Well, we do mind. It is simple politeness to introduce oneself when meeting new people. That's how we do things here.
Well I don't think it's polite to badger people and interrogate them in a manner or venue which could expose them to harm or harassment. If you have no experience with that, you are not qualified to dictate how
I should do things. Since I can't share that experience here, I apply a little levity, instead of telling people outright that they are out of their depth and their lack of knowledge is dangerous. In any case, you cannot know me without knowing my
opinions. And you are not going to
like my opinions. But remember, you asked for it:
1. I thought this area was purely for tech support issues. On any other site, the rest of the stuff in this thread would be considered off-topic. I don't mind the off-topic stuff, but I don't really get the feeling that your request for more information here is necessarily an expression of a desire for friendship:
Since you already know that I'm going to balk at a public interrogation, I think you are dropping the tech support issue and changing the subject to that because you plan to use it as an excuse to ban me, before this line of inquiry goes too much farther. I think you want to get rid of me because I embarrassed you (which was impossible to avoid if I want to address the problem correctly.) However, you did invite me to come in here and complain -- and you never said
anything about being required to answer personal questions. It's not like this is a dating site or a cocktail party, so what is the point of this ritual formality? If I "introduced" myself to every person that I speak to online, I would never get any work done. (And a lot of that work is done for others, not for self-centered advantage.)
2. Even if I wanted to comply with your demands, I still don't know what
constitutes compliance, because those demands are not
specific. This is very much like the way that Scientology operates: when someone expresses an interest, they ask the newbie to spill his guts at the earliest possible opportunity, so it can be used against him later if necessary. Same for the Skull & Bones.
I don't believe that this is a dangerous cult, but it
is the first time that I have been asked to provide an "introduction" on the internet, and I don't know what it will take to satisfy your requirements. Are those requirements codified and enforced uniformly, or do you bend the rules according to how much you like or dislike someone's personality? Can I have two years to prepare a statement, like you allowed for this member?
3. How do I know if the statements of others are truthful? Confessions which are extorted under threat are rarely accurate. You could even live with someone for decades and still never know them (and I could give you lots of examples). The best way to make friends is to interact with people in a normal fashion, not treat them like a suspect.
4. What if I just invented some fake story to satisfy your curiosity? You would then accept it and be none the wiser. I therefore submit that your screening methodology is just as dysfunctional as your web site. As the old saying goes,
"by their fruits ye shall know them." But you don't always give people the opportunity to
produce anything before you censor and exclude them, so you will never know if you made the right decision.
5. Like the Wal Mart greeter, when you ask for an introduction it's another way of saying that you are watching me because you don't trust me (
and holding my posts for review is the proof.) But I don't believe that you are more spiritually advanced than the rest of us, and I don't trust you to moderate my comments in a manner that's fair and just. I also don't trust you with the power to decide who I can communicate with. If I have a missing piece of somebody's puzzle, are you certain you want to be the one who determines if they will be allowed to receive it? After all, karma's a bitch.
"If the individual comes upon the life work of another and expects to benefit and gain by that work, they will naturally wish to have their own position balanced by putting forth a commensurate amount of energy. Otherwise there will be an imbalance of energy. This then leads to an STS pyramid." — Nomihha
6. If you really want to know, I was "here" before SOTT and the forum even existed. You might even be here
because of me, if you found the
WebExe before you found the web
site. Although I would like to be friends, this is not a social call -- I came here on STO business, and this bug report is only a means to an end:
I cannot share what I came to share until I get my post count high enough to avoid your automated interference. So if I am going to post for the sake of posting, why not make it something productive that benefits others as well? That's how I see it. If the subject matter offends you, it was merely incidental, and not my objective: I am not responsible for your bad purchases, but perhaps I can help to mitigate the damage.
As for the
manual interference, I think it's powerfully relevant that you want to know
how I found the site and
which of the books I have read, but you don't seem to care if I have
read all of the transcripts (which are by far the most important thing here, to those who recognize the application.) So we obviously have different priorities. For me it's more about the material, not the social club. The value of my attempts to apply the knowledge I gained from this research cannot be measured in badges or trophies or post counts or likes or Star Wars analogies.
If you understood the nature of my work and the effort which it has involved, you would understand why I regard talking about myself as a waste of time. My sense of self-worth is not derived from the number of friends that I have, or my position within a hierarchical power structure. People come and go; the only thing of lasting value is the knowledge they share. So you might want to consider the possible consequences if you proceed to censor or ban me: Twenty years is like a day to me. I can wait twenty more for the interference to subside, but I can't guarantee there will be another opportunity to collaborate. (That 'free will' thing sure can be a bitch too.)
— "Unity to combat a threat" ...nuff said, I hope.