Stalking and bullying in online games and forums

I've been thinking about how to help reduce the use of online games and forums for stalking and bullying, and counteract its effects. All the ones I've ever seen have neon signs hanging over them saying "stalking and bullying welcome here, and fully supported by the management." I don't mean that game and forum administrators intend for their spaces to be used that way. I mean that their responses to stalking and bullying behavior invariably reward it and reinforce it, and stigmatize and penalize its targets as if they were the troublemakers. The only solution I see is for some volunteers in the game or forum, including some of the administrators, to educate and train themselves in reducing and counteracting stalking and bullying, and to practice and promote what they're learning, in the game and forum.

Next question: how to sell that idea to game and forum administrators.

If anyone reading this has any ideas or questions about any of this, please post them.

People hurting and feeling wronged

"Is it only a dream, that there'll be no more turning away?"
- Pink Floyd

Some recent events in an online game and in the associated forum brought my attention back to people hurting and feeling wronged in online games and forums, and to some other online social issues, including an issue that I hadn't previously thought about much: the use of online games and discussions for stalking and bullying.

Considering what to do about someone hurting or feeling wronged in an online game or forum, the only idea I've come up with is to send him a friendly message, post friendly replies to his posts in the forum, and/or find some other way to show him my friendly interest and intentions. I imagine that whatever else I might be able to do to help him, would follow naturally from that.

If anyone reading this has any other ideas, or any questions, please post them.

Networking with thralls and candles: Next steps

I might look for blogs of people who are enthralled by God, and people who want to be candles for him, read them, and link to them, and tell them about what I'm doing.

I might try to learn to make my blog more useful to anyone who might be interested in what I'm doing.

I just looked back through this blog, and I was surprised how much what I've written relates to to what I want to do now.

Later:

I'm getting confused about who I'm looking for, and how to look for them. I think now that I'll try following one or two blogs at a time, in depth, for a while, before I try to follow any more.

New horizons, new dreams, new hopes. Take it easy. One step at a time. Three thoughts:
1. Bigger and brighter flame.
2. Learning to put myself, all of me, where God can use me to light other candles.
3. Encouraging and supporting other candle volunteers, and learning from them.

- God, what can I do about that flame?
- How about those devotional practices you've been forgetting?
- Oh. Yeah. Those. Okay.

Nets of theology and other ideology woven and cast by wolves in shepherd's clothing, disabling and isolating volunteers for the gift of faith, and dividing them from each other. Unbelief masquerading as belief even in the most scripture-quoting corners of the most scripture-quoting communities. Popular superstitions masquerading as science. Folly masquerading as wisdom. Psychological manipulation masquerading as reason. A tidal wave of naked, shameless, proselytizing self-worship. Arrows of blame and ridicule.

I will raise my ugly candle, flame or no flame, in defiance of all that, in defiance even of my fear of offending God with my weak or missing flame. Maybe some other volunteers will see my candle, flame or no flame, and take courage from it, or at least find some amusement in it to cheer them. Maybe some will send me messages of encouragement too. Raising our candles, however ugly, flame or no flame, might help volunteers for the gift of faith find each other, so we can encourage and support each other and learn from each other.

Learn to put myself, all of me, heart, mind and body, where God can use my candle to light others, if I'm lit. Learn to do whatever I can do, so my flame will get bigger and brighter.

"O My servants! Deprive not yourselves of the unfading and resplendent Light that shineth within the Lamp of Divine glory. Let the flame of the love of God burn brightly within your radiant hearts. Feed it with the oil of Divine guidance, and protect it within the shelter of your constancy. Guard it within the globe of trust and detachment from all else but God, so that the evil whisperings of the ungodly may not extinguish its light."

 - Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah,  p 153

Trying to learn to write more freely, to let my heart show, and stop putting words in the way. How, how, how?

Seeing God doing something in people's hearts, what people sometimes call the gift of faith ... yes, just try to move the images and feelings onto the tablet, without all that stuff I do with words. God doing something in people's hearts, that I think of as like lighting a candle ... God as a reality that many people see as nothing more than a myth, a psychological gimmick ... lighting candles. He might use some candles to light others. Am I lit? Maybe there's no way for me to know? Is it only on or off, or degrees, or maybe both at the same time, like light transmission as waves and as particles, both at once? I don't dare lay claim to being lit, but I want to be, and hope to be, and maybe that's what matters. If I am, that's the most important thing by far that I have to give to the world. If I want to be, then what better can I do than put myself where He can use me if He wants to, to light others if I'm lit.

Better Conduct Award of the week 2012-01-03

One Baha'i's approach...