Published on 12, July, 2020
Several days ago, I found myself on the receiving end of a Friend Request from a new member, which immediately caused me to feel unnerved and suspicious.
I question if it's a generational thing, or if it's just me. At the time that I received this request, there had been no prior interaction on the forum between myself and this member. Furthermore, their member profile was completely blank. Therefore, I had no way of knowing if this person was on a similar wavelength to me, or if we had anything remotely in common.
Usually creepy guys who see its a female from a bio and then add and try their luck (yes....you get autistic creeps as well)....I get very few friend requests. Which is great lol
Usually it is yes….
but I’ve since noticed the odd posts this person is linking. People have responded because they want to help. But this person has said they are 17 previously. So how would they have a 6yr old child for example? I’m quite annoyed now.
I've got a long stream of non replies and questions privately too. I was having to not be annoyed, but had not seen the chain of non sequiturs you mention.
Agreed....I did have the same reservation....but then I just thought....."nope, this is a wrong 'un" so I hit that button - for no other reason than to alert the MODS of what I feared was going on. I'm glad my share made you feel better........your share had made me feel better about what I had done too. Mutual support
Your comment about being judgemental has made me feel so much better. I must admit that when I observed that people were being targeted on a daily basis, and posts were being derailed with links that had absolutely nothing to do with what was being discussed, I did feel sorely tempted to do as you had done. What stopped me though was that I found myself thinking, "They aren't being verbally abusive or saying anything that could be considered hateful, so can their behaviour really be deemed as abuse?"
Well, in terms of being judgemental, when I saw the fateful first word of doom posted directly under one of my writings "hello" , I simply reported it as abuse to the MODS!
I do hope that the whole MOD crew (my collective terms for our moderators on this forum) have noted the content of this entire thread. I like to believe that they have a keen eye over all such matters and the feelings of the community here.
I feel slightly uncomfortable with the images of us all with burning torches and pitch forks hunting down a poor fellow creature like us....but the organic and spontaneous manifestation of concern and self-help for our own is really heartening.
I did wonder initially if I was being far too judgemental in my opinion of that particular individual. In light of what Catlover has said, I feel thankful that my instincts were (for once) spot on. It's frustrating that so many members ended up being targeted in one form or another.