A request for assistance . . .

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:35 pm

:

:

Now I'm getting more confused. This is becoming a riddle post?

lol

Beauty

Post by **Celia** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:16 am

Pretty simple, really. Fame isn't when everyone knows you; it's when everyone knows that everyone knows you.

-Celia

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 7:14 am

Ohhhh!!!!

You're saying "Top Level Posts" on the CDDF. I getchya now.

Beauty

Post by **Celia** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 3:16 pm

Yes, Beauty. I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid I'm a bit more of an applause junkie than I'd hoped.

I'll have to pull myself out of response mode, and come up with something people might actually take the time to read.

Yours,
Celia

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 7:58 am

I understand what you mean.

It's a tough one, but I love to read your posts, so don't be too afraid!

Beauty

Post by **Celia** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:47 pm

Thanks, Beauty

. I guess I just need to get beyond my habit of overthinking things and simply get something out there.

Yours,
Celia

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 8:06 am

Hi Celia,

You're welcome.

I think you're great the way you are (hope that didn't sound to Mickey Mouse Club'ish).

Beauty

Post by **Celia** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 4:10 pm

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:50 pm

Hi All--
The state of the CDDF is hard to handle, and I'm certainly happy to be spending more time over here.

I used to go to TG forum, just because it was more like this forum is. The posts were thoughtful and well-written, and so were the replies. It was more about full-time living, hormones, and SRS, but I was so starved for meaningful content about TG issues that I participated there.

The CDDR will always puzzle me, though. I stopped posting after awhile, because my posts got little or no response from any regulars. Since I WAS a regular, this hurt. As Lorna once said, "This is the Internet. You can't control the responses." She said that in the context of not getting any replies to a post that she had thought was first-rate.

But we'd all like to try to control responses! I put a lot of time and care into those posts, and to see them just disappear was no fun.

So Celia's posts above have often been my theme, too. It bothered me when I took on what I considered to be a disruptive poster on the CDDF, and got no support from anyone there. It's upsetting to feel like you're part of a community, and then to see that it's not there for you in times of stress.

I'm glad that many here choose to have emails listed. That is such a good thing! There are times when I need to clarify something with another poster, and I don't want or need to have to post to clear up a misunderstanding.
Anita

Post by **Celia** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 9:53 pm

Anita,

What bothers me the most about CDDF lately is the amount of space the trolls take up. They become harder to ignore as one has to resort to ever increasing efforts to navigate around them. Sure, I can refrain from reading them if I detect them up front and refrain from responding to them if I don't; but after a while the place becomes practically unusable for the clutter. I'll continue to visit the site and continue to participate, but it's a darn shame I have to hold my nose so much while I do so.

Yours,
Celia

CJ · Post by CJ » Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:47 am

Hi all,

Julie,

This forum is a gush-worthy place! I took a few days' break last month and went scouring the Net for something similar. You know what? There's nothing quite like this out there! I'm serious. The realization came as a shock to me.

The people here are friendly and open; the posts both thoughtful and sublimely silly; the moderators and administrators concerned and fair; the atmosphere a joy to bathe in.

Celia and Anita,

Aside from my having tried to help Glyndon get her Yahoo group off the ground, the CDDF was my first true experience with an online community of like-minded (and like-gendered) people. It was fine for a while but I soon couldn't tell the difference between regulars and high school pranksters and trolls. Now, I tend to participate in a thread only if most of the posters are purple-named and if the subject is one that interests me or on which I feel I have something to say. James (the moderator) even once deleted one of my posts--for no other reason than that it was written in French (it was polite response to someone vilifying a regular because of the fact that she was French... hmmm, d'ya think Conan O'Brien may be a closet CD lurking in the CDDF?

).

No, I think this here's the place for me. For all of us. Post on, girls, post on.

Love,
CJ

Beauty · Post by **Beauty** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:59 am

Julie wrote:Wow -- the comments in this thread just reinforce how fortunate I am to have found this group. I had wandered through various groups some months back and found they had many of the problems that are being discussed here. You are the first group I tried when I decided to come back on line.

So for all of you -- you have made me so happy and welcome and cared about. I feel loved. I knew people like you existed but I had never found them before. So, gush, gush. Thank you so much.

Lots of hugs, Julie

BACK TO YOU!!!!

Beauty

Jadeanne · Post by **Jadeanne** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 10:00 pm

Hi, all

I'm sorry that CDDF has become the place it is now.

I first went there almost 2 years ago when someone (I'm pretty sure it was our own Rikki) posted about it in the CD usenet newsgroups.

I lurked there for about a year, reading information before I developed my online femme persona, learning a lot in the process. It was there that Jadeanne made her first post, and the first posted welcome was from Rikki. Anita was the first to send an email greeting.

I saw Shannon's post on CDDF and lurked here for a while before joining and making this wonderful forum my internet home.

I haven't posted on CDDF for several months - with a lot of hateful, abusive posts there, I asked myself "Am I reading this stuff, or did I step in it?" I don't visit there very often anymore.

This is just one bleached blonde's opinion.

Jadeanne

CJ · Post by CJ » Mon Feb 16, 2004 6:46 am

Hi all,

Jadeanne,

I also seldom post on the CDDF, but I still visit on a fairly regular basis. Just like my book-buying habits, where I scour the used bookstores in order to find the occasional gem, I tend to include the CDDF in my online travels because there are, very occasionally, precious finds to be had there--some of the posts are very thoughtful and there are sometimes very worthwhile topics and threads ("occasionally" and "sometimes" being the operative words, here). Okay, so I have to rifle through stacks of "Danielle Steels" and "Rosamund Pilchers" before finding a rare, first edition "H.P. Lovecraft," but still, I find it worth my time. (By the way, a month ago, I did find a rare Lovecraft, for which I paid $5 in a used bookstore; I sold it a couple of weeks ago to an antiquarian book dealer for US$125--off-topic, sorry, but quite a score for little ol' me!)

Love,
CJ

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 9:51 am

Hi All--
There is continuing debate about how the CDDF should be rearranged, so it would work better. The two main avenues seem to be:
1) Registration
2) Stricter monitoring

Either one of these by themselves would help immensely. I don't think you can have a wide-open forum on any subject, and expect it to work smoothly with no deletions. And a crossdressing site is even more prone to get hecklers and troublemakers.

But if you really want to see a battleground, Alt.crossdressing is the place. I had to take it off my bookmark. To use CJs analogy about the bookstore, well, I felt like I had to take a gun in there just to browse titles.

Celia, long ago you posted a really charming post about testing a mic, while the tumbleweeds rolled on by behind you. That little post was like a short story to me--I got such a clear picture of it! And for whatever reason, I never posted to it. All it got was two flames.

I'm here to let you know that God only knows why good posts go unrecogized, and they DO have an effect. I've read many of your posts on the other forum and been affected by them. And no, I didn't let you know.

CJ and I were talking on this subject. It is hard to handle the sometimes=impersonal nature of the Net, when you're putting your heart and soul into your offerings to it. Even on friendly forums like this one, it takes a lot of courage to keep posting out into the world. Let's try to keep our flames burning here, anyway.
Anita