There is a group of children in a school playground. Your son runs up to you and complains that one of the girls is picking on him and he's upset by it. What do you tell your son to do? Most of us would advise our son to rise above 
it, ignore her, don't worry about what she has to say and just stay away from her. If she gets really bad about it, we suggest he report it to a teacher and let the teacher get to the bottom of it and sort the problem out.
You know that of all the kids in that playground, some of the other kids are good friends of your son, some don't know him very well and don't have much to do with him, some don't like him so they leave him alone, and the girl that is picking on him doesn't like him and is determined to let him know about it. It happens, and we teach our kids how to deal with it and just accept that so long as someone likes us and is our friend, it's all good.
Then we come onto Minti. Some of the other members are good friends of ours, some don't know us very well and don't have much to do with us, some don't like us so they leave us alone, and every now and then we get one that doesn't like us and is determined to let us know about it. Sound familiar?
And what do we do about it? Do we rise above it, ignore that member, don't worry about what they have to say and just stay away from them, and if they get really bad about it, report it to the Admin and let the them get to the bottom of it and sort the problem out???
Hahahahahaha!
Some members do. Unfortunately, some get all upset and gripe about it, report each other, go around voting everything the other person has to say down, and pick right back at them. What the heck for? That doesn't fix anything, it just makes matters worse. We wouldn't tell our child to behave that way - why does anyone do it as an adult?
I know I'm well liked on Minti... by about a dozen or so members. I know this because they have told me so. There are over 20,000+ members on this site. Most don't know me and have nothing to do with me. I'll bet there are plenty that don't like me so they ignore me and leave me alone. Every now and then, a member comes along that decides they don't like me and they make it well known. Do I care? No. They don't have to like me if they don't want to. Chances are, I probably don't like them either. But I'm not going to go out of my way to make their life a misery. After all, most people have enough misery in their lives without me adding to it! So why do they pick on me? I don't know, but I'll guess it's most likely because they don't take their own advice.
Do I get upset about it? Well, sometimes it irritates me a little bit, but I ignore it. Sometimes it annoys me enough to reply to them appropriately and thoughtfully if they make a comment or send me a minti mail. Sometimes it angers me enough to walk away from the computer for a few moments to grab a drink and some munchies, collect my thoughts, and actually do something serious about it - such as post an advice or a blog on whatever the issue is. It someone is getting WAY out of hand, I might inform the Admin about it - though that is more common for me to do if I see someone else getting picked on. But I don't go picking on them in retalliation.
The only way you can really tell if someone is picking on you in a nasty way is if they go sending you minti mails or leaving comments that are offensive and nasty and specifically directed at you. If this isn't happening to you, sit back and relax. You're probably not being picked on. Any assumption that you are is probably paranoia and speculation. If you are really concerned, contact the Admin about it.
No one has to explain how they vote, or how they move around the site, and to ask them to explain such things is downright rude. If you go asking people questions like that, you have become the person doing the picking on!
I can't scream, "Mummy, they're all picking on me!" because I no longer have a mummy to cry to. If I can't do it, why should anyone else be allowed to? It's not fair!!! Whaaaaaaa!!! LOL
(November 2007) (
