I’m taking this opportunity to vent because the moderators, with their so-called "benevolent" oversight, have allowed what used to be a fun, hilarious, witty, occasionally edgy, and intelligent corner of the site (Gossip Girl) to devolve into a pathetic thread full of moralizing and small-mindedness. It’s become a place where users constantly think they are the main attraction instead of actually gossiping about celebrities. I get it—people have complexes. They crave relevance. They think every mundane thing they do deserves a freaking medal. But ever since Facebook existed, there’s been plenty of space to dump your life story elsewhere. You don't need to do it here, on a thread dedicated to dissecting and mocking public figures.
We get ten pages of users discussing their surgeries, then their family origins, then how their private lives supposedly align or clash with some B-list celebrity. Then comes endless posts about what a user's husband, boyfriend, or hookup commented on, which has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand... followed by more posts about users' medical histories... "I had my ovaries removed," "I had cancer," "I had a brain tumor"... then ten pages of sincere empathy for a user who shared her life story on 🤦... then "my sister's boyfriend had a family issue..." or "my ex-husband was adopted so he never..." and then ten pages on parenting, followed by twenty pages of bickering and hardcore moralizing. Seriously, what the hell? I don't get it.
And then, look, I apologize, I’m only using this as an example because it’s right there on the last page as I’m typing this, and it’s certainly not the worst:
"Every morning before work, I walk my kid to the school bus. The parents are already at work by then, and it works best for my schedule. We only have to cross one crosswalk, but what we experience there is terrifying... at least 90% of drivers just ignore us and fly past without stopping, so fast that we don't even dare step out thinking they might actually brake. Traffic is heavy, everyone is rushing to work, and pedestrians are treated like an inconvenience. I’m scared to even imagine my child trying to do this alone, even though they eventually have to overcome it. It's the same road I took every day to school, except back then there wasn't even a crosswalk, but everything is different now... the speeds, the volume of cars."
WTF???? What does this have to do with anything? And no, this thread didn't "naturally" turn into an off-topic chatroom; rather, the moderators failed to step in when they should have. This is how it became this absolute dumpster fire where you can't even find a single scrap of gossip anymore because you have to wade through posts like "Oh, and my husband's family makes really good chili."
Regarding recent events, I think the tragedy being mentioned has genuinely shaken many (actually, everyone!). The fact that people are starting to write about it on this specific thread is the fault of the moderators, who have allowed this topic to go to hell for YEARS. So why are they writing about this here? Not that I think they should—quite the opposite. But the people posting in this sub-forum don't even understand the purpose of this thread, so how could they possibly realize that this isn't something meant for discussion here? At least the endless cycle of "RIP" posts from a while back has stopped—I can't even remember who it was. God, why even write those? For whom? What is the point of life for people who just post selfies? I know, I'm rambling.
By the way, regarding the abysmal moderation, I noticed some excuse along the lines of "protecting the privacy of users." In that spirit, I’d like to request that regular users be protected from the public, semi-public, and "not-so-private" users who come to the site and refuse to stay anonymous, choosing instead to identify themselves or "allow themselves to be revealed." Consequently, they get labeled as total degenerates or local losers. Recently, on another thread, I mentioned something from a TV show, totally unaware that the person I was commenting on is a "prominent user." Very quickly, they chimed in, responding from the position of a public figure who just happens to be a user. Honestly, give me a break! I don't care who you are in your private life, and please, protect me from such insecure idiots. Don't make me the bad guy just because I won't respect the privacy of a user who shoved their real-life identity in my face against my will.
So, the posting rules here... they’re basically a joke since "everyone has their own interpretation." You can't quote a photo without getting a strike, yet over on Reddit you can multi-quote all you want—if people could just get over the "my opinion is the only one that matters" complex and actually reply to everything written between their posts. There, you can write a reply that references the topic, but then some moderator fails to grasp the context and just deletes it. Seriously? You’re killing any desire people have to actually come here and have fun writing. Look at the BB thread; she unintentionally broke a dozen different rules because the guidelines change depending on which sub-forum you're in. What is the point of any of this?
Thanks for the attention. Delete away.
Piggy? Seriously? 😲