Psst, Belly ... I'm Col's alter ego.

Belly
The problem is that we stoped to write for social or political problems, for peace or war, for migrant's or women's rights, for human rights or democracy, for national or international problems and we weast our time in less important discussions.
I am afraid if we continue this way many people will leave the forum, including me, as this kind of discussions do not atract me at all.
We lower the quality of the forum very much!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Lets not use the word we when you mean me AS.
I never post at work.
Ever if you have a job you love you have life beaten.
Never left a job, the boss did not ask me to stay.
Thread has been good fun but deep down we all have reasons we ourselves may never understand.
PS should have Left home 30 minutes ago, it is controlling

Belly
NO! I mean WE.
You make a huge mistake if you think I mean you! I mean more me than you! Last weeks I do not feel very good!
NO I DO NOT MEAN OF CAUSE YOU. You do good job!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Interesting thread, Belly. In my case, because I live in the bush and don't really socialise very much, OLO provides a forum where I can interact with other people - particularly those who have very different perspectives and values to my own.

There's a few issues - like those concerning climate change, religion, multiculturalism and gender - where I find OLO a very valuable venue for the expression of ideas that variously astonish, appall, bemuse or entertain me. Living in relative isolation as I do, it's always useful to be reminded of the degree of ignorance, hatred, intolerance and selfish indifference that exists in the wider world.

Of course, one of the great things about OLO is that there are many intelligent and enlightened people who contribute here and provide a counterbalance to some of the occasionally extreme and often repetitive rants that one reads here, especially on certain topics.

When I first read the title of Belly's topic, my first thought was to post something facetious:

"Because I'm a freakin' masochist. After all, when scrolling through my special OLO In Box, some names leap out and I consider whether I should take a deep breath and plunge into some noxious writing , or do something equally fun like bashing my head with a piece of 4 by 2."

Then I read the following by someone whose contributions to ZOLO I deeply admire and respect. Someone who so often has already written what I wanted to say, except more reasonably, that all I can do is faintly echo, "What Pelican said"

<< I admire Fractelle's talent at saying exactly what I am thinking sometimes...>> I do?

<< but nailing the wording and phrasing just right without waffle >> Crikey.

I realised then the reason I "inhabit" this website is because of the wealth of thought and intellect of so many:

Pelican, CJ Morgan, Anansi, Romany, Pericles, Grim, Q&A, Protagoras, R0bert, Davidf, Foxy, Belly, ASymeonakis, Sancho, TurnRightTurnLeft, Forrest Gump, Rainier, Bronwyn, Priscillian. When I sight any of the above names in my In Box, I want to read what they have to say. These people and many others I haven't mentioned keep me coming back to OLO in spite of Graham Young's bias and even despite those who play mind games and/or are frequently offensive, they provide a challenge which is probably better for me than the piece of 4 by 2.

Thank you.