Many years ago, before most people had ever heard of The Internet, some of us communicated via bulletin-board systems. I ran one for a brief time on a spare computer I had. There was special BBS software and you'd hook a bunch of modems to the computer and then people could call in via their modems over phone lines and connect their computer to yours. The software welcomed them and gave them the chance to read messages that other callers had left and to post their own.
In the era of Facebook and Twitter and eighty zillion websites accessed over high-speed connections, it all seems very Flintstonesque but at the time, it was quite Jetsonian. I spent many hours a week maintaining my BBS and logging into others…and I made some good friends and kept in better touch with the ones I already had. I also encountered headaches enough that I finally took mine down and later quit one that I'd set up for the Writers Guild.
I don't know how much of a problem it was on other kinds of systems but the ones I ran were full of professional writers and there were always a few — enough to spoil the party for all — attacking others and creating migraines for the system operator, who in the case of my systems was me.
I love professional writers…some of my best friends and all that. Oh, yeah — and I am one.
But you get enough of us together and you're bound to have some rivalries and bitterness pop up. So Writer A would write something Writer B didn't like. Writer B would fire back at Writer A. Writer A would respond and escalate. The rhetoric would get hotter and hotter as others chimed in and/or egged on the combatants. Some people just love to watch others fight.
The spats were about all sorts of different things but often they were about one of two things and even if they weren't, onlookers always seemed to assume they were. One of those two things was that the less successful writer was deeply jealous of the more successful writer. The other possibility was that the more successful writer was angry that others weren't recognizing he was more successful and responding with a little jealousy.
Writers aren't all like that. Relatively few are. But when the ones who often get into fights get into those fights, one or both of those is probably applicable.
I realized that early on. It took a while before I realized something else. An awful lot of the donnybrooks started late Saturday night verging into Sunday morning. I read once that that's the time when folks who are unhappy with their lives are most likely to be at their unhappiest and, often, drinking. Even today, it's unfortunate that the software that allows you to post a public message on the Internet does not come with some sort of Breathalyzer feature.
For a while, I dealt with the arguments. There would be firm but civil disagreements when I went to bed. By the time I awoke, I was referee at an Electronic Wrestlemania® with threatened fisticuffs and lawsuits followed by lawsuits and fisticuffs. As the guy operating the BBS, I found myself unwillingly in the middle, getting attacked by all sides, no matter what I did.
A few times, I decided the best course of action was just to shut the entire discussion down. Which of course brought the accusation — from both combatants and those enjoying the brawl — that I was a Nazi Storm Trooper suppressing free speech. Apparently, the First Amendment protects your right to scream in someone else's home. Of course, when I let the battle rage on, I was accused of giving "tacit approval" to the libels therein.
I could count on that. I could also count on no one wanting to take responsibility for their own words or clean up their own messes. Writer A would accuse Writer B of doing something grossly illegal and/or unethical. Writer B would respond by threatening to sue and/or punch out not Writer A but the operator of the system — i.e., me. "I was slandered on your forum," one Writer B hollered at me when I tried to suggest his ire was misdirected.
So I'd call Writer A and suggest he give me a hand here…perhaps settle his differences with Writer B away from my system, perhaps offer to help with any legal fees I might incur. And Writer A would say something like, "Hey, that's your problem" and hang up on me. When I decided to stop running BBSes, it was one of those incidents that did it. And thereafter, my life got a lot better.
I have a story I want to tell about one incident that took place in part on my BBS but it's a long one so I think I'll break here and tell it tomorrow. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel.