From the owner of my local moms (Yahoo) group

[lady raven]

I just got this email from the owner of my local moms Yahoo group:

"I hate to tell you this but you are the judgemental one.
It is all over the news about people telling others not to say Merry Christmas. Even the president denied the true holiday spirit this year in his christmas card. Schools all over are doing the same thing. You have been banned from the group."

For quite some time, she has been sending chain mail not through the group, but to the private addresses of many of her members, myself included. MUCH of it is the RW lies that we here are all to familiar with, the rest of it is stuff like the infamous Nieman Marcus cookie, "Forward this to 20 people and you will get a gift certificate", that kind of shit.

I emailed her this weekend VERY POLITELY asking her not to send me any more chain emails. I explained that that isn't something that I wish to receive and I was as diplomatic as possible about it, knowing that I was dealing with an apparent RW nutjob. I emailed her after a batch of 7 chain mails, one of which included another rant about the "War on Christmas", but I did not mention ANY specific message- I just referred to "chain emails". I was as polite and nonspecific as possible, lol.

Additionally, as far as I know, she had no way of knowing my politics, as the Yahoo group was basically politics- free.

I also didn't call her judgmental, so I have NO Idea where the "you are the judmental one" came from. Anyway, so now I no longer have access to a Yahoo group I REALLY liked because I emailed the owner something privately that she apparently didn't like. Nice. Maybe I'll start my own.

This is going to further affirm how judgmental I am (eye roll), but I have to say it: If a RWer had politely asked a Liberal to stop sending them chain mail, I doubt it would have gotten them banned from a Yahoo group owned by that person. This just further advances the thinking I've had of late, which is that RWers are psychos.

As tempted as I am to respond to this, I'm not going to. I figure venting here would be much more constructive since RWers cannot be reasoned with anyway.

[Warpy]

1. Moderators can make or break a group

which is something I see on IRC all the time. This loon is going to find herself with an ever shrinking group and alternative groups around her growing every time she gets pissy with another person.

I guess she can't deal with having a minority, fringe lunatic opinion. She still thinks she's some sort of majority, capable of pushing other people around.

Check the groups. I'm sure you're not the first person she's pushed out, and someone else has undoubtedly started a sane alternative.

[lady raven]

4. She's definitely a loon.

Unfortunately, there isn't an alternate group (small town), but I may decide to start one of my own (and one thing I will NOT do is intrude on members I don't know by sending them mail privately that is unrelated to the group).

The weird thing is that I never said a thing to indicate my politics to her- For all she knew, I could have been a RW whack job just like her. I guess she's one of those people who thinks that if I don't want to be bombarded with chain mail I must be "against her".

How judgmental of me (eye roll).

I did look up her group and realized something- It now only has 5 members, herself included. There were 20- something when I subscribed. Since the main posters stayed the same, I guess I didn't realize how much the group had shrunk.

[demnan]

2. Sounds like a cousin of mine

who continued to goad me with RW trash in my email box until I totally cut off all contact with her. And it took a lot for me to do that, but anytime I would politely disagree with her email she would be outraged, I guess, that I dared not believe everything she thought was true.

I think this woman is the same. Extremely surprised that anyone else would have a differing opinion, or not want to see a lot of chain emails.

I have a sister in law who continues to send me irritating, sappy, chain letter emails to the point that I almost delete all mail from her without reading it.

[Agnomen]

3. Start your own group

and invite members of this group to join it.

[lady raven]

5. I very well may do that

And I didn't think of inviting others from her group to join it- Good idea!

[lady raven]

6. Heh-

If I was feeling especially snarky, I could email her back and upbraid her for referring to "holiday spirit" (instead of Christmas spirit) and for not capitalizing Christmas.

I won't, but it's tempting.

I'm bad.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. LOL

No visit from Santa Claus from you. You've made the baby Jesus cry. :P

[lady raven]

12. now that ruined my day.

LOL (not that I want to make baby Jesus cry, mind you, but because your message was hilarious)

[FreedomAngel82]

7. That's just ridiculous they banned you

I own a group and I moderate almost everyone on there since so many people send spam crap. Only brand new people get moderated for a while to see how they're going to do with spam. Only thing I don't let through is spam crap. If I think it'll help someone out than I will let it through but not advertisements or whatever. There's one girl who just sends spam and if she does it again I made up my mind to not allow her to post until she stops it and I'm going to Email her about that and give her a warning before I moderate her posts. I don't take any crap like that in my group since it's a personal non-political group. Sometimes in the past there have been discussions but now the group is pretty quiet since I'm so busy. But I would've had a serious chat with the girl and told her she can't use my group to spam people and if she keeps it up I would've moderated her in the group and than if she still kept it going I would've banned her not you. That's ridiculous indeed.

[lady raven]

8. I know. Though if that's the kind of person she is,

I'm probably better off being banned anyway. I'm just galled that she did it, especially when she did it based on a PRIVATE email I sent her that was extremely polite.

I do think it rather ironic, though, that I never broke any rules in the group, SHE was spamming ME, and yet *I* needed to be banned.

OH, and if you don't like getting 3-10 chain emails a day, you're judgmental (eye roll)

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Start your own group, and send a chain email to her list explaining

the situation.

I'll bet you get quite a few defectors who won't put up with it.

Explain that you will never send politically themed chain emails to anyone in the new group, since that is not what the group is about. Say something like "This is the last non-related group email you will ever receive from me," in caps if possible. Also express shock that you were banned from the existing group over such an extraneous and minor personal matter. Do not say that you disagreed with the group owner's email, but that you simply didn't think chain emails were a relevant use of your information related to group activities. It's super easy to start a Yahoo group. Make sure to name it something close to the original group in order to twist the knife further.

[seabeyond]

11. holiday = holy day. ask her why she is against holy day?

[lady raven]

13. true

And I think I already know her answer- even if she won't say it. She's not against "holy day" as long as it's HER holy day and not someone else's.

[RagingInMiami]

14. Join the group under another identity

Even if you have to create another Yahoo e-mail. Then send out a message to the group, telling them who you really are, and tell them that you are forming your own group and whoever is interested, is welcome to join.