HubPages Community Forum Rivals

A lesson to learn...

After being actively involved in the blogging community for quite sometime now, I would like to share a few things with you that I have learned about HubPages over the past year or so. Most of my fans know that I like to write about topics that I'm passionate about. I like to challenge people to look at themselves differently. Coinciding with the thought- I actually believed that by being a better person, and not assuming the worst about somebody, would help mold other HubPage hubbers, to being better people. Oh my, was that a stupid idea! The one thing I've learned about the HubPages' Community Forums is that, if you are 100% right about something, you are most certainly irreversibly wrong! Why or how that is, I cannot explain. It is beyond my abilities to explain some of the sheer stupidity that goes on here at HubPages. I have personally read a lot of different hubs about HubPages, but found most of them to be of no help. There are a few exceptions to that rule, like Rik Ravado hub about HubPage terminology. However, back to my own personal wrangles, many times what started as a good intention, has been quickly thrown back into my face. Just like a guilty verdict is handed down to a terrorist or known rapist. My first experience felt like a sting; but, very quickly over time those stings soonturned into OUCHES! Have you had an experience like this here on HubPages or in some other chat room?

Kill Joy.....

Well let me tell, since I've been here on HubPages, the forum community has continually been getting worse. Why just the other day, I was called a "kill joy" by an Atheist hubber, because I wasn't bashing them for not being Christians. To quote them exactly, the fellow HubPage hubber said, "IE is such a kill joy." Okay? I guess in the context, of what these forums have turned into lately, I should take that as a compliment. My experience, thus far in the HubPage forum, has been nothing but a humbling and humiliating lesson or nightmare.

How it all began for me.......

When I first started out here on HubPages, I wanted to blame my confrontations on people being ignorant to a subject line, or their narrow-minded way of thinking. _{[At times I still do.]} There are simply many hubbers participating in the HubPage forum community, that we all must admit, are dumb as a box of rocks buried somewhere on Mars. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

However, this is not a good excuse for my own bad behavior early in my HubPage career. Let me share some of my initial thoughts, about my own behavior in the forums. I bet, some of you are sure to recognize them, maybe in your own self as well.

My thoughts were:

How could I be at fault in this discussion? [_{whatever the discussion was at the time, that was soured]} Especially since, I am spreading the message of enlightenment and peace? Early in my HubPage career, I was famous for that one.

How could I be at fault or wrong period?

How am I at fault when someone didn't like it?

How am I wrong if someone else let my words hurt them. I have no control over that. They are just words.

How am I wrong because they took my message offensively?

Why?

How?

REPORT!_{[Oh the never ending madness of the HubPage forums!]}

This is what I figured. I figured that because I wAs a Christian, I was faithly spreading the good news of Christ. Because I wAs an Obama supporter, I was spreading the good news of the Democratic Party. Because I wAs an Educator, I was participating in the radical idea of educating people by calling them ignorant. I would write, "You are ignorant!"

Nah...., you was I kidding? What's NOT offensive about that?

Then the light bulb was turned on.....?

One day, when I realize that everyone hated me here on HubPages, I started to ask myself some serious questions.

Questions like; was I asking too much of my fellow HubPage hubbers to be more compliant, after I purposely insulted them?

There was a thought!

Was I; the one being ignorant to the possible fact that I could be wrong or rebuked. Was I blinded by the possibilities of spreading peace, that I forgot I might be pounding it down someones' throat?

I mean, come on here, I had a rock solid idea, with rock solid commitment to back it up with.

How can a person with such commitment at being a faithful Christian, as I had, be an "insulting, overly aggressive, hypocrite?" Me? That couldn't have been me. Are kidding me?

I actually thought the entire HubPage community Feb. of 2009, had lost their minds!

One day, I quietly started to think to myself, "Am I really that insulting?"

"Was I being hypocritical, and aggressive towards my fellow hubbers?" I thought.

Lets Tango......!

Well folks; if you plan to tango with the masses, you had better have a clear understanding of not only yourself, but who are "the masses" in which you are writing too. Did I mention that my approach was wrong? Instead of promoting a new way to understanding, I promoted crap. In my quest for peace, I started a war. In my attempt to display my dry sense of humor, I came off as only being spiteful and mean. I forgot the basic principle of debating, and instead went about attacking people who couldn't see what I was trying to say. Like it wasn't my fault or something; but, it is and was. I was sitting here writing about ways to be Christ-like and enlightened. When actually, I was acting and sounding like a hypocritical baboon, who didn't have a clue to what she was saying. I simply fell through the crack of my best intention. My favorite teacher, Lama Surya Das wrote, "Instead of wandering around in this dangerous jungle seeking a woman and some money, wouldn't it be far better to seek your true self". He was quoting Gautama, the sage Buddha, better known as Buddha. See it is like this, back then when people went around preaching this or that, looking for glory or paving a new way; Buddha would ask that rhetorical question- "wouldn't it be far better to seek you true self?" How could I have failed so miserably???

The lesson I learned in that debacle, was that maybe I was too bitter and cynical about everything. I certainly was not spreading the message of peace. Since my humble beginnings here at HubPages as jgrimes, I have really tried to work on that since I opened this IntimatEvolution account. Now you know the humble beginnings to my HubPage name. I have to credit Sufidreamer for making me realize that I was an angry person inside, and just did not know it. I am still reflecting on that. I love both those hubbers to death! XO

I also realized that at times, I was the hypocrite! There were other times, I remembered that it didn't take me long to discover, the only ignorant one in the forums that day, was me. I was the one making all that fussy mess. How else could I explain my narrow-minded perspectives? It is really hard people, to take a good honest look at ones own behavior and realize that YOU were being the nasty little culprit.

As with all life lessons, a person has to have the integrity to look to themselves when something terrible has gone on. A person must have the fortitude to take criticism for what it is; a study lesson and not for what it appears. If someone says your writings are weak. Well they must be weak. Only you can change the style in which you write and only you can make it possible for people to understand. I am learning that I have a lot to learn. With that admission, I have opened my heart and mind, and have begun to find a damn reason for expressing truth, criticism, and educational possibilities- before I state it. I just don't state something anymore, for the sake of picking on someone. I have a goal for a peaceful world too. I still have grand ideas of helping people become more understanding and compassionate. That means nothing if I cannot dance the dance, among the masses I'm trying to chat too.

You know, participating in the HubPage forums can be exactly like a third grade class at recess. However, we are all adults here on HubPages. Since we are no longer school children, for most adults who like to tumble down the road of stupidity in the HubPage community forums, I challenge you to take a hike up the mountain to the path of enlightenment. Try working on something different, than constantly banging you ideas down people throats, just to petty. Don't forget to constantly work on yourself and practice what you preach. It is still something I have to work on myself, almost everyday.