Orchidlandguy,
I wasn't going to respond to this topic, but you've got this so wrong. Did it occur to you that some posters are not siding with Tom but rather practicing the "ignore the bait" advice given by our moderator? I didn't so much resist the bait but more wasn't interested in the topic other than seeing how people reacted to it.
I would really like someone to state who this bully group is supposed to be. Are they all friends with each other, or what? . Most of Tom's cohorts don't even post here any more, but hang out at Puna Online where they periodically start voyeuristic snark topics about what is going on here (probably because not much of interest goes on over there). There was a topic on the old forum called Tom Lackey, Chicken Racist, where they mocked the topic here. SOP
I figured this post was in part for their collective entertainment, to see who would rise to the bait.
<goes over there, yep it was posted there under humor>
quote:
If anyone else who was not in the bully group wrote such a statement they would be called on the carpet for it not being puna related, being self amusing and the poster being too sensitive.
Why would we say he is too sensitive, when we know he isn't?
As far as I can tell, with my limited comprehension, Tom's post/cartoon is a lampoon on people who "whine" about being picked on. Do you not get that? So what do you do, you take the bait and complain about the bullies, thus making his point. Then you complain about the people who are not responding with "Tom, this is not Puna-related!" Which would make another point for him. Do you seriously think that Tom of all people would with a straight face post a self-indulgent whiny woe is me topic about being picked on? [}
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As far as Puna-related goes, when a topic is about Punaweb dynamics, it is Puna related. btw, even though people say, Keep it Puna, Rob's rule is keep it Hawaii-related. The rule is to discourage topics of discussion that could be discussed on some other forum that is more national in its scope, you know? Like US politics and policies, global warming without a tie-in, and so forth. We are asked to somehow anchor these areas of interest to what goes on in this state.
The rule is not meant to discourage island residents (current, former or future residents) from talking about their personal concerns, interests, and relationships. Please let Rob do the moderating. If he didn't appear to say the topic was breaking his one rule, then that should tell you that he is allowing it.
You know what is getting me cranky, is there are so many posts about groups and people and "they" doing this and bullies doing that, and I have no idea who it is being discussed.
My husband used to have a bumper sticker on his car that said
"They say ... but who are THEY?"
Help me out here ...