Posts by Linda Price5

You’ll be able to read everything and access the clone account just fine. Take my word for it. 😁 I tried that exact approach once, and I ended up spiraling down rabbit holes on subreddits I didn't even know existed. Honestly, those threads were way more captivating than the midterm exam I had scheduled for the following morning. 😁

ambermason16 said:🙂

Let me break this down for you... just look at what happened the other day. Someone dug up a thread from 2005 and reignited a massive argument they weren't even part of, all because some moronic post hadn't been deleted yet. By the time I checked back a few hours later, four people were already locked in a total meltdown. 😬 The issue isn't about suppressing views or being "primitive." The real problem is that most users—with very few exceptions—get way too emotionally invested in the Forum. They lose all sense of restraint and launch into these collective pile-ons the second they spot a disgusting post. It’s constant mockery when someone posts something that clearly wasn't written by a Mensa member, or endless off-topic chatter when someone drops a chat-style comment. Nobody is hiding anyone's opinions or covering anything up; we are simply steering the conversation back to the actual topic and making sure it stays in a format that everyone can actually tolerate.

Just imagine walking into a thread for the first time, only to find twenty pages of pure chaos because someone decided to claim women belong in the kitchen when the topic was supposed to be interior design. Wouldn't you immediately think the moderators had lost their minds? 😁

The fact that we might archive or "card" a post before leaving it up doesn't stop people from jumping in to argue, and argue, and argue again. Honestly, I get it sometimes because an absolutely unforgivable comment will pop up every now and then... but that doesn't change the reality: a post needs to be scrubbed before it ruins both the entire thread and the reputation of the community.

Actually, the reason people stop commenting on contentious threads is precisely because every single reply to a flagged post brings us closer to an archive notice—and very quickly to a ban. That’s what stops the cycle.

Look, I have no idea which section you moderate or how things operate in your neck of the woods.

But in my view, deleting content is a terrible practice.

When you erase something someone actually said, it feels... dishonest. Especially in a space where the whole point is genuine human interaction.

(By the way, while poking around old threads late last night, I noticed a massive amount of topics on the Politics subforum are locked. Just pages upon pages of closed threads that eventually died out naturally. And some—specifically those created after the massive purge during the early days of this site—have vanished entirely. That particular subforum really seems to be cursed. 😁)

In my opinion, deleting posts is essentially destroying the soul of the Forum. There are nights, usually around three or four in the morning, when I find myself scrolling through old threads that I remember being absolute gold when they first went live. But they aren't those same threads anymore because someone decided to "sanitize" them. It’s a terrible way to handle things.

It’s also incredibly frustrating that there was a chance Brandon Lopez6 was repeatedly posting about how certain groups should be deported from America—since, unfortunately, we can't just eliminate them—and yet all of that was wiped away as hate speech. Every single one of her posts where she was clearly losing it was scrubbed. Now, whenever I happen to run into her online, I go for the throat in an argument, only to find her writing witty little bits about lip gloss. I actually love her pastry recipes; she’s intelligent, she’s fun to spar with, and I get the impression she’s a decent person. If we ever met up for coffee, she’d probably end up killing me with a baseball bat.

My apologies, Dawn, you are far above me, which is why I used you as an example. 😁

Parental control, plus some random passcode. That was my go-to move whenever sheer willpower just wasn't cutting it. 😁

This one was what I used. 😁

Elizabeth Davis said:I'm not entirely sure what the best way to send money over to Mexico would be, other than using Western Union.

What about a wire transfer to a foreign currency account?

Ex, who am I supposed to pull all-nighters with now?

Right after I hit Send Quick Reply, this popped up:

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William Brown62 said:One question... I'm on Diane 35... haven't had any action since July, and my OB-GYN told me to start on the pill. Does that mean sex is safe right away, or should I wait a bit since I didn't start them on the first day of my period?

I’m fairly certain the packaging for Diane specifies how long the protection lasts if you don't kick things off on the very first day of your cycle—and honestly, there's no way for you to know for sure if you actually ovulated just yesterday.

Excuse me, but why exactly is it against the rules to solicit someone for sex, especially when seeking someone for a movie night followed by sex isn't a violation?😁

I am withdrawing my support for this proposal.

I am in complete agreement with this proposal.

Thanks. 🙂

Message received, loud and clear.

What I don't quite grasp, however, is why you didn't simply specify that discussions should be limited to those aspects of spiritual life directly tied to a couple's intimacy and romantic connection. Instead, you opted to threaten everyone with an immediate ban for any mention of faith whatsoever.

Quoting.

