A EUREKA MOMENT!

After reading Why Guy's 'Pyramadness' blog, a light bulb went on over my head. I realized what exactly had happened to my Yuwie dreams of riches early on in my experience with the site.

I must have intuited the impossibility of making any kind of money.

Early on in my use of Yuwie, my motivation switched from the money/page view chase...to a motivation to meet and get to know all the interesting folks I was finding on there. I also saw a huge potential for getting my ideas and opinion read and commented on. In short, the site presented a way to learn and grow.

Reading the explanation Why Guy so eloquently presented here, also made me think about the members on Yuwie who have allowed their greed for the possibility of riches to over shadow their ethics. Like I said, GREED rules Yuwie.

I sit here wanting to go into the details of my experience with these 'dark side of Yuwie' members, but it would feel to much like gossip. Instead I will relate to you MY last experience with blogging on Yuwie.

A friend of mine had been locked for posting notices on the board disagreeing with the newest 'game' to be implemented on Yuwie. Administration had added 'Member's Market' as a way keep members from leaving out of boredom.

The Member's Market allows you to buy and sell other members and earn 'money' in doing so. The member who disagreed, along with others, felt that it was demeaning and unethical to participate in this game. Someone took exception to her opinion and they BOTH posted notices, and sent messages to one another which involved name calling and some cursing.

When I asked her why she was locked she responded by sending me what administration had sent to her as an explanation for her being locked. The letter said: For constantly bashing Yuwie and not keeping social networking 'fun'. This was the administrator's reason for locking her!

I was shocked!

If she had been locked for the name calling, I would have shook my head and gone on. But there was nothing said in administration's letter, of the obvious problem with the notices, the name calling that went on between the two of them.

So, I wrote a blog built around the quote:

"I may not agree with all you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

I wrote the blog as an open letter to the administrator, hoping he would respond to concerns I and others had about his censoring those who disagreed with him.

(We had been told to take down blogs, previous to this, that contained negativity about Yuwie Radio and I had refused.)

He didn't show up to comment on my blog. But many members came by in support of the blog.

Many also came to personally attack me for being 'negative'. The leader of what I call the 'dark side' made it a point to come by several times, never once mentioning the subject of the blog. His purpose for commenting seemed to be his opinion of ME as a person and was not 'positive' to say the least. I wondered to myself...who possibly can have a problem with advocating free speech?

The blog was submitted to digg and a link to it was also submitted to Facebook by a friend of mine. It accumulated almost 400 hits.

I was actually optimistic when the attack came. This, I thought, could show the true nature of this man. Others will see it and open their eyes. It did open up some eyes, mine. The differences between the two sides became very apparent, very quickly. But no one spoke to the idea of free speech, and no one saw the true nature of my adversary. My attempts to keep things civil crumbled.

I deleted the blog when mayhem broke out between the person who inspired the blog and a loyal friend of the 'ringleader' of the dark side.

I then deleted my account.

I came to the conclusion that there was no saving Yuwie.

Why?

How can you save what doesn't want to be saved? How can you teach others how to behave ethically, when they have only greed in their heart?

I have seen what people are capable of when given free reign and a promise of getting rich.

Yuwie's administrator started Yuwie with the promise it would be a 'family' site. In the early days people were locked for showing to much skin, now they are locked for 'not keeping social networking fun'.

What he means by this is; "If you don't agree with my decisions, leave." I can't count the number of times I have been told this when I disagreed with site policy.

I have seen the difference in how the two groups are treated. Those who bully and harass others are promoted because they have massive down lines and those who may not have the following, but are active and vocal are told to go back to MySpace.

The members with the numbers can get away with flaming, ethnic jokes, gender slurs, sexual innuendos and cheating with the explanation of 'not enough proof' when screen shots are sent to the administrator. He has chosen his wallet over his 'family values'.

If you are thinking that this is just the way of the world and wondering why it bothers me, I would say to you that the world is the way it is today, with all the acceptance of greed, avarice and hatred (especially on the net) because decent people are shouted down and laughed at. Rather than stand up and expose this, many shut up and sit down. This is unacceptable to me.

Who wants to stand up and speak for values and character in any part of our society, when those who do stand up for what is right and good are targeted by bullies and penalized by authority?

I quit using my MySpace account when cliques and bullies took over there. I quit Yuwie for the same reason.

But I will not be silent. I encourage all who read this to defend honor, ethical behavior and decency on the Internet. We are given a grand tool for communication here. And my hope is that we don't squander it by allowing our dark side to over rule.