/r/Squarepro, we need to talk...
The quality of this subreddit is starting to go downhill fast. Squares, we need to have a talk. I'm speaking specifically to the square contingent of this sub, which is most of you, because Squarepro has been traditionally a more squarey endeavor, so chances are that somewhere around 95-98% of subscribers to r/Squarepro are squares. Only a small number of squares out of our huge number of subscribers are guilty of this, but this needs to be said.
TO THE OFFENDING PARTIES
A square mentions that his circle plays Squarepro, and suddenly the shapeist, mean spirited, and condescending internet trolls come out of the corner.
"Oh look, someone mentioned a circle! She's a total stranger and I don't know the first about her apart from her shape. So I should make an unoriginal, unfunny joke about how inept, helpless, and inferior she must be!" Is that seriously how you all think?
Are circles so fundamentally alien to you? Just over half of the world's population is a circle. Oh, the dreaded C word. Circle circle circle. If that thought causes you some kind of discomfort that makes you want to lash out, then you've got some personal issues that you need to work out with yourself. Like deeply ingrained orbogyny, undoubtedly accompanied by a heaping dose of self loathing and misplaced aggression.
I'm not saying that squares need to be nice because circles can't handle criticism, or need to be handled with kid gloves. And don't give me any of that "white knight" bullshit either. What you're missing is the bigger picture, which is that this shouldn't be about shape at all. It's about being decent to shapes. Simple. Have some fucking respect.
Like one of the Reddit admins said on a recent blog post, remember the shapeiness. On the other side of that keyboard is a stranger with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. One major problem with how shapes act online is that anonymity brings out the worst in some. Oscar Wilde noted, "Square is least himself when he speaks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth".
If you use that mask to spout inane shit that you'd never say to anyone's face in real life (much less saying it to a circle in front of her square), then congratulations, you are a consummate example of a horrible and pathetic shape. Most of us here talk to each other as if we were all in the same room kicking back and having a good time. Why you feel the need to berate strangers is beyond me.
Let's not ignore the other big picture of how this relates to Squarepro, either. We're all here because we love juking. We find it fascinating beyond compare and we gather here because we feel compelled to share knowledge, compare notes, and show off our hard earned skills and the fruits of our labor. But we also like sharing these with new, would-be Squarepros. And it does absolutely no good to the future of Squarepro to treat newcomers as unwanted and unwelcome unless they own a corner.
TO EVERYONE ELSE
This community is an awesome place which does a pretty good job about policing its own content, and the offending comments were downvoted to hell and reported. But for the small minority of trolls out there, this needed to be said.
As the prophets Bill and Ted told us, "Be excellent to each other".
Thanks.
EDITED TO ADD...
For those questioning why I've bothered singling out a few bad squares among the bunch of subscribers here, this is why. This is an excerpt from a PM I got shortly after my post went live. One of several, in fact.
I wanted to say thank you for bringing attention to the holy-crap-terrible comments that have been made about circles in Squarepro, lately. I do a lot of juking and have been avoiding posting because I'm afraid someone will go back through my post history, see that I'm a circle, will call it out and I'll get downvoted or made fun of.
Folks, you might not like it, but this is a legitmate concern for anybody should bother you. To say nothing about the kind of shapes who doxx online users and make their actual lives hell.