While Badspot is a pretty flawed and pathetic person, he doesn't deserve a lot of this blame for people's personal problems. Every person who still clings to this place despite thinking it was the worst thing ever should evaluate whether something was Badspot's fault or the fault of their upbringing. I'd wager a lot of these folks (Swallow included) were on here completely unsupervised while growing up, lacked the direction/support they needed as a child/teen, or were already suffering from unfortunate living circumstances in their offline life.
Really his worst crime would be telling a child on the Internet that they're an idiot. Nonetheless, I hope these folks get the genuine help they need, because blaming Badspot for their current troubles while convenient, is not going to help them in the long run.
Both Badspot and people's parents can be responsible for the situations many of the people on this forum found themselves in.
Parents for not supervising as they're neglecting to properly care for their kids, but it's also worth mentioning that even that is also not as clear cut as it first seems since the internet was still relatively new and most older people weren't familiar with it even going into the early 2010's when Blockland was at it's height in popularity.
Badspot is responsible because it's still his responsibility as the owner of the site to, you know,
moderate it. You could argue that poor upbringing is the reason that people get into grooming situations, and you would largely be right. However, it's hard to deny that if Badspot actually banned many of the groomers (and we're not even getting into the racism/family values/telling the entire forum to kill themselves) then the risk of getting groomed on the Blockland Forums would be significantly lower even with the stuffty upbringing. This was something he was aware of and is completely within his power to accomplish, whether by hiring actual moderators or doing it himself.
Swollow, i understand why you're resentful, i really do (i also agree that badspot needs to get a bit of a grip)
but i seriously recommend you try to let go of that anger and blame, i held resentment towards this place for years and it negatively impacted my life without me realizing.
letting go and forgiving is not condoning the actions or agreeing with anyone, it's nothing more than taking the weight off your own shoulders and not allowing the people who hurt you to have power in your life.
it's going to be okay.
also try to remember what you're doing at your current age vs what trolls did at the same age back then, and that should tell you that you're far better off than any of them.
Badspot's opinions are wacky and he's really out there, but it shouldn't bother you that much. don't even worry about it and just breath.
you seem like you went through some stuff but seriously, you just beat life on hard mode and should be proud of that.
who should we even blame for this kind of stuff?
i blame the 2000s. i blame ignorance towards mental illness and the internet.
i blame the times and the society we lived in for endorsing that kind of behavior. a lot of us hid this kind of stuff from our parents, leaving them unable to properly supervise us.
i used to hold badspot and his moderation responsible, but i realized he was unable to control the community due to either his own mental issues or not understanding the depth of internet harassment. i'm not excusing the type of stuff he allowed to fester, i'm just saying i don't blame him for it.
hell, the way he discusses and views the opposite love could be evident women treated him badly, we don't know what happened in his life.
At one point i began blaming the community as a whole, then i realized not everyone was responsible or "knew better"
finally i blamed the perpetrators themselves, but then i realized something probably happened in their life to make them act like a richard or want to kick down at children.
the ones that turned into freaks were probably touched, this does not excuse child enthusiasm, obviously, but it's a true fact. loveual predators usually come from a long string of abuse that never got properly dealt with. they are forgeted up and sick in the head, obviously not condoning their actions, and yes they should still be held responsible for such actions.
i'm just saying if society had given them the proper help at a young age they could probably recover and be a normal person. (yes i know some people are just wicked and do it for no reason, those are the ones that need to be punished/executed/locked up/whatever)
there is probably some kind of weird psychological stuff we don't understand yet. there is probably something mentally going on with the people who used the internet at a young age, we were the first generation exposed to this kind of technological bullstuff during a crucial age.
so in short, i just blame the world for being a forgeted up place. we grew up in a really weird time (i don't need to explain how trashy the 2000s were) and just need to do what we can to end the cycle and deal with these newfound issues that literally did not exist 40 years ago.
People meet like minded people all the time, abused often befriend abusers for familiarity; thinking that's how a relationship should work. People unsupervised and with stuffty parents often befriend others in the same situation. People with PTSD find solace in others who also have PTSD strangely enough. Healthy and successful people befriend other healthy and successful people. There's an adage for all of this: "Show me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are."
The point I want to make is that the world isn't broken or especially bad, but it appears broken as that's all you see and are familiar with; seeing positive and healthy people with a good outlook on the world doesn't resonate and often aren't befriended subconsciously due to the unfamiliarity and lack of understanding of each other. This is also why rich kids/young adults are genuinely surprised to hear not everyone gets a Ferrari for their birthday (and you are surprised that they do); they both didn't get an opportunity (private schooling) nor did they befriend or properly get to know someone when they did have the chance.
The world is both thriving and broken, and whether or not it is thriving or broken for you is determined by how you see it and what you're familiar with.