Regarding the thread What kind of similarities are required for a couple to work? where the opening post was:

Top_secret_1 said:How much similarity, and in which specific areas, is necessary for a relationship to be harmonious?
Obviously, there are no guarantees, but I assume you all have an idea of what kind of perspectives you’d prefer your partner to share.
Until now, I thought it was essential that my partner at least isn't a hardcore meat-eater or completely oblivious to nutrition, that they be a liberal or at least undecided or non-political, open and tolerant toward all kinds of diversity, not overly materialistic, and perhaps doesn't go to Church every single Sunday... (that's me)
Now I'm wondering—have I perhaps overthought this? Are similarities in these areas truly significant? Are they to you?
And if they are important, how vital are they? Are they absolute requirements, or do they merely make cohabitation a little easier?

It is forbidden to discuss religious practices because this is the Love, Erotica, and Sex subforum. Does that mean it's also forbidden to touch upon political leanings since we aren't in Politics, or dietary habits since we aren't in Food or Health, or even music, film tastes, or literature?

I understand that debating whether God exists or whether monotheism versus polytheism is "correct" is pointless here—that would be off-topic and in the wrong subforum. However, as long as religion is being discussed specifically in the context of how it affects the functioning of two people in a relationship, I don't see why it should be banned.

Andrew Rivera3 said:Required reading is basically just a way to get kids who hate books to actually pick one up. It gets them thinking, though.

Was it World Fluff Day? 😁

Joshua Jones13 said:Exactly. I guess fighting fire with fire usually just leads to getting banned yourself. If you don't want to get kicked off the platform, maybe don't be a troll. It's pretty simple, really.

And what exactly was the penalty for the lady who supposedly found her assault "enjoyable"?

In my view, it is utterly unacceptable that on a forum dedicated to the experiences of women who have been raped, nearly raped, or sexually abused, we see a post like that allowed to stand. Yet, someone who triggers such a post by providing a lengthy description of a "rape" that was essentially described as painful but pleasurable sex in a car is met with draconian punishment. What happened—did you delete her post? 😁 Boo-hoo.

Joshua Jones13 said:Exactly. I guess fighting fire with fire usually just leads to getting banned yourself. If you don't want to get kicked off the platform, maybe don't be a troll. It's pretty simple, really.

If it’s blatantly obvious that a woman is trolling—and I’m talking about someone claiming to have been assaulted when her previous posts about her dating life suggest otherwise—then why on earth hasn't she been hit with a permanent ban? Why isn't there a permanent ban for this? Why isn't any actual sanction being applied here?

As long as the mods treat this kind of fabrication as a legitimate post rather than blatant trolling, questions like "did you enjoy it?" have no business being asked in that thread.

Do the moderators on this site even grasp the definition of trolling? They seem to miss the fact that inventing a traumatic life story specifically to provoke an emotional reaction from others is one of the most brutal forms of trolling imaginable.

annemaria said:Something horrific happened to me about three years ago. I was only fourteen at the time. I wasn't much of a social butterfly back then; instead, I spent most of my time hanging out with this guy I was crushing on. He was twenty. We were just friends—joking around, talking, everything seemed perfectly fine—until one day he asked if I wanted to sleep with him. Of course, I turned him down. We didn't speak for months after that, but eventually, he reached out again to explain why he had asked. Things went back to being okay between us, right up until the night he called me to meet him outside around 10:00 PM. Naive as I was, I went. He picked me up in a car and drove me to a local high school playground where four other guys I recognized were waiting. At first, we were just joking around like usual, but then John started bringing up sex and making comments about how I was still a virgin. The other guys just laughed, mocking me, saying they’d "fix that" and asking what I was so afraid of. I remember telling them, "Are you guys insane? I'm fourteen, I'm just a kid," but they didn't care. They just kept laughing while I sat there feeling humiliated. Then the tone shifted. They started telling me to "relax" and "don't worry, we won't hurt you." Panic set in. I tried to run, but they chased me down and forced me into the car. Once we were inside, two of them pinned me down. I started screaming and fighting back, but it was useless. An eighteen-year-old boy joined in, holding my hands and legs down while they raped me. All four of them. It was pure nightmare fuel. I screamed, I cried, I begged them to stop, but nothing worked. After that night from hell, I just went home. My parents had no idea what had happened to me. I crawled into my room and honestly, I just wanted to die. Even now, three years later, the trauma hasn't left me. I can't sleep at night. I'm seventeen now, and while I haven't seen a psychiatrist, I know I really should have by now. I am currently seeing a guy who is twenty-four. He knows what happened to me, but we haven't slept together because the fear is just too overwhelming. My biggest fear is that he will leave me if I don't give in to him. I never reported them... and now, I'm filled with such intense regret.

