Be a little less demanding. Who made you the polite police?

P.S. als463...I'm glad I entertain you!:D

There's one in the mall of my town. I should totally go get one since I can't start drinking wine yet.

Hahhaha, you totally did entertain me. I will have to use that, now.

To this, I refer back to:

And yes, I know those were nice posts.

This post reserved
 

This post is reserved for my reply to be made when I'm no longer at work.


Your post is important to us. It will be answered in the order it was received.

Please hold.

Wow, I too thought they had all gone out of business. Looked at the site and found there are 4 within 25 miles of me.

DaffyKD

Is it wrong of me that I am really looking forward to your post? This whole time I was thinking, "Why hasn't Drolefille said anything?" I also looked forward to reading something from MC, KS, and DrPhil.

Now maybe it is because I haven't been having the best day that I'm responding thusly, but instead of a passive aggressive finger wagging thread, why not just call out the individuals who are sugar pops mean girls and you think are poor examples? Why make a thread that the majority find insulting and ridiculous, and therefore make yourself a target for the horrible behavior of all of us?

Do I think a lot of posters, both PNMs and their mamas need to get a grip and step away from GC? Obviously! However I find the whole intention of this thread exponentially more ridiculous and ludicrous than things that have allegedly been said. I'm not going to tell someone to go to Happy Pony Rainbow Land (get it right if you're going to mock it and us) I'm going to tell you that if you're this butt hurt over GC you want to call us out and throw some shade, perhaps you need to learn about the ignore function or log off from the internet for awhile.

Call individuals and their behavior out by name, or keep it to yourself. If that statement is going to hold in the recruitment forum for a certain mama, daughter, and what not when people get accusatory, it is good enough for the Greek Life forum.

All right. My $0.02, for what they're worth:

I think threads like this rarely have the desired effect. Even when motivated by a sincere desire to improve things, they tend to come across as patronizing and preachy. People do not usually respond positively to what can come across like pontification. So the result is that more often than not threads like this produce the opposite of the desired effect. This is a fairly foreseeable outcome.

I think that is particularly true when legitimate opinions are minimized. For example, to ask that someone with a differing opinion not be called a "sock-puppet" or "troll" diminishes the valid criticisms of real sock-puppets and trolls by dismissing those criticisms as "you just disagree with/don't like them."

I also think it is particularly true when someone suggests in any way that others aren't living up to the ideals of their fraternity or sorority. I learned that the hard way many years ago. Judgmental observations are rarely appreciated.

Yes, many here go overboard sometimes, me included I'm afraid. But sometimes the harshness is, if not polite, understandable. The actions of some posters have taught others not to take everything at face value, or to recognize signs that something isn't on the up-and-up.

No, it's not always pretty. But I tend to think these things have a way of working and evening themselves out, and the best way for that to happen is through dialogue -- challenging specific posts that one thinks are out of line and letting the community, with moderator assistance when necessary, police itself.

Passive-aggressive threads like this, on the other hand, fan the flames and become part of the problem.

I suspect it's not surprising that I agree in principle with most of what the OP says. We can quibble about the relative obnoxiousness of implying we're embarrassing our GLOs, but I think it pales in comparison with some of the unnecessary meanness that a lot of us have delivered at one point or another.

However, I think cyberbullying is a huge overstatement of what goes on here. I'm skeptical of the cyberbullying concept generally and think that it's getting way blown out of proportion when identified as a social problem.

ETA: as usual MC nails it.

I'm dead honest when I say, I appreciate what you both have to say here. You're right, I am being passive aggressive and maybe it's just because I don't have time to comment on every single thread and look more like the "cyber-police" as I've been called here. My point from the first is to have people just think about the whole picture (and how your - not you personally of course - post might be received) when posting. That's it. I was probably too wordy in the way that I said it. So maybe that's a better way of saying it.

Cyber-bullying is a big statement, but the idea of continually kicking and dogpile-ing on someone when they're down, from behind a unknown username is more hurtful. You're more likely to say more damaging things when you can remain anonymous. They still hurt. Again, I'm just asking people to think before posting...that's all.

LARGE FREAKING POSTS (PART 1)
 

And here's where you made your first mistake.

