It’s more than a little unusual for me to delete whole threads like this, but the kind of insensitivity, and hero-worship of school shooters shown here is a completely unacceptable use of the TSL Forums. Paired with trolling and personal attacks, the result has been a totally inflammatory and inappropriate thread. Disciplinary action will be taken by customer support.
My personal thanks to those of you who stood up for good taste and chose to show your humanity in the face of deeply callous comments by condemning them.
Blue Linden posted this after wiping out almost the entirety of the thread entitled “Virginia Tech Memorial (School shootings).” I can’t say I’m suprised – there were comments on how people didn’t care, how people had attempted suicide, why the people shot were to blame and the shooter was the real victim, etc.
Yleri Tokhes, who was one of the “I don’t care, this means nothing” people, has already vanished from search – since he said he had already been suspended before, I strongly suspect he’s been banned. I also suspect that Jay Clostermann, who had by far the worst posts there, will be on the receiving end of some action.
Sigh…
You know its that kind of attitude that really gets my blood boiling. I have heard the same things at school. Is this generation so hardened that we cannot care for the innocent victims. The USA Today paper did a write up on how much our generation has suffered in tragedies the past 20 years. Columbine, 9/11, Columbia, Oklahoma bombings, hurricane Katrina, and no Virginia Tech. I just cannot believe that it has happened again. Here is the link to the article. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-17-millenials_N.htm?csp=34
Holy crap. There were people DEFENDING the shooter? Saying he was the victim? Wow. Just wow. I know SL is for everybody, but thats just wrong. If you have people, and of all sorts teens, saying that, action should be taken. Their suicide attempts, fine for them, but if they are DEFENDING somebody who KILLED 33 INNOCENT PEOPLE in a BLOOD BATH… Thats terrible man, terrible…
I guess everyone’s entitled to have his own perspective of it all (for example, I think we should pity the gunman as much as we should pity the other victims, but that’s just plain off topic), but yeah – I don’t think LL (or any ‘big’ site or enterprise, for that matter) is ready to actually host a debate like that.
We don’t, despite what some people here seem to believe, need to hold a debate for everything. You could hold, for instance, a friendly, unscheduled discussion instead of a formal debate. You could just not discuss it at all.
(Side note: I hate formal debates)
Unbelievable. Thank you for wiping the thread. It’s hard to believe there are so many insensitive sickos out there.
Okay, but why pity him? If he hated himself that much, and was suffering that much, he could have gone suicidal, no problem! Nobody cares! If there was really something up with him and his girl friend, thats just another tally mark to the list of abusive husbands/boy friends to do something like that. But, shooting up a campus, and killing and injuring that many people, thats just a load. I don’t think SL should really have anything about terror attacks, or wars, as a debate in SL, or TSL. But, thats just my opinion… I vote for “Friendly Discussion” or “Shut up about it.” All this media coverage is making me sick. >.>
Just to answer the question, events like this are not isolated from society. They affect and are caused by the whole society. Praying everyday to have a psychotic person kill 32 (or about 200 as it just happened in Iraq, too) is not the only way the whole community can be involved… But this is Kath’s blog, not a forum, so I’ll just leave it there. Anyone’s free to think what he wants to, so peace.
That made no sense. In fact, I have no idea what question you were answering.
I was answering “But why pity him?”
That means that the fact that no one there prayed for anyone to go and shoot 32 people before committing suicide does not mean that he or she does not carry part of the guilt… Or, making it a bit more crystal clear, that was an euphemistic way to say that society pretty much carries part of the guilt whenever murders of this type occur.
As I’m determined not to post more comments on this entry, I will just say I am not a pro-gunman, but I openly admit that I think that saying 100% of the guilt falls upon the gunman is plain irresponsible and mainly the reason why massacres not only in schools but anywhere happen still in 2007. That is just my opinion, though, and I don’t expect any of you to share it by any means
God… that is terrible.
I personally chose not even to read the thread. And yes, Yleri will probably be banned.
Hay guys
I think .. I should have kept my opinion to myself in that case. It was poor judgement, and I apologize to those I’ve affended (^^); *Hugz*
Also I was b& >,<
If I ever do come back into SL by the way, I will make an attempt to make myself less of a **tch ^^’
Although it is wrong to glorify the people that do things like the VT massacre it is almost as bad to fully blame them. In the Virginia Tech case the shooter was definitely disturbed but not evil. He had been bullied so badly in high school that it led him to become deeply disturbed and blame society as a whole for his problems. At times I find myself agreeing that we live in a horrible society where schools protect bullies and leave their victims to become psychologically disturbed and eventually do something wrong like this. To fully understand what happened at Virginia Tech you must look through the eyes of the killer and imagine what drove him to commit this atrocity. Only then will you be able to fully understand why thirty-three people needlessly died.
Hey Yleri…….I am trying to get you unbanned and have fustrated a few Lindens because I have found loopholes in a major rule that may get you back. If you could email me at (removed) that would be great
Firstly, you should read your TSLE PMs. Secondly, only the banned person can request to be unbanned. Anyone else is flat-out ignored. Thirdly, don’t post your email address like that. It’ll be spammed to death.
Yay for loopholes~!!
?(^_^?)(?^_^)?
I put in a request for an unban the day I was banned, so with any luck I will be on… I’m grounded IRL at the moment, though, so the soonest you’ll likely see me is June. =P
Dang… I feel stupid for even making the thread. Sorry guys.
I wasn’t really expecting it to go like that. I just wondered what people thought about it.
Although Yleri’s post wasn’t too nice, he DID edit it and appologize. I, on the other hand, got grounded from the computer for three days, so I’m not exactly sure what I missed.
Anyway, sorry for making the thread and hope you get to come back, Yleri. Even though I was always hateful towards you, I always thought you were a pretty cool guy, although sometimes a bit….err… insensitive (SP?)
Its alright……This email is JUST for secondlife stuff, it will not become my main email, so I don’t really care if some jerk breaks the law and sends me spam…..Well I care because they are DS’ but besides that, I would really like Yleri to email me……. Removed again.
Worst thing that happens is that I have to make a new SL email….Not a huge deal…but It can be removed once Yleri Emails me…For I have some information for him…..About rules and ect.
Contact Yleri through TSLE. If you continue to refuse to do so I’ll go and read Yleri’s message to you and post it here.
Oh….I am sorry Katharine…If I do stupid things like that please tell me.
Okay, I don’t know if anyone might still see this post (as it’s over a year old 0-0), but I thought I’d give a status report.
Linden Lab (specifically, Harry Linden) has recently ‘forgiven’ me/my IP address (as in they won’t ban me) via comments on a support ticket I submitted last week. He also mentioned that it’d be fine if I make another account. (I never got comment on previously mentioned request because I submitted it the wrong way rofl ^^’)
My only problem is, I don’t actually have a cellphone supported by Linden Lab (only a TrackPhone. . .). ^^; So, if anybody could be so kind as to e-mail me an unused cell number of theirs from AT&T, Metro PCS, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon to yleri@meta.ua, it would be greatly appreciated. I’ll only use it for verification (you can send verification code to same e-mail), and won’t spam you or call you. Thanks in advance to all
Yay for Yerli! Welcome back my friend.
BTW. Knowing Katharine that email will be removed by tomorrow.
Thanks~ X3
Yeah, but the link in my ‘name’ on that comment is actually a ‘mailto’ towards the e-mail I posted :p You stalkerrrrrrrr XD (You responded like a n hour after I posted lmao)
Aaand the e-mail’s still there. o:
Katharine’s reign is starting to come to an end kekekekeke
…Katharine’s reign may have ended, but I haven’t received any #s yet, so I might not be on for awhile (I assume you’re the only one to see this D:)
Nah. I’m sure that people will see this sooner or later. I haven’t talked to Katharine in a while though..I wonder where she is…
To be honest, your guess is better than mine. I’ve been out of the SL/TSL loop evern since I got banned to begin with.
I can’t say I’ve really been IN it either.
Eh, same difference I guess.
Well. I don’t remember if it was before you left, but the forums died.
Yep, they were pretty much dead as far as I could tell by 2007. Lots of the regs either got bored and quit, stopped posting, or were transferred over to MG. Kind of sad, really.
I think it’s worth noting that I actually had to moderate both of your posts from September 8th. So I knew before you did, Darkness. So ner. :p
Well-played, Katharine. Well-played.
Daaaaaaaaaamn, it’s been like over four years since all that shit went down o.o Time flies lmfao