juliaoceania
Posts: 21383
Joined: 4/19/2006 From: Somewhere Over the Rainbow Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: coookie quote:
ORIGINAL: SylvereApLeanan I disagree. This is how it should work and how it hopefully does work in most places. Unfortunately, this is not how it works in my community. In fact, it's the opposite. My area is horrible about listening to/trusting the person with the best (read: most dramatic) story, without bothering to get any facts, and then attempting to exclude the people they think are "guilty" based on this story. I know this from personal experience. It's one of the many reasons I'm not active in my local BDSM community and why I neither ask for nor trust "references". I can't imagine that my area is the one and only place this sort of thing happens. So, while I encourage people to get out in the local community to meet people, socialize, and attend demos, I would never suggest the local community is a good screening mechanism. It's too variable and dependent on the social climate of each city. You tend to quickly find out who you should stay away from though by their own action in the community. Usually it is the person that drama centers around all the time ... month after month ..partner after partner. My experiences with groups in general is that they can be insular, and people get believed not because they tell the truth, but because others want to believe them. I would not assume that a group could be a screening mechanism for me. I am pretty good at screening people in my own way, like I want to know someone's friends and family before I involve myself too deeply.
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Once you label me, you negate me ~ Soren Kierkegaard Reality has a well known Liberal Bias ~ Stephen Colbert Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt
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