This page comes about as a direct result of specific activities in association with Yedda.  The purpose of this page at present is to attempt to express issues that are specific to this particular interactive forum.  Primarily because I have not as of yet experienced the level of personal attacks through other forums or venues that I have with Yedda.

I joined Yedda some time ago at the invitation of a friend who shares a participation in a few of the other discussion forums as I do.  I spent a lot of time sort of “poking around” so to speak before even attempting to answer or comment on any of the “questions” I found on Yedda. 

I do use the term “questions” quite loosely when referencing Yedda as I find that there are too many that use this forum far too similarly to a “priest in a pulpit” sort of approach.  These are the ones I avoid for obvious reasons.

Then there are those who seem to pose questions that appear to act as a catalyst for debate rather than support a question and answer style forum.  These people I find interesting and divide them into two basic categories; those seeking opinions and those seeking an argument.  Each of them in and of themselves are very interesting and I have learned a number of things from both approach styles; yet refuse to actually participate in the “discussions” originating from those I personally have placed in the second category.

All of that is based in my sincere belief that we are all entitled to our own opinions and beliefs and that we do not have to agree on anything but the simple concept of “Agree to Disagree” which I have personally lived by for many years.

A concept which brings me to one of the aspects of Yedda that I have yet to fully embrace and that is the option of adding “Contacts” to your personal home page within Yedda.  While I did “accept” a few contacts, my initial resistance to this concept was based solely on my personal ideology that this (Yedda) was not intended to become a socializing network site for me.  However, my feelings regarding the use of this option began to change when I started receiving a large number of invitations to become a contact for others.

Unlike many, at this point these invitations gave me cause for caution.  Before simply accepting the invitation, I went to the home page of that member.  Perhaps my personal perspective of the contact concept is completely removed from the original idea, but it was important for me to at least be able to identify on some basic level with the person before accepting the invitation.

Unfortunately I found that I had in essence very little at all in common with the majority of those who were sending me these invitations; to the point that I felt as if they were simply “collecting” names to list as contacts for whatever purpose I will not attempt to identify at this point.  However, it did not “feel” right to me, therefore I began ignoring these invitations for the most part.

There was also an additional reason for me to choose not to actively participate further in this option on Yedda.  Regardless of where an individual stands on any particular issue, I actually do care about their personal feelings both on the issue and as a person.  Yet at the same time I cannot allow my personal stand point on a given issue to be governed by the opinions of others and I certainly do not want to be a factor, negative or otherwise in the expression of someone else’s view on a given issue.  I do make every effort to at least temper my answers and comments with the understanding that there are feelings involved on the part of the reader and that the reader of my answer or comment will include others beyond the actual person I am “talking to” about the issue.

Historically speaking, I have lost friendships in the past due to a difference of opinion on a given issue.  This is something that saddens me greatly on many levels, yet I cannot allow myself to be swallowed up in a void disguised as compassion.  That ideology is based on one particular bit of advice that was given to me by my father and that being…  “You are the only person living in your head; you are the only person in this entire world that you cannot walk away from.”  So while I do mourn the loss of certain friendships, I must always remain true to myself or I have lost everything.

It is my intention to continue my participation in Yedda because for the most part I do enjoy it and I find it to be more informative than it is troublesome.  While I do not apologize for my position on a given issue, I do apologize in advance to those who perhaps “read into” something I have said here on this site or on Yedda itself.  Personally, I would expect the same attitude from those I have interacted with on Yedda for the same reasons as I adhere to it.  Be who you are and not who you think someone wants you to be.

Returning to the most prominent issue regarding the creation of this particular page which has been the personal attacks and harassment experienced over the last few weeks.  I am open to any topic of discussion on this forum as well as any other, as long as that discussion is conducted within the forum.  This falls completely within my ideology that I will never say anything about a person that I am not willing to say to that person.

Recently I have been inundated with messages through the “send a private message” option on Yedda.  I contacted the individual via the “reply” option with a request that they not contact me in this manner in the future.  Further stating in that requested that if they wanted to “attack” me then fine, just do it in an open forum. I made the request of that individual only because the message was clearly an open attack on me personally and not simply my response to the issue at hand.

Unfortunately the private messages did not stop with that request.  Therefore, I contacted the staff at Yedda concerning this, forwarding a few of the emails I had received and the only advise they could give me was to turn off the option of receiving these messages altogether.  This was not an option to me as I am not opposed to the private message option itself, just being harassed and attacked through them.

Since this individual chose to ignore my request and the idea of shutting myself off from every other Yedda member was not an option I wanted to use; I posted an open question on Yedda concerning how various individuals utilize this forum.

I am aware that there will be those who see it differently and that’s fine with me.  I used this avenue as a means of “shedding a light on the matter” so to speak.  I did so because I believed that this individual felt more empowered by attacking me via private email (under the shadow of darkness), thus insisting on making the discussion a one on one.  This individual continued to harass me for a couple of days following that posting, but then faded into the past as I had hoped would happen.

I sincerely hope that the situation above is an isolated one as I am in essence not an argumentative individual.  I am not here to debate or convert others to my philosophies.  I don’t believe that standing up for yourself or your beliefs is being argumentative, as I simply state my position and will exit the discussion.  This is a practice I hope most everyone uses because it really serves no purpose to stand there toe to toe with someone and argue about something regardless of the subject.

If there is anyone who has read any of my posts, it is obvious that I am not a Christian.  Yet I have a lot of friends both in real time as well as on the internet that are and at present we all seem to be fine with that.  On the political platform, I have identified myself as a Libertarian in the truest sense of the term.  I am a complete advocate of the separation of Church and State, simply because of the dynamics of the world in which we live today.