There are a couple of dysfunctional characters in the shavian community. They are absolutely brilliant people, super creative, and they have contributed greatly to the community over the years. They are authorities on the subject, and they deserve a lot of respect. They could act as role models and mentors for all newcomers to our little community. They should, but they don’t.
Instead, they get ostracised. They get banished / shadow-banned / booted off servers – shunned from the very communities that would benefit the most from their knowledge. Why? Because they seem to be incapable of interacting with other humans in a constructive way.
Instead of patiently providing newcomers support, a warm welcome and constructive feedback, they provide scathing criticism, they proselytise, they rant. They don’t enter into civilised discourse, no – instead they get up on their soap-boxes and scream about Sodom and Gomorra through megaphones, telling us all we are sinners and that we’ll rot in hell for the sins we have committed, in our lord and saviour, Kingsley Read’s name.
Our curmudgeons seem to think that the community is opposed to their ideas, perhaps that there is a conspiracy afoot. They are purists, and preach an orthodoxy with absolutely no room for negotiation, differing points of view; no patience for well-intentioned ignorance, or lack of experience.
It is possible, no, even probable, that a lot of the points they scream at us are valid. Maybe their lot is similar to that of Cassandra — nobody believes their prophecy of the impending fall of the Shavian Empire to the barbarian hordes.
What can I say? There is not too much hope that this post will change anybody mind; it will probably just feed into their narrative that folks are out to get them. But I hope, odds against odds, that they’ll pick up the essence of what I’m saying: its not the points you are trying to make that lead to your censure — its just the way you are making them. Be nice!
– Joro
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