I gave a Whatsapp Community of Communities community the benefit of the doubt for over a year, and eventually, when I saw that conversations for a town based chat were locked, except for admins overnight while I slept I quit, despite conversations being open again.
I quit, first and foremost because there was a toxic conversation about blocking normal conversation for twenty or more messages. I proposed two chats, one for those that want conversations, and one for those that want a bulletin board of events, only.
I quit because “We shouldn’t have chit cat” comments on Whatsapp have a toxic effect on me, but also because I’m tired of that attitude.
I quit the entire community and I really miss the ideal that it represents for me, and I was considering rejoining but it’s hard to find the right hyperlinks so I haven’t.
During a conversation in Morges I found out that the Nyon community had been locked down again, so that only admins could post, and when I heard that it made me brilliantly happy that I left. It proved that my instinct was the right one, because I chose to leave. I chose to quit.
This shows emotional intelligence. It shows that I read the signs correctly and left at the right time. If I had still been emotionally invested in the online chat, then having it locked would have caused emotional grief as I suddenly lost access to several dozen people.
One thing does niggle at me. Deliberate sabotage of a community chat by one or two individuals that I sense think of online conversation as taboo whilst loving alcohol fuelled conversations in person. I think that a luddite or two deliberately smashed the machines of conversation, in the form of the group chat, to force us to meet in person, around beers, rather than offline. This is just a theory, based on a very limited knowledge of the concerned initiator of the twenty message flood. I could be misreading things entirely.
The fact is that we had a chat for Nyon people, and two people complained, when it had worked fine for months. Now that community no longer exists online and I think it’s a shame. I’m glad that by leaving the community this occurence left me feeling neutral, rather than sad and distressed.
My decision to detach from that community when I did was the right one. I read the ambiance correctly. When I heard that the Nyon Chat was closed to conversation it put my mind at ease, that my move was the right one, and that I could truly move on. Now I am certain that I made the right decision.
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