Ahh hypocrisy...

I interrupt your day to bring you a random rant....

I have been a member of a certain penpal website (that I won't mention by name here, in case I am being spied on by the moderators) since December, but have only just recently become more active on it. I discovered the other day that they have a forums feature, so I thought I would post some messages to some of the topics that I am interested in, as I thought that might be a good way to meet some more people who have some of the same interests as myself. What a mistake that was! Ever since I made some posts, I have been ridiculed and harassed by some of the moderators and senior members of the forums, for what I feel are very unfair reasons. Yes, some of my posts were similar, so I suppose somehow that could be construed as violating the "no duplicate postings" rule. However, the main thing that I have a problem with was the repeated harassment about trying to use the site for "dating and sex". First of all, if the site is not to be allowed to be used as a dating site, I am not sure why they give you the option of choosing "relationship" and "flirting" as reasons you are there.... And I have never made any posts, comments, or anything else of a sexual nature, because that is not the place for things like that.

I have always gotten along better with females than males, for a couple of reasons. In almost every job I have ever had, the majority of my co-workers have been female, and usually younger than me, so that is the demographic that I get along with the best. Secondly, most of the guys I have had encounters with over the years have either harassed or bullied me, or they have acted childish for their ages, are pompous, or act like idiots, none of which I am looking for in friends. Does that mean that all guys act like that, and that there might not be some out there who do share some of my interests or that I could discuss mutual interests with? Certainly not, but I am somewhat jaded by my past experiences to actively seek out male friends.

The real hypocrisy on the site are some of the moderators themselves... One that has had the biggest part in ridiculing me not only went out of his way to selectively highlight text from one of my postings to try and make me look creepy and make it look like I was just trying to use it as a dating site, he also has some questionable things on his own profile, regarding what he is looking for. Not what I would expect from a moderator. And conveniently, when I mentioned this to him in a private message, he said he would not discuss moderating issues with me, and then went on to change the privacy of his own profile, so that it is only viewable by certain people. Hmmmm, if that does not scream hypocrisy or double-standards, I don't know what does! I was also told that I was in violation of their terms of service for posting penpal requests in the forums, and that they are to be limited to profiles.... And at the same time, the forums are littered with requests for penpals.... Seems as though it is a very selective moderation at best.

Is there really even a point to this post? Not really, other than to vent. I made a post on the forums venting about this, and that post was locked, and got me threats of being deleted from the site. I am enjoying the site, and have made some good friends on there, so I can't apparently voice my opinions openly there if I want to continue using the site, so I brought my venting here....

That concludes this rant, you may now resume whatever it is you were doing before I interrupted....