What you didn't think my response was funny??? Go back and read it again... Maybe you will get it if you read it a few times!! :cryin2:

I believe that there have been "invented" posters with made up personalities placed on this forum to engender posts and to stir the pot.

I think that it added a certain amount of posts because people would get all stirred up about it. I think the added posts were thought to add to the desirability of the forum and the added posts would be a magnet for advertisers.

When I see a post by a poster with very few posts that start something rather controversial, I become suspicious that it is a made up person.

There are also people who have been removed from this board for good reasons or bad that return with new names. I see no harm in that at all.

I personally do not see a clique if a clique means that a group of people know each other off of this forum and belittle and talk down about others. That is just plain mean. We have all felt left out at times and insecure at times and it does not feel nice at all.

I see a lot of funny and not so funny sarcasm that may or may not be taken wrong by people not seeing it was meant to be humorous.

There are VERY few unkind people who post here. This forum is mostly welcoming and caring and kind. We do have differing opinions on almost everything, but mostly I see people who post without putting others down.

We have far more serious things to worry about than cliques on this forum.

:agree:

[QUOTE=skyguy79;377359]Thank you Trish! You hit the nail right on the head and did not join the "clique" of those who I feel unfairly criticized me when I was only exercising my humor by spoofing my distaste for cliques.

If people were reading the posts that led up to this poll and if they have been reading my many post over the past months since I joined TOTV, then I feel they should have realized that I'm not a clique type of person nor an advocate of cliques. If they haven't then I can somewhat understand their reaction to a degree.

I mostly try to inject humor in most of what I post and now I have doubts as to weither it's appreciated enough to continue. I'll let future reactions confirm or dispell those doubts!

Skyguy:

I also understood your spoof and appreciated your humor. Apparently, this particular spoof hit a nerve of many TOTVers, a nerve that I am confident you did not intend coming anywhere near.

That said, it is logical and understandable that anyone who has felt the sting of being shunned by a group for no apparent reason would react negatively to the work "clique".

Your self-assessment is on-target. You entertain and educate far more often than you ever offend.

Don't back off bc one attempt at humor wasn't well received by some folks.
Oh well. You tried.

Your spoof was based on a good concept that was undone by a painful word to some. Even the best professional comedians and pundits have a bad joke or two along the way.

Get back on that horse! Ride tall. :thumbup:

Angie:

Of course your post was funny. I'm guessing that Skyguy wasn't referring to you.

Now, about that secret handshake... ;)

.

Somehow I missed all of the drama contained in the Rats and Alligators post, and the spillover of emotions to this post.

A lot of pain and anger being expressed by more than one of us. That indicates to me that something negative is being conveyed through threads and posts, whether intended by the writer, or not.

The written word often fails to accurately convey intonation and connation of the writer. Consequently, a reader may easily wrongly infer or interpret a writer's message.

Forums, given the prevalence of the informal writing style and the anonimity of the writers who employ that style, provide an environment in which reader's inferences clash with writer's implications, often culminating in heated confrontations and personal insults.

Moving on....my position regarding cliques is accurately summed up by paraphrasing Groucho:

I wouldn't want to join a clique that would include me as a member.

Angie, you have Personal Msg!

I'm really not getting any of this. Why is there so much sensitivity and hurt feelings? It is clearly a joke. I thought I was talking with a bunch of people that just wanted to express their pleasure with living in TV...now it's getting to be like high school. Do we really have to be that careful of everything we post? I didn't, at any time, see anyone insulting or ridiculing anyone. Think I may go back to just lurking...I'm getting paranoid about posting.

See my comment about the clique in the Rats thread (a response to Larry). It says it all for me.

This poll is great!
 

Love your sense of humor Skyguy! Can't wait to meet you.

Kim

I have found that sarcasm and satire do not translate well to message boards. I have been taken wrong on a few occaisions when I attempted to inject my rather sarcastic sense of humor on various message boards, including this one. Just last week I upset Pturner, who is one of my favorites, when I tried to be "funny", and did not intend to imply anything hurtful or insulting. Usually, when you use that form of give and take with people you know, they understand where it is coming from and enjoy it. People that don't appreciate it, or who you are unsure would appreciate it--- you don't use it with them. On a message board you will invariably have both kinds, and it is often hard to interpret the context. BTW, Skyguy is a good poster and mostly a funny and wise contributor.

This is what it boils down to....the second part of what Tony the Moderator said on July 6:

"The forum is open to everyone and we have not appointed any gate keepers."


He didn't mention "appointed gatekeepers" for no reason. Some do take it upon themselves to "control" and "inspect" those who enter.

Trish, you are right, it is clearly a joke to have 18,000 people in a clique. Yet the word clique is sensitive to some people. Over the past four years, there have been posters who feel there is an "inner circle" and "in jokes" on TOTV and they're not feeling part of it. No need to be paranoid, it's just posters expressing their feelings.

Thank you Kim! I can't wait to meet you too. Someday at Crispers perhaps!

With what you quoted, I was reminded what was on my mind as the serious message that I started out to make it through the use of humor. It was the part that says "I am making a motion that all members of TOTV automatically become members of "The Clique!"

That statement was honestly meant to convey or suggest that if ALL members of TOTV were part of the so called clique, then there would in reality be no such clicque since no one would be left out and there could be no such clique!

Did I go over peoples heads? Perhaps! But I hope this clearifies my thoughts and where I was coming from in the first place! I've experienced being on the outside of cliques my entire adult life and probably more so than most because of weight problems and physical limitations, but I rarely complain about that. I don't like clicques, never have! But at the same time, I don't let them upset me or get to me the way some others do!

I hope people will understand me now and I get no more indirect, thinly veiled implications that I'm one of the "TOTV" jerks as one person rudely did!

Again, thanks for your comments Kim!