Zuul’s Comments in GB’s Mellophant Post-Mortem Thread
*This OP may be slightly confusing for some because I am responding to comments made on another board, specifically here. I’m discussing them here because I feel that Mellobidness should be discussed on Mellophant. *
So, while Zuul is over here telling everyone to keep their chins up and that numbers are fine, she's over there participating in our “post-mortem”. Apparently our death was caused by (among other issues, like the disastrous mode election):
Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
5) Cliquishness. Specifically, people who had a certain "vision" of ideological purity on the site, who felt that anyone who didn't match this vision should be driven away. Great way to make it impossible to ever have an interesting discussion. Unless you find "omg I like boys TOO!" interesting.
Cliques, Zuul? I was under the impression that what we were was a group of friends, which you were a part of as much as anyone else. Didn't we all sit together in chate and commiserate with you about your house and offer support on your family situation? Didn't we all do that sort of thing for each other, for hours every day? I certainly never considered you and I (and I know I am included in this shit you are now talking) as being anything but members of the same close-knit circle. And here I find that we were a clique, that you are now implying you were not a part of. Well, ok.
Quote:
Originally posted by elmwood
I'll add one more thing. I think that much like the recent RAEP RAEP RAEP! obsession on the SDMB, pet topics began to emerge on Mellophant that turned off many potential users, and probably drove away many that remained. Mainly, sexual orientation and gender identity issues. It wasn't just a phase, though, and the topic was quite prevalent throughout the site. In my opinion, there was some truth behind the Snarker moniker of "Trannyphant."
Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
I hadn't considered it like that, but you may very well be right. I know there are reasons why I burn out quickly on most LGBT and feminism oriented sites I visit, and this is one of them. There's only so much navel gazing and raging over minutiae people can take.
So, the issue is apparently that our socially conscious little board was a turn off for some straight cisgendered people. Well, if you consider that a problem, what would you rather we have done? Maybe we should have limited the GLBT threads to once a month? Maybe those members of the board shouldn’t have talked about their lives so much in chat? I LIKED that you guys, my friends, felt comfortable enough at Mello to discuss this stuff. There was a reason that happened, and it’s because it was the environment we wanted. And frankly, look - it’s insulting to us non-GLBT folks to assume we can’t handle hearing about or seeing these issues discussed.
Navel gazing?
Rage?
Minutiae?
Zuul, just because you enjoy palling around with people who use hate speech (that post of yours came almost right after those posts of hers, so it’s pretty obvious that you saw it) does not mean that the rest of the posters here would. I don’t think that when Rabbit and Tom and Exy and Panda and Nerbles and you and I shouted down bigots that it was a bad thing to do. You certainly never indicated that it was a problem when we were all doing it together. And Mellophant continues to benefit from the fact that we made, not a “safe space”, but at least a place where tranny and fag jokes are not considered de rigueur.
And one last thing:
Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
It was a board without a point that couldn't even revel in its own pointlessness, instead suffering from delusions of grandeur and relevancy like a stumbling drunk shouting about how S-M-R-T he is.
Delusions of who and what now? I’m pretty sure most of us just considered this a place to hang out with people we liked. Who were you under the impression we were trying to be relevant to? And anyway, this is a remarkably shitty thing to say about a community you run and claim to care about.
What really pisses me off, though - is that the things I appreciated about Mellophant, you are over there apologizing for. I’m sorry that you didn’t like it for what it was. I did. And I know that a lot of other people did, too.