Miscellaneous: Leaving Online Communities

There are many ways to leave an online forum.  You can write one last, long goodbye, detailing the reasons.  You can leave a short, curt message.  You can post a nasty picture, comparing the contents to the site's moderator.  You can combine the above with weeks of "You people suck!" posts, never really leaving until someone boots you.  Or you can leave without a word.

I always waffle between the first and last options.  Leaving without saying a word seems the classier, more adult way of doing things.  But, if you don't tell them what annoyed you into leaving, how are they ever going to learn?

I belong to quite a few groups on Ravelry... fans of certain TV shows, 80's nostalgia groups, writers who knit, etc.  Lately a few groups have been... annoying me.  Mostly due to the lack of maturity in the moderators who monitor the groups.  I mean, it's one thing when a group member uses every single topic thread designated for a specific episode of a show as their personal chat room about boys, ice cream, budget problems, etc.  It's an entirely different thing when the MOD is doing it.

Not much room for complaint there.

So I have decided to leave the problem group without a word, but complain here.  Fun for you, huh?  :D

As the internet, and our presence on it, becomes  more important over the years, it becomes crucial to remember that the way we present ourselves here is just as important as face-to-face contact.  Perhaps even more important, since sites like The Wayback Machine can archive and preserve our glory and stupidity equally well for YEARS to come. 

As a side note, I wonder how they can afford storage for that site.  It seems mind-boggling.