I’m sad to see you go. How can intelligent, opinionated people interact without friction? I’ve certainly had some here. And if you see numerous cases at the same time – maybe that’s just dumb luck – maybe another year or two would go by without a problem.
I won’t argue with your decision (which would be . . . ironic? Is that the right word?) but I will miss you! And I hope you return one day.
I’ll miss you. I’ve been moderate open on my identity, and on the off-chance you see this, you are welcome to get in touch any time.
Pardon my lack of adequate prose, I am rather hammered. (Six double shots and two triples will do that)
I am going to miss your empathetic and insightful analysis and posts. You’ve been a community pillar and friend, even if sometimes you’ve had staggeringly terrible tastes in music (I kid: it’s my love of synthwave and dubstep that is terrible)
I know you’ve thought long and hard about this, and in the most quintessential Canadian politeness, decided that the problem was that you are not polite enough. That is not, and has never been the problem. The problem is that we live in a fucked up world ruled by dumbasses who would rather let the world burn and the masses suffer so they can loudly proclaim their fealty to the church of Ayn Rand.
As Woody Guthrie sang it:
I ain’t got no home,
I’m just a rambling round
I don’t think that you will ever find a peaceful place free from conflict or indignity because at the end of the day, people are people, and sometimes we can all be assholes.
I’m going to miss the heck outta you.
Thank you for being awesome.
In the event you do stay, remember: healthy relationships are built on time spent apart. It is always good to take breaks even from the people we love. (Because if we don’t take breaks, I might just snap over dishes not washed)
I’m sad to see you leave. The reasons you give, though, show a lot of maturity, so I’m also proud to see that the conversations here have taken place in such a way that you are considering your role in the conflict. Taking some time away to sort this through shows a lot of maturity.
I hope to see you back again and I’m interested to see the changes when you do return.
I certainly trust you to do the right thing, both for yourself and for everyone else. But what a sad thing that this should prove to be it. I don’t think I could properly call myself your friend or acquaintance, if we’ve never even met, and I’ve only heard what aspect of your voice comes through this medium. But it’s a sound that I will miss, and I hope you find a place you think it fits.
I don’t know quite what to say. I do know that I’ve got Skeptic on ignore at the other place and you’ve never struck me as being anything like him. Also strongly agree with what @ChickieD said.
If it matters, the reason I ignore Skeptic is because he twice tried to tone police me in less than a week, he’s quite the gaslighter and goalpost-mover, and he’s just an arsehole. I don’t put up with that shit in real life and I’m not about to take it from an internet fuckwit.
…then you’re either a proctologist or a sentient toilet?
*cough* sorry, sorry…
I’m only familiar with one of the examples you gave (the first), and I personally think that one looked like it was going to go badly at some point no matter what or who triggered it. You tried several times to defuse, which is more than I can say about the other party. I’d recommend not putting that into the pattern pile.
I can’t think of much else to say, except that this completely surprised me, and I hope it’s not permanent. I certainly don’t see you as combative. Text-only communication has a way of making it easy for misunderstandings to arise and feelings to be hurt without intent, however.
And I was mostly joking about flagging puns
Ditto. Strong opinions, yes, but we all have that! You can see you are indeed valued here. Your comments are so lucid and thoughtful that I’m in awe.
And your puns are fab.
Farewell, Aaaakzeee St-Patrick-Hartbrooke III I shall miss your company.
May we cross paths again.
Your friends, and the people who see themselves as your friends, will reach you or be in reach outside of here.
You show you think enough of your colleagues to post a descriptive, cited farewell, and viewing the post-exit comments, you see that enough users esteem you enough to register dismay and disappointment.
You did a good turn for me offline, nobody sees that but I, and my opinion counts for less than most others here, an everyone can see that. That might not be enough for you to see me as a friend, but the multiple exchanges we’ve had have been 100% positive, at least I’m inclined to view that as truth.
I hope you find general interest outposts and/or Mastodon instances where “the weather suits your clothes”, I hope you thrive and find people are considerate and agreeable to you as you have been to me.
I’m sorry you feel the need to leave us… you will be missed. I wish you all the best in whatever comes your way, and I hope we’ll see you back again someday.
So I’ve re-read the OP several times as new replies have come in and, the more I think about it, the less sympathetic I am to this sort of post in general.
If you feel like you need to step away from the keyboard (or a particular forum) for your own well-being, there’s no shame in that, at all. I totally get that. And if you want to say your farewells publicly, that seems like a thoughtful thing to do. At the same time, though, the list of grievances and the stories of self-sacrifice just seem kind of… I don’t know, self-serving, maybe? I’m just not quite sure what we’re meant to do with such information.
In any case, I stand by my original reply. You seem like an alright sort, and I hope you find what you’re looking for, but I can’t escape the feeling that you’re kind of going out like bit of a punk, here, and for no good reason that I can see. And that makes me a little bit sad.
Again, good luck.
Sometimes the mind goes into introspection spirals and feels the need to communicate - to let it all out and get it off your chest. Sometimes your mind built it up to be more than it was or seemed to other people, but it’s only in hindsight that you see it wasn’t that big a deal. That’s a kind of rant that I’m okay with. Pretty sure I’ve done it before. Just wish I could be a better friend and catch those things before they hit the tipping point.
@nimelennar - Enjoyed having you here, come back whenever you feel ready! If you want to vent, I’m here.
Been there done that.
It’s not leaving without letting us know why. As others have said, that could give him a chance to double-check is choice, and it could give us a chance to double-check how we interact, if too late in this case. But even if those don’t apply, it at least means we aren’t left to wonder what changed. Even if the result is a sad one, I still count that as a favor.
These are both fair points. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone a good rant, especially when they’re clearly feeling it.
I’m struggling to articulate this, but I guess the part that makes me uneasy is that he all but names names of the people who’ve wronged him and effectively forced him from this site. They’re presumably still here and reading all of us consoling him, while I have to imagine they didn’t enjoy being on the other end of these “intense, irreconcilable, passionate disagreement[s]” any more than he did.
I don’t think he’s trying to be mean or malicious, and it would certainly be in character for him to go into exhaustive detail in support of an argument or line of thought, but it just struck me as a bit much in that one regard. Given that he’d already decided to walk away, I think he could have made his point just as effectively without the (presumably unintentional) finger-pointing.
There’s a fine line between a heartfelt cri de coeur, so to speak, and stirring the pot on your way out the door.
So…
Since the week that people from the other place took off from TOP and came over here and then decided to stay, I’ve found I can’t keep up!
And I don’t really want to. I’ll peek in once in a while, but I’m feeling like the old mare being put out to pasture here. It no longer seems a place where I can be heard among the crowd. Something I wish I wasn’t used to feeling. I also don’t want to feel as though I have to justify this to anyone (something else I’m learning via therapy that I don’t have to do).
I’m still on FB but mostly in the hopes of selling my stuff on Marketplace, including my artwork. And if anyone wants to PM me, I’ll respond.
Anyhoo, good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. 
Hope you come back in a bit.
I would describe your interactions as “prolific.”
Quantity doesn’t equal quality, though.
