Yeah some of us deal with it while others like to take it out on other people, like their customers. I havent found anyone on this forum that bad tho. But check this thread i saw on fb.
I just think it is stupid of me to buy from someone i can't stand, when i can spend it somewhere else or find it some place else. I admit it is my mistake. I wont do it again.
You come into this hobby out of love. It's exciting and challenging and like Alice's rabbit hole. The deeper you get into it, the cooler it gets but the more chance of you getting completely lost and turned around.
So being that we're all human, we make mistakes. This is just the nature of things. The problem I've found in this hobby, but moreso with people who are active in online forums, is that when a mistake is made, regardless of how accountable someone tries to be, they refuse to understand, are merciless and unrelenting.
When new, we place so much trust in who we're buying from because we're not yet educated enough to pick up the finer points that would be considered "exemplars" of the species. If that seller/breeder is wrong or misinformed or even deceitful we can easily get caught. Then when we try to breed or sell ourselves we bear the brunt of the hostility for that mistake that was "passed on down the line".
I get that corrective feedback is called for. What I don't get is the intentional assasination of other people's character, the vulgarity, the threats and the refusal to accept any other explanation other than that person being a crooked "hybrid breeder".
Rather than another human being who made a mistake, the same mistake that almost every single one of us has made before (weather you have the conviction to admit it or not).
I've not only experienced this as many of you here have seen but I've witnessed it happen to countless good people and clearly this shameful fact is represented in the stories posted in this thread.
I had people trolling my sale posts saying they were "watching me", threatening to kill me and posting pictures of murdered bodies, saying vulgur things about my spouse. And their "supporter" in the shaddows chuckling and egging it all on. Somehow justifying that a man they never met could have been so horribly offensive as to deserve that kind of treatment, without actually considering the horribly offensive actions their buddies were taking themselves.
I wanted to quit. I gave up my group and went dark for a bit. But then I met few really great people and even more who asked me what happened and were willing to hear me out and offered me their support. I learned very quickly that the MAJORITY of people in this hobby are good, honest, genuine and compassionate people who treat people just as kindly as they treat their fish. Too all of you, I have nothing but the utmost of respect.
Then I decided going dark was allowing the bullies to win. And we all know who those bullies are. Even those who masquerade as "good guys" but post veiled attacks, passive aggressive posts, or do their bullying on kijiji. You all know who they are but many of you who would never support that behaviour support those very people. Bystanders to the bullies.
So I came back, took measures to stand up and will continue to do so. To all of you good people out there the bullies, loud mouths, arm chair experts and genuinely miserable bastards simply cannot exist if we don't give them a voice, a forum or attention.
The majority operates from a place of love for the hobby, the camaraderie and the community. Don't forget that and let the haters get you down. And if we all stick together and condemn that type of behaviour, it stops. Simple and plain.
Sorry for the War and Peace size post. But I've just had a lot to say for a long time.
