sadly, ch, i think these people are real.

 I'm not a secret agent for admin... but I do find it tempting to throw the odd thing up (odder the better) when I get too saddened by the malaise and seeming slow death of the cafe. The same dull witted old issues keep plodding around the site like doomed dinosaurs, The site is over-run with dumbass homophobes -- still, it seems! -- and anything to do with a faith issue merely generates re-runs of intransigence. I'm on the point of packing it in once again. Look at where all the posts go: someone will soon win the "Last Post" thread the way things are going. Maybe this reflects the church experience of too many people too? Maybe the social experience? Maybe the life experience? I blame super-saturation levels of television addiction (gotta blame somebody/something!)

Isnt the idea of a forum to keep it lively with discussion ..... there are only so many threads on kids boo boos that a person can respond to ....

If people have these many personal problems, they should be seeing someone professionally and not venting their life on a message board,imo.

well i suppose this is wayyy cheaper

And not half as beneficial.

What is a Ringer, Crazyheart?

i'm not a ringer, just in case you were wondering.

i don't think that this kind of forum has 'ringers' anyways.  places like this abhor a vaccum... there will always be someone with some kind of issue.

here are some words that will fit a 'ringer"

ringer - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  83 Moby Thesaurus words for "ringer":
     agent, alternate, alternative, analogy, backup, blagueur, bluff,
     bluffer, change, changeling, charlatan, comparison, copy,
     counterfeit, deputy, double, dummy, equal, equivalent, ersatz,
     exchange, fake, faker, fill-in, fourflusher, fraud, ghost,
     ghostwriter, humbug, imitation, impersonator, impostor,
     locum tenens, makeshift, malingerer, metaphor, metonymy,
     mountebank, next best thing, personnel, phony, picture,
     pinch hitter, portrait, poser, poseur, pretender, proxy, quack,
     quacksalver, quackster, relief, replacement, representative,
     reserves, saltimbanco, second string, secondary, sham, shammer,
     sign, simulacrum, spares, spit, spitting image, stand-in, sub,
     substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, superseder,
     supplanter, surrogate, symbol, synecdoche, third string, token,
     understudy, utility player, vicar, vice-president, vice-regent
  
 

Not all fit but somedo like poseur, fraud, phony,sham, shammer, imposter,charlatan

A ringer can be thrown into the board to create chaos ,imo.

Perhaps a variety of topics that are more real life like issues in the working world or money management or educational / career goals ?

Those are interesting ideas, Jes.

Hi Crazyheart, 

Are you suggesting that Admin has some kind of arrangement with these "ringers"?   That seems unlikely to me.  On occasion, there have been posters who make comments that just don't feel authentic.  Other times, I have suspected sock puppets, but who can know?

No one can know and I don't think Admin would do this. Maybe they are sock puppets.

It's certainly not the first time that I've heard this theory...cms

It is just really irritating to me and I suspect others.

Would you believe that I AM a ringer?  I'm not really a busy mom.  Nope.  Not at all.  I am an 87 year male biker guy who collects rare exotic spiders, is in a symphony orchestra as a kazoo player,  has a vacation home in  Belize and owns a major league baseball team.  I have no children, but one of my girlfriends is an eighteen year old babysitter and we spend time flying the children to Disney World for weekends.  Sometimes the children are unavailable as the youngest is a childstar, but I can't tell you on which sitcom he appears. 

Gotta run now as I have an appointment at the tattoo parlour.  My wife and I are getting matching tattoos.

So, in answer to your question Crazyheart, there could be ringers or sockpuppets on wondercafe, and I just might be one.

or....I'm just being silly on a Friday afternoon.  Hmmmmm.  Wonder which one?

Hey -- 'cafe conspiracy theories are a whole other topic, but some I've invented are:

1)  Since W'cafe collects data (google analytics), maybe some threads are started to get opinions from this demographic about hot button issues.  Maybe these topics are bait.

2)  PK's run amok on the board.

3) Sockpuppets practicing up on characters for Sims and other virtual worlds.

4)   And my favourite theory (drum roll), TEENAGE TROLLS FROM CYBERSPACE!

They should be at school or doing assignments.  They are precocious loners who need  attention and love to watch everyone run to their threads and give advice to their bogus problems and they enjoy getting a rise out of people when they say outrageous things.  Thinking they sound "grown up" they use certains  words (won't repeat)  unheard of by anyone past 21. 

They could have multiple memberships and have internet friendships with each other and plan their mayhem via chat.  They manufacture crises' for the sense of power it gives them to have all these people responding.

At least I hope they're teens who just need to grow up, otherwise they might feel genuinely powerless and in great emotional pain, and suffer from a psychiatric condition that needs to be addressed, in which case, our compassion is needed.

This is all sheer speculation with no means of validation and no proof.

