The Virtual Life

Have you ever been, or post at Discussion Forum? You know, those forum board where people posts and then others response with their post and a whole shebang of on-line discussion going on?

I have a, what you may call, a fav "forum hangouts" that I frequent everyday to post and engage in light banter with other forumers. It was like a community, a virtual "hood", people bond and talk and jive and occasionally do some rough ribbing here and there. It is like a microcosm of community, a virtual one though, but as alive and as exciting and....this is the kicker... as SILLY as a what you can expect of a REAL community. Thats where the problem start. People get personal and malicious and back-stab like how they would in real life, this time, of course much easier since everyone is masked in their own veil of anonymity.

There is even one particular poster, one who fashioned himself to be a vampire, who, despite having revealed his true age to be somewhere at the tail-end of one's natural life, is a perfect example of someone who take life in a virtual community too seriously (prompting other forumers to think that he had no REAL life). He post almost, at average 10 posts everyday. The only sad thing about him is that his paranoia sometimes get the better of him and he really gets jealous when other forumers appears BETTER than him in term of popularity and posting. I thought he was a friend, and I tot I saw some good in him....but recently he 'back-stabbed" me and abuse my trust. I am so, very disappointed. Or have I too, get sucked into the silliness of this virtual world?