Post
by Stilesfamily » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:48 am
Wow, this thread has made me very sad. In some ways I regret ever joining the e-playa. Before I joined I had this happy, happy, joy, joy naive image of BM, where everyone embraced each other in mutual support and friendship. Not that I though that there was no other side to it, but the first 2 years I went that is pretty much all I saw.
IMHO The e-playa is kind of like a long party, then all of a sudden some unknown person pokes there head in a window and says “hey can you get me a hot dog and a beer” then disappears out the window again. So when that happens its hard for the people that were at the party the whole time not to roll there eyes just a little bit.
I joined the e-playa to get more involved with others of like minds. The first thing that popped out at me was the harsh criticism by what I now affectionately call “the gaggle”. It seemed so glaring and cruel but as time has gone by it has all become clearer to me. This is a group that has been together on this forum for, in many cases, years. They are friends, or at least they have a substantial history with each other and to them many of us are just flashes in the pan. We come and go, and post something we need, get it and are gone; just like on the playa, we show up for 2,3, or 7 days, the better of us spend a little extra time cleaning up someone else’s mess but in the end we leave and forget about all the people (volunteers) that make it happen, at least until next year. This is not to say that you do this but only to point out that as a new poster it could be assumed. Conversely, A lot of “the gaggle” volunteer significant amounts of time to many project associated with the BMorg, major theme camps or at the very least stay connected throughout the year. They also answer endless numbers of questions posted here, often the same questions repeatedly. So in the end I can’t begrudge them a little cynicism when someone pops on the e-playa to ask for something then disappears once they get it, as so often happens. I have seen them respond, and have responded myself, similarly on numerous threads and have noticed that when confronted they tend to respond sympathetically and apologetically to the criticism of there criticism.
You are bringing a pool and seem to be of the LNT philosophy so in my eyes you are being “Radically self reliant”, not that you need my approval. All theme camps are a group effort, needing lots of different people with different skills. I think one of your mistakes was that you don’t realize you are a theme camp, from what you described it does not sound like your camp is private. Like all theme camps you put a lot of time energy and money into it so you don’t want playa covered yahoo’s thinking it’s a Turkish bath or endless numbers of random people just jumping in, that requires some crowd control and proper pool placement to control access. I think you would have had a better reaction if you had approached the topic from a “Theme camp needs your participation” point of view, which is very BM, instead of “Looking for a sexy pool person for our private pool” which kind of smacks of suburbia and brings up images of arrogant wealthy homeowners looking to exploit the poor, but attractive, dregs of society(which is what mant of us are trying to escape). Please be sympathetic I know you were just trying to be funny and connect with fellow burners, and I am so sorry you got burnt, but to often the posts are serious, and that generates frustration.
I was truthfully surprised by your response; my first though was that this was a knee jerk reaction to the first few posts, because as you were defended in later posts everyone seemed apologetic and remorseful for misreading your intention. So everything seemed to be mellowing out on the thread and all of a sudden there is this furious post. Your response read, to me, very angry and spiteful and I think if you had just posted how much you were hurt by there assumptions you may have gotten much more of what you wanted, apologies. But again it is hard to take that tact when confronted by harsh criticism, in some ways I fear it may be perpetuating the very stereotype that it is criticizing.
OK I actually feel much better now, sorry my post was so long, I would love to come by and check out your pool set up, it sounds amazing.
E Tu Brute?
