Driving off someone from being online, as a troll, because it gives you a thrill.

This is an awfully specific flex, but it is a flex nonetheless, that people do feel to boast about. Because it's just another form of a power-trip. Congratulations, you've driven away someone who could've been a contributory member of a community to make yourself feel better by orchestrating lies, performing witch hunts and huddling with your troll buddies in ways to figure out how to process this.

There's nothing prideful about this to flex over.

I'm sorry ahead of time that this is going to come off as more of a vent, because it actually is.

But I wanted to broadcast something a little more beyond the friend circle by saying how Linden Labs, the creators behind Second Life, seems to support trolls and bigots. I make such a claim, based off of my recent experience with handling their rowdy forums.

I am permanently banned from ever accessing SL, due to months-long and a year-long series of incidents where people have actively stalked me for no particular reason. Other than they believe the internet is still free reign to antagonize and instigate issues with people with no problems, expecting no retaliation to come their way from doing it.

SL gave me the ability, to be the non-binary/genderfluid individual I was meant to be. I fluctuated between being an androgynous avatar and a female avatar. I felt free and I felt like myself. I started this journey back in 2020, but I've been on SL since 2013 so that's 13 years and it's only been 6 of them where I pursued my identity.

Doing so, revitalized my life in both realms and helped me come to any and all terms as I was developing. It's gotten me like minded friends, it helped me develop and create relationships with similarly minded people. It was great.

But now I don't have that anymore. It's all gone thanks to a collaborative effort by trolls and bigots on the SL forums to take all of it down. And LL has such a backwards way of handling issues, you'd think you're back in school where the bullies terrorize your life day in and day out, you finally do something about it, you go to people about it. But all you keep running into are people who feel these problems aren't covered in their paygrade so they allow a lot of it to slide until things escalate.

That was exactly my experience. I was stalked, I was disrespected, I was discouraged time and time again to 'contribute' to a platform that has allowed these unchecked problems to go on for however long.

I had every reason and within right to have reacted the way I did because I felt like I was fighting yet another losing uphill battle with tone-deaf moderation that simply didn't give two shits about people of my identity who're victimized like this. They focused rather on my attitude with choice of words, the "abuse" of the ticket and report system when I was just simply trying to stop the problems from happening. Any side-stepping thing they could do to justify getting rid of me, they took, while they allowed bigots and trolls to continue on their platform.

And it fucking cost me. 13 years, $5k invested in the platform. All gone. Thanks to this bullshit. Which is why I advise anyone to avoid this platform and do not support LL.

Growing up when I was gaming in the 90s and on, I knew of the stigma of cheating in video games. You were seen as stupid, someone incapable of completing challenges on your own. You were seen as lowly, someone who can never go through life without cheating. Like, it was a pretty big deal as I grew up, hearing all of this for years on end.

I've been able to beat games without cheating, of course. But during my late teens and early adulthood, I just tried going past the stigma. Cheating in video games don't necessarily reflect how you handle life and don't translate. I've found it quite fun to cheat in video games. Probably not in multiplayer and especially on the receiving end.

I even use cheats just to beat games anymore, who the hell cares. People only care if you want to make a big deal about it, by showing it to everyone and boast how you've beaten a game in record times. I've tried beating some games head on without cheats but there just comes a point where you ask yourself if it is fun dying a hundred times at some part of a game. I don't think so, personally.

So yeah, I don't have the stigma anymore. I kinda like how gamers today only care about cheating if it was done in multiplayer or if you're trying to beat a speedrunning record or some score record. Fun is meant to be how you find it.

I think being stranded out in the middle of the ocean is intimidating. Whether a killer shark is after you, maybe the boat or ship is haunted. I've watched the game boy color game, Resident Evil Gaiden, and that game really sets the bar to me as to how scary being in the middle of nowhere in the ocean can be. With packs of zombies on board and a deadly bioweapon as well, with no way out.

Nostalgia isn't only a hell of a drug, but it's a hell of an addiction too. Chasing times when you last felt good or when you felt things were right. Getting in touch with old flames that you forgot that there were reasons you moved on from, until you read the painful endings as to why those connections died.

Having those rose-tinted shades aren't always good for you.

Because this is totally going to over well once Microsoft sees how bad it gets. Pending C&D in 3...2...1...

I got permanently banned recently from Reddit, about 3 or 4 days ago. Probably because I used the word 'kill' or 'die' in a sentence that they didn't agree with that wasn't in any particular way wishing for the death of someone in particular.

But during my 2 months of time being there, it was a miserable experience. I was glad to partake in the vastness of the community but getting anything engaging was really a problem. My profile was riddled with so many posts that got removed because Reddit's filter system removed them. And if I somehow did bypass it by whatever, my posts were removed by automods or moderators who simply didn't agree with what I wanted to talk about that didn't involve them.

It's a very ban-happy of discouraging proportions place. I don't know anymore as to who Reddit is really for, other than just artificially inflating numbers to make advertisers and whoever happy that have stakes in Reddit.

I've not seen any and I'm rather disappointed by that.

That nobody cares about you unless you're sharing memes and being silly. People have a very obscure way of handling any ounce of negativity and struggles one is going through. They're there for your victories, but aren't there for you, for your losses.