Hey everyone.
I will permanently leave this forum. I'm too discouraged and upset to stay. I'll still login to address anything related to this thread for a few weeks, but I'd rather not stay and argue or take a lot of time giving my thoughts anymore.
I'll simply say that I enjoy talking! If there's a problem with that, I'd suggest someone ignore what I write or ask. It's not required that anyone answer my questions.
I don't appreciate the tone, suspicion, lecturing, etc. because it's totally out of place in my opinion.
Even if a person were to have lots of questions, I would never think there was something "wrong" with that person. I mean, unless it's outrageously excessive or has some other problem (can't really think of anything off the top of my head to be more specific here). I can't recall, but I believe I've mentioned that I wasn't some book writer in the past. To have what feels like a high level of paranoia and suspicion is unsettling to me and unfriendly.
I've hung around other forums before for all sorts of topics (from religion to exercise) and people have great discussions. If I'm not interested, I simply don't respond and move on. I don't butt into a conversation, lecture others over their interests, suggest they have ulterior motives, make snide remarks about them, etc. etc.
I honestly don't think my questions are unusual either! Maybe it's subjective. I don't know. But I would think people SHOULD care about these things. And I do appreciate people's perspective and I try to think about how others perceive things. But I may not agree. For example, in this post above, I do think that MSCs should let shoppers know that they can ask for and negotiate shops (plus bonuses). It would put everyone on an even playing field.
I guess I'm in shock and not too happy at the moment. I have no hard feelings toward anyone, but am just frustrated. If it's worth anything to anyone who might wish to know my perspective, I do think there's an "oppressive" atmosphere here at times. And it has to do with what I said earlier about people butting into others' questions and interests and sort of "policing" their thoughts/interests. To me that's rude and unnecessary! I'm not opposed someone asking me politely what my intentions are if there was something suspicious. But to throw accusations out in a loose kind of way without talking to me or thinking outside of one's own perception of things (we all have our limited view of things sometimes and should always try to give others the benefit of the doubt and try to take time to understand them) is hurtful and not a good way to approach things.
I would have preferred that someone PM'd me or talked to me nicely and asked me things straight up. There was no need to jump into my threads with snide comments or accusations. That's low and immature.
Why even have a forum if people can't have discussions?!!
Is someone that egregious to post a question once a week? If any of my questions were abnormal, can you please point them out and post them here. I didn't think I was being unreasonable.
Apologies if I sound not so nice. I'm not very happy at the moment and wanted to vent.
But to make it easier, I'm going to permanently leave. I'll be willing to stay in this thread for a few weeks to work out anything that anyone may have had problems with. After that, I feel it would be better for my own time and emotional equanimity to leave and do other things with my time.
(By the way, I have been a part of "toxic" forum environments online with "bad actors" before, so I can understand a degree of community "policing." But I've also seen forums get overly oppressive in that direction. I don't want one or more people throwing out negative comments at me for doing nothing wrong (certainly nothing intentionally) in an online forum. It's upsetting. So I'd rather just leave. And I don't hold any hard feelings toward anyone. I wish you all the best in your mystery shopping from the bottom of my heart!)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2017 04:10AM by shoptastic.