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      Tuesday, April 17, 2007


otherstuff
09:01 AM - 04/17/2007

The topic: Let the games begin

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I’ve got a couple of places I post on a fairly regular basis. 

Ever since petsMart closed Acmepet years ago, I’ve not spent much time on “cats only” forums.

When they shut down, one woman steamrolled over everyone and took it upon herself to start up a new cats only forum.  There were a few of us who already had working forums, people who’d been at Acmepet long before this person joined in. People were more than welcome to post there, but they put on their lemming shoes and followed this woman.

That was a few years back and as time flew by, things changed.  People moved on, found other places to be, or for whatever reason, no longer posted on her forum. 

I have to say I rarely posted there because of the woman (I’ll call her “T”) admining that forum.  She took donations to pay for the board, but wouldn’t account for the funds and would not allow anyone to help with the moderation of the board. She also runs a fund for people to donate to help out others.  There’s also no accounting for this fund.  One time I donated a little money to be sent anonymously to one of the board regulars who was having a hard time with many ill cats.  The woman, I’ll call her “C”, was in rescue and pulled cats from shelters who gassed. I felt badly for her, that all of her extra money went for vet bills. I told the board admin that I wanted a note sent with the money, that it was for her to go out and buy herself a nice dinner and maybe a drink. I didn’t particularly care for this woman, but I did feel sorry for her.

Well, when I started Benny’s Fund, this woman says “I’d never get any money from Benny’s, because lisaviolet doesn’t like me”.  So, I let her know that I was the one who’d sent the money for the dinner and a drink out. She said she never got such a thing and she would have remembered.  I looked up all of my PayPal information and I still had the emails and responses from the woman who ran the fund. I asked C if she’d like copies of them all.  She never responded to my offer.  But I wondered if she indeed never got the money I sent.

Another time, there was an ongoing argument on the forum about puppymills.  I was getting really tired of the dog talk and said as much.  Then someone trolled one of the more vocal and vehement women who wouldn’t back off of her heated discussion with the woman who had gotten a puppy from an Amish puppymill (I guess they’re really bad).  Although I didn’t care for the ongoing discussion, the trolling set me off.  I demanded this troll be banned.

Well, it turns out that T was tired of the argument and she liked the woman who bought the puppy and T had a friend do the trolling for her, therefore could not ban the troll.  I was disgusted and quit posting there for quite a while. And on the NCR (non cat related) board that I now did most of my posting at, cat related or not, T came over a couple of times and asked opinions of things she’d done, that, if I’d done them, I’d never, ever in a million years, have told people that I’d done things like that.  Totally playing with people.  I warned her on more than one occasion about Karma. 

Anyway, for whatever reason, the board she maintains has really gotten quiet.  A month or so ago, T came to the NCR board, asking people to please post their cat related messages on her board, she’d just started a new job and her boss turned out to be quite the catlover and T told her about her forum. Invited her over. But it wasn’t very busy and she’d like to make a good impression on her new boss.  I don’t think too many people did as she requested.

So, last week, she puts up a poll, no discussion.  A long sad tale of how life changes and goes on and how things don’t stay the same and how maybe this forum has run it’s course.  Then the poll questions.  Is it redundant to the NCR board, should it just be closed down?  or Is it not bothering anyone, leave it up.

Oh, my God.  What a stir this little poll created. Once again, she was the center of attention. Oh, poor T!  Poor T!  She’s worked so hard!  People offered to help with the moderation, left and right.  Wasn’t gonna happen, T wants absolute control.  T wants attention. Quite a few of us immediately had the same thoughts.  She’s playing another game. Her earlier request to busy up the board to impress her new boss didn’t work and now it’s payback time.

I didn’t vote in her little poll.  The board has its place. It’s not my place, but it does have a place.  Now, one of her supporters (who I will call “J”) was over on the NCR board, asking why people aren’t posting their cat related posts on the cat forum.  I was honest, said I wasn’t comfortable there.  Well, pardon me!  I was informed that she “wasn’t going to argue your opinion”, but they are all the same people who post on both boards.  And I was so appreciative that this woman had decided not to argue with me. This was quite generous of her.  Now, this is another person I don’t care for.  Why?  Well, she thinks she’s better than everybody.  She called one poster “stupid” during one discussion and also told her “I’m superior to you in every way”.  Uh, I don’t think so, but it’s what she believes and it really comes out in some of the ways she talks down to others.

During this time, she also made some comments on the T board, that obviously, everyone was reading.  Like people having agendas and some had hidden agendas.  Excuse me?  We don’t want to post on that board, so we’ve got agendas? And she made some other idiotic analogy about someone handing her a grenade but she wasn’t going to pull the pin.  Well, you pull the pin you can run like hell, the person holding the hand grenade is the one who’d going to get blown up.  I just sat there shaking my head, chuckling.  What a maroon!  Yeah, buddy, she’s better’n me.  Right.  Anyway, J is pretty much demanding that people cease posting their cat related messages on the NCR board and take them back to the cat related board.  And I for one, thought “hey, you aren’t the boss of me” and ignored these demands.  I wasn’t the only one.

So, the end result of this poll was over ninety people voting to keep it going. Thirteen voted to close it.

And right now, a little over a week later, that forum is once again, really quiet.  Gee, I wonder what happened to those ninety plus people who voted to keep it going?  Or maybe, there weren’t 90+ different people who voted. Maybe you had the same couple of people clearing their cookies and cleaning their cache and voting over and over again.  It might have looked good at the time, but right now, it’s looking mighty silly.

And those of us who watched the entire little game, having a pretty good idea that it was a game, just sit back and smile at the people who ended up looking like fools.

Oh, as for T?  She still hasn’t responded openly.



Wow - what a riot!  Who needs soap opera’s when there is a dope opera’s on some chat forums?
Seriously Lisa, I LOVE your site, I love what you do looking after your various guys, caring for them has helped to INSPIRE me….
I found your site when I was looking for cat enclosure info, I looked, I saw, I was conquered!  from my point of view (Over here in deepest darkest Australia) you are looking squeeky clean. 
I was so impressd with what you have been doing, I went to try & donate to your cause (even though I have 3 indoor guys of my own I look after 7-8 outdoor ones - daily food & drink, outdoor lodgings, with ‘reptile house’ heaters and mandatory desexing and health care - even with my own expences they would pale next to yours… so I wnated to help) - but - you had abandoned donations in favour of self support! 
Dang if you didn’t inspired me again! - I now have an ebay account (very new)and those items I don’t donate to the cat protection society, I sell and I now manufacture all manner of other things (arty farty stuff I suppose) to raise funds for my cat rescue stuff & friends cat rescue efforts too (I am the cat taxi/transport & limited (but growing) fund raising arm for vet related stuff & some food drives too - some of our loval pet supplies stores give us their ‘expired dry goods for distrubition to our carers - people can be so GOOD!
Anyway - You are a LEGEND and I think you are BRILLIANT…. happy to tell everyone and anyone, anyday!
Take care and KNOW you are on the side of the good, right and true!
Cheers, Kerry

Posted by Kerry LSM & Kitties Mum @ Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 6:42:44 AM

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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