No. Freaking. Way. REALLY? Damn. News to me!
Adult women should know enough to step away from the keyboard if they're going to rant about how Alpha Beta Gamma is a chapter of TRAMPS who aren't good enough for their daughter anyway. Damn, that'd be a good thread.
What happens in your world: The meanies of GC pounce on the poor desperate PNM who is emotionally traumatized after high emotions lead to frustated sayings.

What happens more often: GCers tell PNMs to STFU and stop posting because it's really freaking obvious where they go to school and who they are after they said something really stupid in the first place like, "What are the ranks of the sororities at my school and how can a one handed saxophonist like me get into the best one?" And even then it's generally because they don't listen.

No.

So?
Sorry, our job is to play cheerleader? Where's it say that? People who feel as such will express that, people who wish to quote a PNM's comments will do that. Life goes on.

Right so don't TELL them to think rationally, just pity party them and treat them like they're incapable.
Guess how they can tell? They read the little date by the posters' names. And when someone tells them to do a search, or helpful people like KSUViolet post LINKS for them. God we're so cruel, making them do tricky things like read and think. (Dear lord this post reads like the poor female teenagers can't possibly think straight due to their crazy emotions. Not sure why we even bother educating the poor dears, really.)

You don't understand the meaning of those words obviously. EW has been trolling for years, and the socks usually make it a few months (or longer) without being called out. People who don't post their affiliations and still try to give advice on GC get called out for good reason. Put up or shut up. That goes for you too. Grow some ovaries and post your words with your letters.

And if we have multiple socks that are still around and posting because they're chickenshits and can't bear to be snarky under their real names - or have tarnished their real names so terribly I suppose.

Don't care, if you troll or sock you troll or sock no matter how long you lurk. The two are not connected.

That is not discretion, that's making an ass of themselves. If I walk up to you and start telling you how to make a million dollars but I won't show you my bank statements, will you trust me?

If you're claiming authority on recruitment matters, put up or shut up. And quite frankly if you're going to claim to be a sorority member at all, put up or shut up. We have no time for perps. Verify your letters with another GC member of your organization and move on.

5) Can we refrain from bashing people who decide to withdraw? BLAH BLAH BLAH [/quote]
People get bashed for withdrawing BEFORE PREF while in the same breath bitching about being dropped by the popular chapters.

Fuck off. Seriously. Where the fuck do you think you get off telling me what my GLO cares about? HQs read GC, and if they have an issue with something I say they can tell me about it. You, however, can go and fuck yourself.


No, it's not. Learn something before you post bullshit.
And WHERE THE FUCK do you get off piggybacking on real tragedies to try and make your point here?
You don't actually know what the "golden rule" is do you? Newsflash, I follow it. Odds are so does everyone here. We just expect people to be direct with us and tell us when we're being stupid rather than pretending things are cupcakes and rainbows.

By the way you're being stupid.

And yet you posted.

Stop being a fucking coward and be direct or take your ball and go home.

WTF would I need to snark you for that? That would be weaksauce. The passive aggressive bullshit you try to post as a call for ~*~Kindness~*~ is all I really need.

Seriously, your post count has nothing to do with it, this is so very much a "Do you even go here?" moment. I mean, really? It took you this long to find out how big and mean we are and now your brilliant solution was this post? Think longer next time.

LARGE FREAKING POSTS (PART 2)
 

Agreed.

True, although I don't actually see that happening here.

Yep

Yep.

Precisely, if one has an issue, the best way to impact it is to address it.
[/quote]
FLAME ON
http://i.imgur.com/63yng.jpg
This. (although making her a target provided some entertainment)

And this.

But mostly this.
I'm flattered I suppose

Yes.
No, I'm going with coward.

Gee, thank you internet scientist. This is not news. So when I speak with my letters and my username I'm not really being anonymous. You don't need my legal name and address. You on the other hand, don't seem to think your letters are part of your identity, are posting anonymously on the same website and think preaching at us is ok? Hmmmmmm.
You're assuming we don't think. We do. We just disagree with you.

God stop being so mean.

/no it isn't.

That doesn't even make sense. My cousin went through recruitment at Mizzou and suffered no ill effects due to my presence here because I didn't make a big deal about it or post her life story. Your inability to do the same seems odd.

No, it isn't. And the posts in these threads aren't bullying.

You're being really dumb right now. Maybe you're not all the time, I don't really have an impression of you outside of this thread, but right now... DUMB.

That's all.

I don't think you covered everything, DF ;)