Thursday, July 14

A public apology: Whats wrong with the internet.



For those of you who don't know, on my last post I called another player a few names that weren't really true.  I wanted to talk today about things that are wrong about the way I approached things.




1. Because of a misunderstanding I lashed out on a fellow player.  I don't know him personally and have never even talked to him outside of one two hour game.  Yet, I assumed he did something just because he lost the game, and because of this false assumption I felt I should come on here and express how I felt.  That is wrong.

2. Even if he had done exactly what I thought he did I still don't know him nowhere near close enough to make a value assessment on his personality and morals.  Lets say he did many things to me that were not cool, can I still call that person a jerk or anything else? No.  Put simply you don't actually know someone just because you play one (or many) game(s) with them.  Even if someone pulls an intentional 'dick-move,' that doesn't mean they ARE a 'dick'.

3.  Always give people the benefit of the doubt.  I have met many internet personalities and played against most of them, all in all I usually find that who they are at the table isn't who they are in real life.  Some guys are serious-tough at the table and then laugh non-stop and tell jokes away from it.  Have you ever heard an "in game," tape of Michael Jordan?  He sounds like a total WAAC jerk, but off the court he is really cool, how dumb would you look trying to call him out?

Long story short.  I have noticed and commented many times how people lose all sense of boundaries on the internet and make comments that they normally wouldn't in real life.  I have always thought that it was one of the worst things about our community that people are so insulting to others online (especially in the comments sections).  Yet, despite that I fell into it the moment I had an opportunity.  Even if I had the worst opponent in the world and he was a complete jerk/a-hole, I still have not right to come out and say anything.  So, my apologies to the player involved and to everyone else.  I don't want this Blog to be another "Im-awesome-and-I-insult-everyone-who-ins't-me," blog.

Morale of the story: It is rare that you actually know someone well enough to say what they "are."  Even if you do know them well enough calling them out on the internet is not classy or cool.  In the end it is you who looks like a jerk/douche/a-hole.

I had an amazing time at WargamesCon and I am looking forward to it next year.  They run a spectacular event over there, it is a true shame that this discussion is the last taste in my mouth after such an A+ weekend.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

11 comments:

  1. Sometimes I wonder if things would be easier if people got to say how they voted on the game - ie bad, good, etc directly to the person. But then I would just say Duke is like Puke over and over hahaha.

    Glad it seemed to have been resolved. I know John locally and he is a great guy and we always have a good time. We have only played once at Adepticon like 4 years ago and his son was rolling bad for him haha. Just glad this got worked out and no one is mad. Well I am mad but that is cuz Duke is a Puke.

    Denver is still looking like a go team Venture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RagnarShaggybritchesJuly 14, 2011 at 9:33 AM

    To quote Conan, "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good to see this get worked out.

    The internet is a tricky place for sure and it is easy to become disconnected. Saying your sorry and accepting it on the other end is one of the things that helps us grow.

    I made a bad call one time as a TO and got blazed on the net after. We both had a misunderstanding and didnt feal good about it, but in the end we became much better friends. In fact we still joke about it now.

    I have only known Duke for a short time but I can say with out doubt he is a stand up guy.

    Mistakes happen, what you do about it is the real measure of a man.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you two kiss and made up. I liked both of you guys and figured was just a personality clash at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ goatboy: "duke is puke," now my feelings are really hurt :(. Go Denver!

    @ ragnar: once again Conan is king!

    @ swags: actually the real measure of a man is a yard stick, but maybe that is just me, lawl

    @ darkwynn: you knew it was going to be bad when finance met legal.

    Duke

    ReplyDelete
  6. Theres kanz b only

    1

    (me)

    :P

    G

    PS The Way It Used To BE !!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @BBF: challenge accepted! (I think)

    Ps: I am now officially holding you responsible for making the "40k wrecking crew" into the "40k building meaningful relationships crew," lol/jk.

    Duke

    ReplyDelete
  8. Duke

    A very gentlemanly thing to do.

    My respect Sirrah.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wonder if the internets would be a better place if everyone had to watch this before they were allowed to partake...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfwwHa-7Ux8

    ReplyDelete
  10. @brp: That is so,so,so true! The relative safeness of the Internet andthe ambiguity it provides makes us say many things we wouldn't in real life.

    Duke

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very well said. I am glad we squared things away and look forward to reading your blog and playing you in the future. JG

    ReplyDelete