šmizly said:So, how was Annemaria feeling? Did she actually manage to recover?🍿

Don’t you dare try to pull this crap and tell me this is worth 35 points, even if some absolute lunatic fabricated the whole thing just because they have nothing better to do than invent fake sexual assaults on a forum. If it is glaringly obvious from her writing that the entire story is pure fiction, then give her a custom 5,000-point penalty for blatant trolling and delete the post immediately. Awarding 35 points for a post like this on a subforum where saying "get real" is treated as an insult worthy of a ban isn't just ridiculous—it’s an insult to the very concept of intelligence on this planet.

Peter Doyle2 said:Summer, you basically just summarized my solution yourself. That’s what I’ve been getting at this whole time—we need an update. New genres, more breathing room... I mean, back in elementary school, we had maybe two or three books to choose from per year, so why shouldn't high school be the same? 🤷
I think I mentioned earlier this afternoon that I wouldn't cut the classics entirely, but maybe we could pair them with something "lighter" and more modern afterward.

Obviously, one person's masterpiece is another person's nightmare.
And look, you're never going to please everyone by picking mandatory reading. But let's be honest—the current list is just bad, and most teenagers find it incredibly boring.

Maybe my perspective on required reading is totally off, but to me, it isn't just about general knowledge. It's about fostering a love—or okay, maybe even a hatred 🤣—for books, character development, searching for deeper meanings, and actually building a habit of reading. Most of what's assigned in high school right now doesn't offer any of that because it's just confusing, tedious, and hard to wrap your head around.

And yeah, I guess 40% of kids would probably still complain.
But right now, it feels like 90%, if not more. 😬

I feel the exact same way. It is much easier to absorb culture and gain perspective through life if you don't find the printed word utterly repulsive. 😁

brightpuma said:To be honest, a kid could learn a lot from The Trial and the Castle. They could draw parallels to how bureaucracy works today. It's a book worth reading. 👍

So we're back to the original question: what is the point of school reading lists? Or better yet, what *should* the purpose be today, now that books are dying and reading culture is fading? Shouldn't the priority be getting kids interested in reading, fostering a love for books, rather than systematically shoving "the classics" down their throats when they find them totally repulsive?

Oh, come on. The curriculum exists to build a general sense of culture. I know plenty of people who brag about reading maybe two assigned books, while they just copied the summaries for everything else—you can actually tell when someone is missing that foundation.
Another thing: there's this push here to make us read certain American authors in their entirety. Look, if I haven't read the whole Iliad or all of Dante's Hell, why should I have to read all of Judith? 🤷

Honestly, I truly believe a much smaller percentage of high school books would have permanently disgusted me if I'd picked them up later, once I was a bit more mature.

It depends. Take a cliché example. What do you think about The Little Prince? You likely encountered it in elementary school and then again (when you were older) in high school.

Edit: Looking at the extreme list, it confirms almost nothing has changed since I graduated. And Combray is right at the beginning, just to kill you off at the very start of the school year. 🤣 Kafka is right on its heels.

Combray feels like a punishment, sure, but I don't get why everyone is attacking Kafka so hard? I mean, The Trial and the Castle might be a bit tedious, but they're good books. And Metamorphosis is honestly one of the better ones in high school generally. Very deep, lots to think about. You have to remember these are meant for seniors—it's right around the time they can actually grasp them.

I don't know, it was just miserable for me. 🙂 I hit page 50 and just quit. When people actually explained the plot to me, it sounded interesting enough. 🙄

Anna Karenina is amazing. Had to write a paper on that one too. Looking back, I guess I always did have a thing for those massive doorstops...
Madame Bovary is great. And don't forget Zola.
And things didn't all go downhill right after that. 🙂

To be honest, I can't recall much from later on, but those were the last books that really grabbed me. Kafka, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary...

Just look at this reading list they put together for fourth grade. Half of it could easily be cut. 🤷 Fragrance, Gold, and Incense? Come on... 🙄 I felt like that book was literally sucking the life out of me...

I sincerely hope that some unfortunate high schooler gets a firsthand taste of the joys of American bureaucracy before they are forced to crack open the legal code. 😁

I'm not entirely certain, but I suspect that reading the White Clown would have been required summer reading for me.

Aside from concluding that required reading lists are absolute garbage, I’ve also come to the realization that American authors aren't worth the paper they're printed on. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the white clown—he was actually quite good—but he was clearly nothing more than a fluke.