Missing Members

[Madiel]

I find you thoroughly likeable online, amw.

And we all like different things anyway.

[Mirror Image]

In real life, I'm a horrible person even more so than I am online.

[Spotted Horses]

I find you thoroughly likeable online, amw.

+1

[The new erato]

In real life, I'm a horrible person even more so than I am online.

Yes, but at least you've got humour and self-irony, man. That's always a quality that helps one survive on internet fora. 

We love you with all your foibles.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, it will probably surprise members of this forum to know that in real life I am considered likeable and charming. The internet tends to exaggerate our personalities and bring out our worst selves—e.g., my real life weaknesses include being considered to have a lot of unused potential and to not be "relationship material", and online these manifest as an inflated sense of intellectual superiority that never really amounts to anything, and a vacillation between insecure attachment to and rejection of others, respectively—which is one reason I've tried to cut back my participation over the years, both here and on social media, and focus more on self-improvement. (The other main reason is running out of hard disk space for new music.)

people who spend all their time online develop drastic personality changes, as this exaggeration of one's most unhealthy traits becomes a self-sustaining feedback loop. It's similar to drug or alcohol addiction in some ways (and some scientists, iirc, have made this comparison directly). Keep someone away from the self-destructive impulse for a few months and they'll start to wonder how it was they ever became obsessed with Trump, or seeking validation from strangers, or watching weird pornography, etc. But that's easier said than done.

Happening all around us, unfortunately.

I still smile to think of snypsss's obsession with soy lecithin, one of his unobjectionable eccentricities.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, but at least you've got humour and self-irony, man. That's always a quality that helps one survive on internet fora. 

We love you with all your foibles.

Thanks, erato. I like you, too, and, well, I even like people here who don't like me (Harry, Wanderer et. al.), because I think, in time, they would like me. It's always the simple case of acceptance, which is something I've craved ever since I was young but seldom received.

[greg]

That was an interesting last few pages. But I have no other comment to add. 

[Mandryka]

This is welcome advice. Speaking as someone tasked with dealing with this stuff, I find it disconcerting to see the same people who complained (in many cases) now being nostalgic in retrospect. 

🤠😎

Well what's a shame is that you couldn't just stop him posting in threads which weren't musical. 

On the internet, I find myself engaging with types of people who I wouldn't normally rub shoulders with, that's one of its distinctive features.

[Gurn Blanston]

Well what's a shame is that you couldn't just stop him posting in threads which weren't musical. 

On the internet, I find myself engaging with types of people who I wouldn't normally rub shoulders with, that's one of its distinctive features.

For the last while he was here, we had to approve anything he posted. Many things didn't get approved so y'all never got to see them. It might be why he decided to leave.     It shouldn't be that labor-intensive. There are several posters here now who have been asked not to post in certain threads and they have complied with that request very cooperatively. It doesn't work for everyone, sad to say.

[Irons]

That was an interesting last few pages. But I have no other comment to add. 

It is. I do have a comment, no not a comment but an observation. Not a particularly flattering one I may add. Social media has never held any interest for me but for the last couple of decades I have been in turn involved with three music related forums of which GMG is the third. It is a fact, which I find quite interesting, that in all three I received the same vibes and interaction. Different folks same strokes.
I don't know, but maybe an online persona is more unvarnished and basic then the multitude of elements that make a real one? Or maybe still, an online and real-life persona are quite different but both are accurate in the sphere they operate in.  

[Madiel]

We all have different personas in different parts of our lives in any case, before the internet added a new environment. Each aspect of us is equally real.

[Mirror Image]

We all have different personas in different parts of our lives in any case, before the internet added a new environment. Each aspect of us is equally real.

Speak for yourself. I am the same asshole here as I am in real life.

[springrite]

Speak for yourself. I am the same asshole here as I am in real life.

Well, we have a prettier way of putting this in China. We'd say you are quite a "chrysanthemum blossom". 

[Karl Henning]

Well, we have a prettier way of putting this in China. We'd say you are quite a "chrysanthemum blossom". 

(* chortle *)

[Mirror Image]

Well, we have a prettier way of putting this in China. We'd say you are quite a "chrysanthemum blossom". 

[Madiel]

Speak for yourself. I am the same asshole here as I am in real life.

I'm sure there are subtle differences in how you approach being an asshole in different contexts. 

[Mirror Image]

I'm sure there are subtle differences in how you approach being an asshole in different contexts. 

[springrite]

There is a huge variety and wide spectrum of chrysanthemum blossoms after all !

[Gurn Blanston]

Speak for yourself. I am the same asshole here as I am in real life.

Not to speak of you in particular, although I'm sure you would know better than I, but since it was postulated here recently that the opposite might be the case, I have felt that the correct solution for most people is exactly what you described for yourself.

Due to my position here and the subsequent need for decorum, I am an exception to the rule. I am also an asshole in real life. 😁

🤠😎

[Mirror Image]

Not to speak of you in particular, although I'm sure you would know better than I, but since it was postulated here recently that the opposite might be the case, I have felt that the correct solution for most people is exactly what you described for yourself.

Due to my position here and the subsequent need for decorum, I am an exception to the rule. I am also an asshole in real life. 😁

🤠😎

You've always been nice to me, Gurn. When I get into Haydn (which I'm sure will be at some point), you'll be the guy I come to for recommendations. Although, surprisingly, I have more Haydn in my collection than I initially thought.