The problem, I think, is that SI -- at least the non-stock parts of SI -- is a game. That's all it is. Recreation. Amusement. Nothing more.
But as in real life, some people take games far more seriously than others do.
And, also as in real life, some few people can start to let the line blur between the game and real life, so that the game becomes real life to them. It's like the soccer fans who go on a rampage when their team loses, even to the extent of people getting trampled to death. For a game!
That's what I see being the problem here. You and I, and some others (I think JC, for example) understand that this is recreation. Literary creation, as you put it.
But some others -- E among them, Poet, jla I'm not sure about, I hope it's just a game to him because if that's real life to him he's got a very serious problem -- have gone so far into the game that it has become part of their real lives. So when things are said about their aliases, they take them personally, as though the hurt were to them personally, not to their aliases.
Unless everybody recognizes it as the environment in which we exist here on SI, we will continue to have these problems. |
