I can be very naïve about some things online
I generally think of myself as pretty savvy about what goes on on the web: catfishing, predators, pretty dark behaviors. In the past, I used to go to "adult" sites where there were plenty of attempts to violate the TOS of even those sites! So I have seen a lot. And I have had my share of random private messages here on SW which clearly have less than honorable purposes. I think of myself as someone who easily can spot that sort of thing.
And so, I feel pretty sheepish right now for having given some things on SW the benefit of the doubt.
On the one hand, there are SW users who actively try to encourage sexual talk about children. Some of you know that I am part of a group here who alert each other about this and report those posts we think are inappropriate. And I sometimes go to those very posts and speak my mind, which often gets the perpetrators to block me.
On the other hand, I see a site like this as a place where people can share about themselves in a safe way (at least, that is the ideal that drew me to EP and then to SW.) There are posts here in which people discuss sexuality, and I have participated in some of those conversations. Some of those posts involve questions about our formative years, how we formed our sexual attitudes, etc. I always took those at face value. I did not see them as a roundabout way to get people to visualize each other as minors in a lustful way. (Other people, who I respect greatly, have voiced the opinion that that is what those posts are about.)
Well, I recently replied to such a post. I made a point of making my reply positive but terse, so as not to provide "fantasizing." A few hours after that, I lambasted the OP of a different post for sexualizing children. Today, I received a notification for a reply to that first post, and when I went to read it, I found I had been blocked -- from a post I had already responded to in a positive way!
That tells me what that poster was really all about! And i feel sick that I responded at all. (I don't recall whether the two posts were made by the same person or not. It could simply be that the first poster read my angry reply to the second poster.)
At any rate, I now feel a lot worse about an awful lot of what goes on here.
And I will be much more discerning about what I respond to!
I try to assume the best of people until proven otherwise. So this kind of revelation really depresses me.
And so, I feel pretty sheepish right now for having given some things on SW the benefit of the doubt.
On the one hand, there are SW users who actively try to encourage sexual talk about children. Some of you know that I am part of a group here who alert each other about this and report those posts we think are inappropriate. And I sometimes go to those very posts and speak my mind, which often gets the perpetrators to block me.
On the other hand, I see a site like this as a place where people can share about themselves in a safe way (at least, that is the ideal that drew me to EP and then to SW.) There are posts here in which people discuss sexuality, and I have participated in some of those conversations. Some of those posts involve questions about our formative years, how we formed our sexual attitudes, etc. I always took those at face value. I did not see them as a roundabout way to get people to visualize each other as minors in a lustful way. (Other people, who I respect greatly, have voiced the opinion that that is what those posts are about.)
Well, I recently replied to such a post. I made a point of making my reply positive but terse, so as not to provide "fantasizing." A few hours after that, I lambasted the OP of a different post for sexualizing children. Today, I received a notification for a reply to that first post, and when I went to read it, I found I had been blocked -- from a post I had already responded to in a positive way!
That tells me what that poster was really all about! And i feel sick that I responded at all. (I don't recall whether the two posts were made by the same person or not. It could simply be that the first poster read my angry reply to the second poster.)
At any rate, I now feel a lot worse about an awful lot of what goes on here.
And I will be much more discerning about what I respond to!
I try to assume the best of people until proven otherwise. So this kind of revelation really depresses me.
