[KR steps up on big ol' soapbox]
(1) Have you ever been lampooned?
A few days ago, someone started a thread regarding messenger bags vs. backpacks. I posted something to the effect that I don't personally know what's considered to be in style as far as book bags, but my daughter had been using my old KS messenger bag for school and she wouldn't use it anymore because it was considered "uncool". I posted that because I thought it was mildly amusing that my 8 year-old and her classmates were already worrying about appearing "cool" to one another.
Then yesterday I read one of the "Favorite Handbag" forums and I saw that one GCer posted a lampoon of my post. I think she was talking about her pet cat wanting to use one of her Kate Spade bags for school but she was worried it wouldn't match the cat's fur or some such thing. That was absolutely a lampoon of me, although I don't see what she could have thought was lampoon-worthy about what I had said. Oh, then someone else I had always been friendly with jumped in on the fun. Oh well.
Normally, I wouldn't have really thought much of it but I read it shortly after reading another post lambasting me for supposedly deleting the Internet Court thread.
So, what did I then do? Like any good GreekChatter, I fired off a post in the "Random" thread lampooning her signature. Something about how naming your pets after Extentialists is stupid. Then I realized that's pretty immature so I deleted it. But that's the story. Boy, that's long and boring
But, wait! There's more!
(2) Do you believe in justice for those who were lampooned?
Justice? Like the cutting off of fingers so lampooners can't type??? Course not! But as long as we're on the subject, it would be nice to know why someone with legal training would jump to an incorrect conclusion and it would pi$$ her off so much that she'd want to lampoon someone who has never given her any grief, but at the end of the day it's really unimportant. Besides, I asked her and she never answered
(3) What do you believe should happen to those who did the lampooning?
They should understand that what they consider to be "harmless fun" is not harmless to the people they're lampooning. For example, there is a new GC user with the exact same screenname as the fiance of one of my GreekChat-to-Real-Life friends. That's a pretty blatant lampoon and I know it bothers her. As for the inside jokes, there's nothing wrong with that, but people should remember that they sometimes make people on the outside feel uncomfortable. It's kind of like when two people are speaking another language in front of a third person who doesn't understand what they're saying and the other two know it. It's rude to purposely alienate others. I just don't think this is the place for large scale inside jokes.
Sure, this is the Internet. But the fact that friendships, confidences and, yes, cliques have grown from this board shows that just because our contact with each other started out on a computer screen, we're all still "real people" behind our screen names. Each and every one of us have "real lives" outside of GreekChat, but that doesn't mean that it isn't possible for people's feelings to be hurt by things on here.
(4) Is there any other information about you that makes your qualified or unqualified to serve as a juror in this matter.
Not interested, thanks
Just thought I'd take a minute to hop up on my soapbox!
Whoa, this is sure longwinded. Sorry! And thanks to Internet Lawyer for providing said soapbox!
I'll probably be lampooned again for this post but, funny, now that I got this all out I don't think it'll bother me. And, besides, it was important to me to finally stick up for my friend. It was the right thing to do.
[/KR stepping down]