Back in the mid-1990’s, before the internet really exploded and the web became what it is today, I spent a lot of time on IRC. Internet Relay Chat. This was long before Facebook, and IM, and a lot of other modern day mechanisms for connecting with other people via the internet. Me and a couple of others formed a “channel” (basically a chat room) called #Moncton. And imagine this, people from Moncton hung out there.
As time went on, a lot of people “hung out” on the channel and eventually we started having parties, and hanging out in the real world. It was a lot of fun. Being one of the founding members of the channel, I did a lot for it. Organized the parties, built a website, built some neat games to play in the channel, and other things like that.
But like all social groups, eventually as they grow and mature, they all succumb to the same thing: drama. Eventually as things grow, differences of opinions come into play and all of a sudden before you know it, there’s drama. I always played the part of the diplomat. Trying to get people to get along and see different sides of view. I was actually pretty good at it and most of the time I was able to smooth things out.
After awhile though, I got sick of it. People would bitch and complain over things that just don’t matter. Things that an outsider would look at and wonder why the hell you would ever think that’s something worth getting worked up about. Eventually, the drama grew so much I opted to walk away from everything I had helped built. Funny thing was, after walking away, I felt a lot better. It seemed much easier to simply walk away and be happy with knowing what I had helped build.
It seems though the same thing is beginning to happen for myself in the world of geocaching. I’ve been caching now for 7.5 years and I have done a lot of things. I’ve also managed within the last 5 years to build a pretty amazing geocaching community through Cache Up NB. But alas, with working on this “mega” event project, I’ve begun to become tired of the “drama” that this community has developed.
Once again I’ve placed myself into a position where I cannot really voice my own personal opinions on things because of my particular situation within this community. This makes it extremely difficult to deal with some of the unpleasant drama that comes from being a part of a group like this. In many cases, I can shake my head and let it go. It’s not a big deal. Then other times, it truly pisses me off to no end knowing after everything I have done, people are shitting on things they have no business crapping all over.
Tonite was yet another example. Today we posted some big news about a new coin challenge that we have available for our mega. A certain individual decided to go off on Facebook and rant about his dislike for our choices. He went on and on, making personal attacks against myself and my colleagues when he literally has no clue what he’s talking about.
From his point of view, our choices in how we are handling the release of the program is a horrible way. Yet, he has no clue as to the complexities required in order to get that program off the ground. He has no idea that literally thousands of dollars were donated to make this program a reality and there’s only so much money to go around. He has no idea that although he thinks certain individuals are being treated at a disadvantage because of our choices, he has absolutely no clue as to what those same individuals will actually receive in exchange for their services.
This is a person who has opted to scream and yell about how mad he is about X and Y but yet has only about 10% of the facts. He was not included as part of the decision making process because quite frankly, we knew this kind of behaviour is exactly what would happen and look. He proved us right. Furthermore, when we started out, we asked people for their input and feedback and he never once said anything. He didn’t show up to our planning events. Hell, he didn’t even sign up to be one of the folks that he’s saying are being treated unfairly but somehow he is qualified to judge what we are doing.
With all of that said, this is the second piece of geocaching “drama” I have had to endure in just the last week alone.
When I am faced with seeing and dealing with this drama, it makes me wonder if I should take the same path I did with IRC. Is it better to just walk away completely and know I did my best to build something great but no longer wish to deal with the likes of these individuals?
In the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling the heat of not wanting to deal with any of this crap anymore. When you try and try and try to make things good for people, you inevitably end up having to deal with people like this on a regular basis. It’s whether or not the good is better than the bad in situations like this.
I know that come August 2nd, the mega will be over, and behind me, and I can move on to something else. But there is a part of me that wonders whether or not geocaching has a place in my life after the mega. I enjoy doing what I do for Cache Up NB. But I do not enjoy having to pussyfoot around just because it’s not my place to say something….
What do I do?
