=) thanks for articulating each of those points concisely. I have some questions/comments inline in green.
I look at it like this:
If something someone says on the internet can hurt you really, then that's pathetic.
A lot of things that someone can say on the internet can hurt you.. not only emotionally but could hurt your career, friendship with other people etc. The internet is just a communication method like anything else... and there are people on the other end. They shouldn't be treated different then someone you run into at a coffee shop just because you can't see their face and you're talking to them over a computer.
I never became a NESSAholic to make friends, the fact is alot of people only come on the old board to make friends. But I damn sure have made some enimies and don't really care.
If you didn't come to a forum to make friends, what was the goal? To discuss various topics (like this) with other people? Did you come with the intent to make enemies? Why don't you care that you have enemies? I'm sure people exist that don't like me, and that really doesn't matter to me either... but if the volume of people that didn't like me was more then the number of people that did i would begin to wonder what might be wrong with how i am interacting with other people.
Until you know me, you can't really judge me. And the same holds true the other way around. I don't know any of you all personally, so I can't all judge you.
are you saying though that no one can get to know you as long as they're on the internet? However should they get to meet you in person, etc, then they could judge you as they would know you? It seems that perhaps you might be contradicting yourself as if you have said mean or harmful things about people over the internet, then you were at one point judging them, were you not?
I can honestly say that I have never taken anything on this board REALLY serious and given it thought when I log out.
so you think any conversation you have online, on this board, is less valuable then one you may have in real life, even if the context is the exact same?