Note to flist: personal issues

[transemacabre]

I have just defriended a person that was on my flist for reasons that I would like to discuss more fully with all of you. This person, whom I friended because we had fannish interests in common, posted about their self-injury. This sort of thing has reached the breaking point with me. I am here for fannish enjoyment. I am not your counselor, I am not responsible for your well-being, and I am not going to sit here and have to look at post after post about y'all cutting, starving, drugging, or otherwise harming yourselves.

If you wish to post about such things, then you are welcome to do so in your own lj which is defriended from mine. I am tired of this drama and I simply am not going to put up with it anymore. I have personal problems of my own but I do not post them here for the public or my friends to see. If I have to be a bitch to protect myself from the pain you are causing yourself and others, then so be it. This lj is a very special happy space for me; this is where I go to play and relax and laugh. Do not take a dump in my goddamned sandbox.

Comments

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

How many levels of flock was it under? *is curious* Or was it public?

I think there's a certain level of disconnect between the public (or semi-public, if it's flocked) nature of ljs and some people's perceptions of them. It's called a "journal," so some people post the same kind of deeply personal things they'd put in a hand-written journal, without necessarily thinking about whether their flist really wants or needs to see them. And for things like self-injury or eating disorders, there are people who really need *not* to see discussion of that kind of thing, because it can be triggering (I know there's a limit to which I can be exposed to discussions of diets and weight before it makes me twitchy and I start thinking things like "Maybe I should skip breakfast today, because I ate dessert last night" again).

On the other hand, I've been guilty of personal information TMI myself before, probably, because I've occasionally used my lj as an emotional safety valve for panic attacks/ranting/etc.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

It was flocked.

There is a lot of content that can be triggering (I have a hard time reading about child molestation or rape, for example) especially when there's no warning whatsoever, just "OH HAI people think my cuts are a shark bite LOL LOL".

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could ask the person to take you off his/her friends filter? (if you've friended them for fannish reasons and want to keep reading non-personal fic/meta/icons/whatever posts)

On the other hand, if their posts have been annoying/stressful/triggery enough that now just seeing their name makes you flinch or grind your teeth, ensuring that you won't see mystery TMI person's name on your friends page anymore at all is probably the best option.