;)

{{{{{Hugs}}}}}

posted by Marvie at 7:29 AM