I don't know... I never have this problem offline...

When the whole erasing the Endeavour occurred (USS Endeavour is or was one of Yahoo's largest Trek simulations, enough to get its own category. A madman deleted it out of spite. The madman had founder status because the madman who owned the sim is a poor judge of character), I mentioned to an acquaintance still in the sim that I saw this coming. I think most of us had.

The culprit came from out of nowhere - actually, he was a previous offender back under a new ID. With Founder status. In Yahoo Clubs, there are no founder and moderators, just all or nothing. And once someone is a founder, the other founders cannot drive them off. So here was this new character who was badgering and harassing other characters, and generally disrupting the sim. I left shortly after that for other reasons, but also aware that it would only have been a matter of time he got to me too, even though we were from different departments on the ship (that didn't seem to stop him thus far).

So anyway, I mentioned that I saw it coming and that he (the megalomanic owner) had it coming. This sentiment of mine is not a secret, after he chased a writer off and abruptly curtailed a significant thread of my character's development, then tried to play god (as megalomaniacs often do) and tried to change my character's backstory to accommodate a whim. In fact, it wasn't the first time I said something to that effect to this very person. So you can imagine how surprised I was when my remark was met with incredible hostility. Suddenly I didn't have that person for an acquaintance anymore. After 6 yrs on the Net, I think I know people enough to understand why this irrational outburst occurs:

She was having cybersex with the founder.

Well, it was the first thing which came to mind. Two self-declared Good Christians (now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one) engaged in what their kind love to call fornication. Sinnin'AH. Yup. That'll do it all right.

I spoke with another sim friend and told her what happened. Let's call the first one Day and this new one Cair. Playing the innocently perplexed hologram, Cair informed me that the two were an item, and that indeed there was sexual involvement. Can I call 'em or can I call 'em?

Moving right along...

The madman had allegedly started a parody club under a parody name of the megalomanic founder. I never would have found out except that Cair posted on the new Endeavour OOC ("out of character") club board that there was some disturbing announcement on it. Someone wrote the following:

"My frind who run this club has passed away this was on a list of all his clubs and i must regret to inform you of his death. he lived in queens ny where the plane crashed as far as i am aware robert did not have a son.
he had two daughters and a loving wife. only one daughter remains among us..."

You can imagine after months of *hugs* and comradeship, Cair's ensuing irrational outburst came as another surprise. I mean, it's not like I killed the guy. And unlike our god-fearing megalomaniac running the Endeavour, I didn't offer any opinion condoning the madman's alleged death. I think you know the first thing which came to my mind that first minute. For two weeks, she didn't reply to YM or ICQ, and ignored any sim GM (game master) instructions, thus holding up storylines for myself and others.

The other night she unsubscribed herself from the USS Aventura sim. Okay, so I am a bad person for not being gullible. I deserve to be shunned because I'm not stupid enough to take text written by anyone as gospel. I've been stupid before, but I possess heuristic abilities.