To get the first(ish) part of this story, go here to We’ll Just Call Him “JR”, a post written on August 29, 2021 about posts that had been going to moderation and then the spam folder during the week prior. I specifically cite the date here for a reason. Today is October 2, 2021. He’s still going, steadily filling up the spam folder right up to this last hour; over a month since his first attempt at posting here.
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The age of the internet has brought on a lot of changes when it comes to how we are connected to the world and how we are connected to each other. Now more than ever we have the ability to instantly communicate with other people no matter where in the world they might be. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it’s a bad thing. Then there are the times it just comes across as a weird thing.
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Over the last decade, I’ve worked with various other individuals on several fandom and geek sites and a few podcasts. While I enjoyed working on the various websites and digital media projects, they all ultimately ended with me more or less back where I was when I started. As such, I’m going to be changing my approach in future.
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When people do something in a monumentally stupid way, I usually have no issue pointing out that they just did something in a monumentally stupid way. When people do something in a monumentally stupid way and then follow that up by doubling down in perhaps an even more monumentally stupid way, I usually have no issue with pointing that out. Occasionally, when someone doesn’t end up doubling down in ways that makes them come off as a bit of an ass, I’ll even try to be fairly polite about it. Blunt honesty about how someone is behaving might not come across as “polite” in a way Miss Manners would endorse, but, hey, she occasionally over the years came across as less than polite and sometimes even more than a tad condescending.
However, one thing I do hate to do is to punch down. A few days ago, a statement- perhaps in the eyes of some even a borderline challenge -was directed at me where I just rolled my eyes, joked with a few friends about it, and more or less decided to leave it alone and move on. At the time, as the person seemed to be desperately trying to sink himself and a project he wanted to launch, it seemed like responding in the way he suggested I do so would be a little bit like me punching down- in this case punching down on a guy barely holding onto a life preserver in shark-infested waters while simultaneously dumping chum all over himself.
It’s a few days later. I’ve thought about it. Not all that much, mind you, but enough. Just enough to realize that something I said to this fellow was fairly accurate and worth following up on. His actions and his reactions to the fallout from his actions are worth noting and discussing if for no other reason than they are a “How To” guide for everyone else out there. However, in his case, he is and seems to be intent on becoming even more so a “How To” guide on everything you want to not do if you’re hoping to do a project along the lines of his proposed project.
I’m going to work very hard to rein in my natural tendencies towards sarcasm here. There are three reasons for this. First, this is the kind of mistake many fans or fan/pros out there could easily make in this day and age. Second, while the man is acting in a damned fool way, he hasn’t exactly (yet) struck me as someone trying to be a jackass. That could change based on things he’s already expressed on the matter, but I’m going to give him some benefit of the doubt for now. Third… Well, I’ll touch on that reason towards the end of this.
Actually, I’ll add a fourth reason why I’ll rein in my natural tendencies towards sarcasm here. He may very well be a nice guy who doesn’t act like this very often. I don’t know. I have no real way of knowing that. He may normally be a nice, fairly on top of it guy who is just acting in an extremely poor manner here.
Oh, also… If the individual in question sees all of this and feels it puts him in a poor light or that my using him as an example for others of what not to do casts his recent actions in a negative light… Well, there’s a part of me that’s at least a little sorry for that. However, keep in mind; he basically suggested I do this.
Find out HERE.
Sometime back in the early months of 2015, I was listening to my iPod while out and about and doing my thing. In my playlist that day was the then most recent episode of Needless Things. It was a podcast that I was more and more regularly listening to at the time.
In between grumblings and observations on fandom and genre, I do a lot of promoting of other people’s works and passion projects. One thing I’ve really not done is promote anything I’ve been working on other than in the little bio bit at the bottom of the columns, and, let’s be honest, most people that read articles on websites tend to stop reading when they hit the first few words of those things.
However, if I learned nothing else during my years of being a professional wrestling fan and seeing Mick Foley on the television, I’ve learned that cheap pops work. Unfortunately, cheap pops of the Foley variety don’t really work all that well on a website like this. However, I also learned from the Foley years of WWE television that shameless self-promotion isn’t always a bad thing. As such, this week I’m doing some shameless self-promotion. Think of it as my birthday gift to myself. Granted, my birthday is still five months away. However, I keep being told that procrastination is bad, so I’m getting it out of the way now.
This is certainly going to be one of the more… different… pieces I’ve ever written for Needless Things. I’m usually fairly direct when it comes to things I’m writing about, but, at least right now, I’m being courteous about the matter. I’m not going to risk stirring up a hornet’s nest for someone/a group of people by addressing the matter directly and in detail. I will, it’s just going to have to wait a half dozen or so Thursdays before I can. In the meantime, I’m going to comment on various groups of people out there, sadly some in fandom, by discussing their mindset. Well, discussing might be the wrong word…
It’s April, April Fools is now nicely behind us, and, for wrestling fans at least, the real reason April as a month has a special place on the calendar is about to happen this coming weekend. The entire company that is the World Wrestling Entertainment has been building towards this weekend since the Monday Night Raw of April 3, 2017, and some fans have been making their plans for this weekend for almost as long. Welcome to the craziness that is the WrestleMania Weekend.
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