Idols and Twisted Gnostic Secrets

[aggienaut]

   Most recent LJ Idol poll is up. With 28 people remaining, its easy to read them all. I encourage doing so. And voting! (=

[Poll #1348977]

   I stared deep into the dark coils of lj, to understand its arcane inner magic, and lo, I was rewarded with gnostic secrets. Anyone can post any poll. I'm not a hacker, there is no secret. I simply questioned what I couldn't do and was rewarded.
   And I found this pleasing -- that specifically the kind of behaviour I thought most commendable (questioning your surroundings) yielded a reward of some usefulness. Personally I think the advantage gained by being able to post the poll in your entry was more deserved to those who found it and more proportional to the merits of earning it than nearly all the random "rewards" and "Special powers" that have been purposefully bandied about in this competition. In short, it made me feel like at least something was right in the world.
   However, all good things must come to an end. All too often good technology is eventually twisted, and this has happened.
   Gary became concerned and asked how it is done, and the knowledge was passed on to him. I hoped he would have the good sense to keep it under wraps, or at least would tell everyone about it all at once. Unfortunately however, he simply told two idolists, spydielives and kittenboo.
   It is no longer a slight advantage to those who have thought to question and investigate their surroundings on their own, it is now an advantage to those who asked Gary how to get advantages. That literally makes me feel sick, and I'll feel filthy until I rectify it.
   From here I'm quite clear that it will continue to spread, and until someone posts about it publicly the people who have gained the knowledge by asking others will do it under the table. Already today I'm seeing strange vote spikes NOT accompanied by a visible entry, that ARE accompanied by "last post: four hours ago," a spot I can't see an entry anywhere near.

   And so, I am levelling the playing field. I am telling each and every one of you that yes, you can post the poll. The method is shockingly, mind-blowingly simple, all you have to do is try. That or ask Gary.


PS: I thought I'd brighten your days with a visual representation of the poll standings. Please stand by, hopefully I'll have some charts converted to a postable size and form within an hour or two.

Comments

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

: )

emo_snal,

Since I don't know you I can't really know what went behind posting this, so what's the use speculating? You've revealed some interesting information in a way that seems to have created some difficulty for people, though and that concerns me. I think that your post was sort of instigative and I wanted to let you know that the energy of feeling as though someone was trying to "start" something - be it intentional or not - rubbed me wrong. I hope that other people do not feel bad that I speak for them and say also that more than just me felt this.

Now that everything has been clarified for me that I didn't understand, and I slept and took a break from it and ate and all, I look at this in a detached way and think well, this is interesting info and I don't really agree with how it's presented, but I certainly don't hold how you presented it against you because you did it in your own authentic way which I can't mess with no matter how hard I try and I say to you what I'd say to anyone: don't let anyone mess with who you are and never feel as though you must apologize for who you are because who you are is one thing you can be sure of.

I have held out very long in saying so publicly for reasons that anyone reading this can infer on their own, but because I have told some, I may as well tell all that English is not my first language. So, sarcasm, some snark (intentional or not) and slang tend to confuse me as a general rule (as you may recall the meta thing). Because of my sometimes poor ability to understand English, I misread it and acted foolish because I react to things pretty impassioned sometimes which I think is my personality who knows.

The only other things I would like to share with you are things you can do with what you like. Just things I think you might like to know. First, it seems that it would be nice of you to consider putting an edit at the bottom of your poll (edit: I meant post) clarifying (as spydie suggested) what you meant. I did read your comment and understand that you are probably against it, but I just wanted to back up spydie and vote "yes" for an edit for clarity. Second, I feel inclined to share with you that as a result of reading this and thinking too hard on this (and this is my reaction and not in any way your fault), at one point I did cry and shook as if in a panic attack (though it wasn't that) and simultaneously was confused and saddened to think that perhaps I couldn't trust some people who I had come to grow extremely fond of (spydie, kittenboo, as well as one other who I did talk with). I tell you this so that you understand the power of your words on one person and can do with that what you like. : )

That said, again interesting information. Please consider my words. They might not be as powerful to you as your words are to me, but I hope that they reach you in showing you something more about yourself or revealing dynamics that were previously hidden.

- brightflashes

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your careful consideration and understanding.

As to the edit remark, well you already saw what I said to spydie but I'll try to elaborate on that. My personal background is strongly influenced by that until recently I was the Chief Justice of the student government at my University. What this meant is when people had impassioned conflicts with one another, they came to me. I learned the hard way that ANY assumptions would tend to make things worse. So I don't make them. I state facts simply as I know them. What I knew in this situation was only this: that I'd been informed Gary had informed the two mentioned people. I state that. I do not agree that what I wrote was badly worded. It was worded exactly as I intended it and I wouldn't rewrite it. The problem, however, arose when Spydie felt sensitive to being mentioned. While it is true that she gained the information, and it is true that I stated alarm and concern over anyone being told the information, it is an unwarranted jump to say that I was concerned about her specifically; or to say I thought she specifically had done something with the information. That is not true and not stated. However, as mentioned, I don't know her motives either way, and I don't know that they were entirely good either, which is why I don't speculate on her motives. And despite her assurances and your assurances and she could bring me fifty signed affadavits I'm still not going to make a judgement on the goodness of her motives because that is simply unknowable to me (and I don't want to get involved in judging her).

And so, I think that addresses everything. In conclusion, I can understand her wish to be specifically cleared, but that would be an assumption for me and I simply am not in the habit and do not as a policy make assumptions.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yes, it does make sense. I appreciate what you said. : )

OT, but...

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

what's your first language, and how old were you when you learned english?

Re: OT, but...

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

Spanish, 5.

Re: OT, but...

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

Neat! I certainly can't tell that you're not a native speaker. I always find it fascinating when people are able to acquire second or third or more languages. I'm horrid with languages - took Latin as my foreign language requirement in both high school and college because you didn't need to be able to write it or speak it, just translate it. I really want to be able to learn Spanish at some point - it would be immensely helpful in my chosen career.

Re: OT, but...

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

::nods:: I have a fascination for latin, but I'm not very good with it. I know more root words than I would imagine the average person knows, but I don't know it well enough to claim it.

I really enjoy Dutch, too. It might not sound pretty, but the way it is engineered forces the speaker to really take a lot of responsibility when they speak.

Using Spanish as an example, saying "I lost the keys" in English, in Spanish would be "They lost themselves" as if the speaker had nothing to do with it. *I must say that this is the usual way it's asserted - it can be asserted in the English way, but to a Spanish speaker it would sound a bit awkward.* In Dutch, it goes, "I did lose the keys." Every verb is qualified in Dutch (with did) to sort of seize the action as if giving the speaker more power in what happened. And that's what I find very fascinating. In Dutch, another thing I like is that the word for "dream" in English or Spanish literally translates to "night business". Just little nuances like that I really appreciate. : )

Like latin, I can't claim Dutch, but I can say that I know more Dutch than latin and can carry a spoken conversation, but typing in it is difficult. I think that English for me is like music in that I had a strong desire to learn it so that might be a motivating force behind it. I don't think that I am really that good at using it when speaking, but when having enough time to write and think about what I'm saying and posting a post for lj idol I think generally I'm decent enough. : ) I do think that in writing knowing other languages (even if it's a casual knowledge) gives the writer an edge of poetics that people with only one language may struggle more with. Simply because when one doesn't know a certain word, they must be creative in finding the a way to express that exact word. For example, using the word "night business" instead of dream.

Sorry for rambling but I also share the fascination.