I used to be one to get passionately involved in the discussions on CS. Now I just don't give a damn, since no one has changed any one else's mind yet. Way too many who I just consider to be dumb sh*ts -- and I'm sure there are plenty who think the same about me, or would if I participated in these opinion sessions any more. Anyone else feeling that way?

I'm not saying that I won't or don't participate at CS anymore, but I just can't work up any enthusiasm for getting into the endless, fruitless arguments. I guess I'm just rambling here . . . sorry to bore you with MY boredom!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Answers

Boredom away, Joy - when I read about YOUR boredom; then I'm not bored!! Yeah, I've pulled way back from Countryside too - amazing when I think that before April 1st, I was a major CS junkie - had to have my fix! And it seemed like almost all the posts were pertinent, somehow, back then. Ya just don't see many of the old posters anymore. And now, they yell at you for thread drift - that was what MADE most of the old posts so interesting if you ask me. No sense of humor over there anymore, and hardly anything posted piques my interest - let alone, my imagination - the way it used to. Altho, I must admit on that pet thread, the thought of eating useless humans did get me to bat my eyes and shake my head a few times - my, oh, my!

"Those were the days, my friend!"

(Now I'm going to be wondering all night at work, who sang THAT one!)

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Welcome to my world, Joy. I use to like CS but dropped off over a year ago. I got real tired of saying "Hi" and having someone argue with me because I said "Hi" instead of "Hello". Guess I should have picked a less controversial subject! I use to post on BWH too but I was off of that one for a little over a year and they changed the format on me. It takes way too much time to go through the threads and post so I just gave up on it too. You have to keep things simple for me. I've been off line for a few days and this site almost whopped my butt because I couldn't remember my password and forgot where I put it when I wrote it down.

Wildman (simple minded)

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

I know what ya mean, Joy. I guess you all could consider me relatively new at this discussion stuff, so I don't know if I know what I'm talking about. (What did I say??!) But, I still read CS and will post answers that I hope will not antagonize or set anyone off. I just try to give some advice that is pertinent to what I've learned in my 25 yrs. of "homesteading". I try to give answers that have worked for ME! But they might not work for everyone. Sometimes my answers will get a negative response. Makes me apprehensive about posting sometime even though I might have a good solution 'cause I feel that either an argument might get going or they just plain old don't believe me!! Besides that...I like thread drift!! Makes things much more informal and friendly!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

OK, you bunch of wooses (is that how it's spelled?), you mean you all aren't up for the endless, pointless arguing and name calling over at the CS forum??? Where's your backbone and bullheadedness gone to???

You really haven't experienced life at it's fullest until you've had someone impersonate you badly, they couldn't even impersonate me well, the unrepentant, disrespectful fools!

I know there are better things to do, but sometimes I really enjoy a heated debate about things, and I learned along time ago no matter what some ignoramus says about or to me, not to take it personally or even let it bother me. Does help to have a good firewall and anti- virus program though, learned my lesson well with dealing with Joel, I actually kind of miss him you know, sure made internet life very interesting, never a dull moment there. I miss him the same way that I miss Gerald Ford being President, he sure makes everyone else look like a veritable genius!!! The miracle of subjective comparison!

I do miss the thread drift though, and do my best to start it whenever possible, and damn political correctness and folks who are sticklers for perfect spelling!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Yep, CS ain't like it used to be. My God, I did a google search a week or so ago and came up with 89 pages of search results, most of them on CS! These days I browse the topics and if I can offer some help I do and just ignore the "baiters". Thats easy enuf to do cause I really don't give a damn what they think.

I think its kinda interesting how these forums change and evolve. When we first got the puter I went to snap discussion sites. Then I discovered CS. Back then CS had maybe 20-30 regular posters and it was pretty cool because I had a real sense of community from it. Now its grown to a large town sorta. It seems like alot of folks from BWH are now at CS, trying I'm guessing to get away from the constant argueing and mean spirited atmosphere I found there. Funny thing tho-- -they seem to have brought it with them---go figure!

Snap shut down and there was a cyber diaspora. Alot of the former regulars were lost in cyberspace while a number of the others ran into each other elsewhere at similar forums.

Polly----"Those were the days my friend....." Melanie?? the singer?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

original singer was Mary Hopkin

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

I tend to go in spells. I will go for a while and be so put off by CS that I have almost nothing to say. I might jump in on a thread that I have some experience in. I almost never start threads anywhere anymore; I think the homeschool one was the first one I have started on CS in a very long time. You all were there when I got there as well as a lot of them from the Freedom forum. I don't even lurk on the Christian forum anymore. There are so many new people coming in all the time at CS that I just get lost as to who is who.

I enjoy an occasional spirited debate if it doesn't evolve into a bunch of dumb name calling, and I could care less any more what anyone thinks of what I have to say. I guess I am rambling also, and yes Joy it does get boring at times.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

I guess I am interested in spirited discussions, but they seldom seem to be that -- just arguing about who's right. Yep, I guess it's a small town grown too big. And a lot of the old-timers have moved out of town!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Thanks Polly, now I'm going to be singing that song. Well, I guess it's better then Julie's Rolly, Polly, Fish Heads. OH NO....

Before the forum, I called my county agent for everything. He used to sigh when he heard my voice. Had to admit that after a while, my questions weren't as crazy. He's no longer there, hope I didn't chase him out.

I still go to CS but just answer certain questions. I'll read some of the crazy posts but will not (no matter what)answer them. I think no matter what you say, some people will take it as being bad.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Talk about being a former CS addict....

I now read maybe 5% of any posts over there...maybe 10%. I swear I used to read *everything* twice a day. These days, I might respond to a few threads now and again. For one thing, the questions are getting really redundant. It seems like every week, someone is asking the same question or two over and over again. That's okay I guess, but I do get tired of reading the same basic answers over and over again, too.

I also suspect there's "folks" posting who are really the same person or persons. That makes it less than fun, too.

Mostly, I guess I miss the mutual respect that used to be there and the SINCERE effort on people's parts to help each other out. The comraderie has been replaced by, I dunno...big egos and online jabs.

I also really am uncomfortable with the number of (ooops...I'm really gonna sound like a total snob) seriously uneducated posts that seem to make up a lot of the daily interaction. I just cringe when i see sum of the speling and not thet I now everthing ether, but jest how did we git this bad at communicashun?

Oh well. Really, who cares?!

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001

Whyever would someone's lack of spelling expertise make you 'uncomfortable'? Very strange concept.......

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001

Difference of opinions I enjoy. But the nastiness and namecalling is totally uncalled for. When the CS forum started I didn't have a computer and could only quickly read it at the library for 1/2 hour every other week or so, and then all hell broke loose and I really didn't understand or know the different personalities involved. CS has really changed though just since the year and a half I've been able to read it regularly.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001

Oh my gosh!! I have been pulling back too. I was getting bored..went to CF..started a piss war with a skunk there and as an end result got invited to come play over here. I's ever so happy! :o) CS seems like goats and chickens goats and chickens, politics, goats and chickens....No real earth sherttering new ideas or interests popping up. One good thing from CS though..I met my good friend Terri there. Oh and it indirectly led me here.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001

You know it does make us appreciate our board!!!!

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001

Earthmama, not just the spelling (although since I live and breathe it daily, I suppose it's on my mind a lot!) I guess I was just (tiredly) responding to some of the silly notions that I read from folks by equating them with lack of grammar skills, etc.

Yes, a silly notion in some ways!

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2001

Hey, the spelling gets to me too. I don't enjoy reading dialect, which is what phonetic spelling is like to me. The uneducated folks irk me too. How about that latest, "let's just lop the puppies tails off with a knife" post? I don't think that person ought to be breeding dogs. Sure as I say something I'll get on another list with someone praying (preying?!) for me again! ;)

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Interesting to consider just what 'undeducated' really means. One might allow that this a pretty subjective thing. As I described in my post about my daughter, I was forced to have my own ignorance cured on this issue firsthand, since I had always been guilty of judging people's intelligence on things like their spelling/grammar skills,mostly cuz they had always come easily to me. Now I know better, and am also sensitive to the fact that my brilliant child will forever be branded negatively, not that SHE really gives a damn, because of others' mistaken perceptions. The way I look at it now is, if I cannot see wisdom, love, and life experience in EVERY single person I meet, then I need to take stock right quick of my arrogance.

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

I didn't read the post about your daughter. Which one is it? thx...

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Sheepish, it was on Diane's homeschooling/unschooling thread. I sure hope I didnt sound harsh or anything in my post; this is one subject that hits close to home, and a subject I have been hit upside the head about for a reason (my arrogance!)

Love,

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Earthmama, education is not only book learning. I am referring to those that seem to perpetually recommend cruelty to animals, neighbors, etc. Has less to do with arrogance than with impatience with ignorance. IE....if you signed on for the covenants in your community then why are you surprised they are enforcing them? I don't want to spend time reading/answering those kinds of questions.

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Oh goody, now I can gripe too, the ones that REALLY get me are the ones where they move out to the country and first thing they do when they lose a chicken or lose a lamb or heaven forbid, black bears are upsetting their trash cans, they want to blast them, kill them, or in some way make Nature fit THEIR plan, and not the other way around.

Please, I wish they would stay in the burb's if they're still gonna be yuppies out here in the sticks, nothing worse than having a yuppie tell you off because you suggested ( however gently) that it might make more sense to guard your stock from the predators, than expect the predators to "know" to stay away from the stock. Like getting shot and killed is going to "educate" the rest of the predators. Sheesh!!!

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2001

I hardly ever go to CS anymore. And when I do, I don't usually find very much of interest. I'm tired of all the fighting and name calling too.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2001

Good points, Annie. And ya know, it's often the same people who complain about the "yuppies" moving to rural areas and then wanting to change everything. I guess they see some significant difference in the "yuppie" desire to have someone else make and enforce the changes they desire, and their willingness to make and enforce themselves the changes THEY want. I, however, still see it as forcing self-serving changes, period.

I gotta agree with Anne's point of view too!

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2001