Hi,

We get asked this question from time to time, but no, we don't post anything other than those things are identified as coming from us. Nor do we have anybody doing it for us. You folks do just fine on your own I would say!

Peace,

Aaron (Admin2)

Well, I guess that disproves the first one.

Busymom -- I had no idea!  I still like you even if you are an old, spider-loving, kazoo-playing tattoed biker!

Hey, aaron, glad you are smiling in your picture. I was hoping you would drop by even if it is just to keep the Biker and the Faery in check.

CH

I liked that thong you used to wear better than these

LOL, The thong is underneath

CH

OK!

P.S. I have avatar problems; trying to change it. I still see the balloons but pommum said she sees a cat, my old avatar. What do you see?  Lastpointe says she loves your thong? I was kidding. I don't see it? I see the peace heart. It was red hearts underwear when I posted a minute ago.  My computer is royally screwed up on the WC!

I do think Crazyheart that they are some needy posters and I sometimes think of a few that seem to have done an awful lot in a short life, or seem to have had more jobs than seems logical.

I too am puzzled by the "help me out"  Threads that then get " no i can't " answers to everyone who tries to help.....

I do feel that some people "appear" ,solely by what they post, to need some professional help and sadly we enable them not to get it.

And I find myself avoiding some threads because of this.

that may simply be my own burn out though.

And i too love your thong.  Actually i alway love your changing pics.  Some I like more than others and if I can sugest , this is a keeper for a while.  Reminds us all to go the extra mile to be a bit sexy for our spouses/partners/friends ( well at leat it reminds me to put some effort into being a bit sexy)

I see your balloons stardust but they are lovely balloons.

i see cat  stardust and now you should see thong.

lastpointe

Thanks

CH

Thanks! No cat....no thong so far.....I'll  log off and restart  the computer again!

hmm, there are the help me out threads, and i have started a few of my own.

sometimes it works out to just the same as having a glass of wine with a friend, just talking it through is valid....

sometimes there is concrete tips which one hadn't thought about

sometimes there are learnings of one's own part in an equation.

i think those threads ahve value...but maybe it is just me

Busymom - can I visit you in Belize?

CH

Finally I see the thong and I got the cat by the whiskers. I had to press" shift and refresh" admin said. I had no clue.

Sure!  What kind of tattoo would you like to get while you're there?

Busymom...don't think I'm into tats, but I think the beaches are nice, right?

But of course, but  the way you'll be dressed (or undressed) you'll want tatoos and body piercings.  IMHO

It works for me....

Ha busymom - thanks for the chuckle today.

There's just regular people with time on their hands. There's nothing wrong with livening up the boards by being a devil's advocate as long as they aren't hurtful.

I used to be a ringer.   For the University bell choir!!!

Actually, one thread that I am really appreciating right now is Pinga's hypochondriac thread.   I felt this way at one time.  It is good to know that others are going through the same thing.  

Your real life friends cannot have had all the same exeperiences so it is good to hear from people who have....and several others.    Plus they are not always available at 2:00 am when you are posting.

As far as accepting the advice and not accepting the advice.    With the phone thread I bounced the ideas off you guys 1.  To hear myself think and then  2.    read your responses.   Then like Pinga says these ideas help us think and maybe come up with another idea or maybe we follow the advice.

What worked for some people may not work for others.  In my real life my sister was after me to go to the hospital twice a week.   I heard nothing but sympathy/epathy here and I needed that.  It may not surprise you to know that I am around a lot of overly critical unrealistic people in my life.  One Uncle wanted me to stop at his house on the way home from the hospital every time I visited.  He lives in a town that is on the way to the hospital.  I am tired after my hospital visits and want to go home.   Now he left me a nasty phone message never to speak to him again.   My personal relationships are what they are.  They are also strained at the present as my family is still working their way through grieving my Dad's death so my mother's illness is really taking its' toll.

What a person needs at times is a "peer support group".   Often these peer support groups are not available within the person's immediate circle.   A peer support group is a group of peers that come together to support people during hard times.  A counsellor could not fullfill that role as counsellor's generally do not give advice and even if they do it is only one perspective.

Could the threads be all positive like congratulate me "I am getting married" or "congratulate me I having a baby"  sure they could but real life is not like that either.

 It may not surprise you to know that I am around a lot of overly critical unrealistic people in my life.

That maybe true of everyone however how much we choose to be around them is really up to us ....

I find that for myself i simply choose not to be available even if i have to lie in order to avoid the drama i'm past the age of having to justify or explain myself to anyone and they can deal with that or not ... you can't be everybody's puppet for their enjoyment and sometimes enough is enough people who really care understand that you gotta have some time for you too.

Ha Serena! I am a ringer for a church bell choir right now!

I'm totally a ringer, except my only purpose on Wondercafe is to keep graeme from taking last place on the LPT.