Musings on Aria's Ink

I've been following all of this trying to keep an unbiased view as possible. I'm Jen's friend, but I also like to think I'm open-minded. So, after seeing what I did see on the entire issue here's what I think:

I remember when Jen wanted me to post on Aria's Ink. She was happy and excited. There were problems, but she was doing her best to make the forums over there better. I checked out the site. I've had an absolutely horrible experience with ASMR. I'm still moderator of a forum over there and I haven't been able to login for more than two years!!! Every time I try to contact Andrea and George for a password, all I received was silence. Even when they were actually looking at me at one point and contacted them, I still received nothing. Nada. Zip. With that type of asinine behavior and the quality of the fics dropping faster than the stock market, I just gave up.

So, when I looked at AI, I thought it refreshing. The stories were screened, the site was nice and orderly and everyone seemed nice. So, I started posting. After Christmas, my life descended into hell (aka Horizons) and I didn't update there for awhile. Then, I hear about all of this mess.

I don't know Aria's side of the story. But, from what I have seen, she is acting extremely immature for her age. She's suppose to be 24-25, right? Well, she's acting like she's 15 years old. Most other people in the 22-25 age range that I know have some degree of maturity. The college experience has helped them to gain level heads and the ability to see other points of view. Entering the job arena also helps to smooth out the rough edges and this is the time as you make your first footsteps into your professional career that you gain two main skills: patience and the ability to keep your cool, even if you feel ready to murder. If I hadn't actually looked at Aria's FAQ, I would had not realized how old she was to begin with.

I think she handed this matter in an extremely poor and childish manner. Jen specifically asked people to respect her privacy on a certain issue and they violated that trust. I know because I inadvertently did the same thing to Lelu a few weeks later. That incident helped me to realize I needed to step back and think before I did something rash. By highlight and distributing Jen's chat with QS, not only was that an invasion of privacy, but an extremely childish thing to do.

So, what has emerged from this? Two very bitter camps. Yes, I use the term bitter because this has all left a nasty taste in many people's mouths. It has also shown the depths to which the SM community has fallen.

But, in the end, this is all a TV show This is make believe. We have other lives beyond sitting around, watching anime and fighting over silly postings on a bulletin board. Life is much too short to sit there and methodically highlight sentences in a chat transcript because you want to hurt someone. Aria, if you happen to see this, I place the blame for this mess solely at your fingertips. You are the owner of Aria's Ink. You are also in your mid-20s. Instead of sitting there and making petty comments, you should be monitoring your site and ensuring that those you choose to moderate the site for you are fair people who are not petty. You should have enough maturity and wisdom by this time to know when people are acting stupid and when someone is actually trying to make a situation better. You may not agree with that person's views, but you should be open-minded enough to know that their actions are for the benefit of everyone on Aria's Ink. Your behavior is extremely shoddy and in my eyes, casts a dark shadow on your site. I don't want to be part of something where the web mistress acts no better than the teeny-boppers that inhabit the site. If you want an example of a good site mistress and list owner, take a look at Moon Klutz. For her age, she acts extremely mature and for the most part, SMRFF is peaceful. You should be responsible enough to account for your actions. If not, your site needs to close down.