As noted elsewhere, I'm a "peacekeeper" in
rec.games.roguelike.nethack. I LART fools who think the group is
for "hax0rz". The group has become a lot cleaner now, I must admit,
a lot less warez-requesting ignorant people can be seen there.
Anyway, I have noticed that the war - yes, I ocassionally refer to
it as war - has had its effects on me. War is a bad word because it's
not really about actually killing people... it's more of a war of
wits.
Back when the d00dz were still a common sight, I was sometimes
pretty stressed about the fight. I have a strange habit of keeping
my mind if I feel strongly enough about something. I chose to fight,
even when it was sometimes hard.
But fighting... even verbal one... makes us over-reactive. In the
war, if you see a threat, you kill it.
Someone in the group was once "crying WWWWolf". The
subject line alone almost made me to LART the poor fellow, but
fortunately, I read the message body too and didn't make hasty
conclusions.
Yet, I still feel kind of sad when one of RGRNCA attacked an
innocent bystander by similiar accident. It was... as if he had shot a
member of some other squad of the same company by accident, thinking
enemies were coming.
I, as the leader of RGRNCA, needed to apologise to the victim. I
did it both publicly and via E-mail. I must say it was a black day in
RGRNCA's history. I never got his E-mail reply, and I sometimes wake
up with cold sweat, hoping he's not mad at us.
...
So, folks, ::sigh:: I just want to tell you one thing. Have your
ever got a -1, Troll for writing something to
Slashdot that should have been moderated as +5,
Funny? Have you ever gotten a writeup nuked by accident?
OK, I don't assume everyone with a Moderator bit in /. are like me
and moderate As Taco Intended =) but anyway, what I want you to
realize is this:
I had the power to make the Troll vanish. I needed to use it pretty
often. I got tired. Everyone else in my position would have become
tired over time. And when I got tired, I almost used the power to
envanish something that was supposed to stay. A squadmate failed to
realize the difference, and a painful accident happened.
So please, understand that the life isn't always cheerful for those
who need to be exposed to the trolls and flamery all the time. My
fingers are tired. My Sp33kH s0m3t1mes sounDz pr3tty strange, but I'm
on medication and it should stop soon. I hope.
We're just mortals. We make mistakes, and we don't like them at all
when that happens.
(Disclaimer: I'm not an E2 editor, but I'm a cheap plastic
imitation of one, appearing in several other places.)