h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hi

what happend was this......

as in what i am doing now, i went to malas convos and picked an obsceure one to give her a telling off and to explain about 'lifes too short'/dale and his problems and how he was close to suicide when i interviened and to not be harsh to him as he is 'delicate' as you could guess from his style of posting,

when flyffy came barging in and savaged both of us,

i know this is all public but i was trying to use a bit of discretion rather than air dales problems on the very public thread

i then went to flyffys PS to try to placate her but she made veiled threats about lettin dale know all about it, so i came clean to dale and have probably alienated someone i feel i had a responsability for

Well, thanks for filling me in ...

I sort of sensed that dale is a bit fragile and I admire you for trying to help.

fluffy, I think, was also trying to defend dale but I know that she has had run ins with Mala and that probably urged her on a little. Her threats were probably the only way she could think of retaliating - she has been known to post first and think later (as have we all ) and is not as confident as other here.

Mala can be cruel at times and I don't think realises that some people can be truly hurt with words. I can, to a certain extent, understand that she doesn't "suffer fools" but a little bit of compassion sometimes wouldn't hurt either. Not everyone can be as confident and self-sufficient as she is.

I think that you did the right thing by being truthful with dale - please reassure him that the only reason you did so is because you care and that there are lots of us here who do care for him and we are pleased that he has found a way to stay with hootoo.

Don't beat yourself up - you have done what you saw as the right thing at the time and that's all any of us can do.

I know that you feel responsible for dale, but, in the end you can only do what you can. I am sure that if you persevere you will win back his confidence and that he will understand that you have his best interests at heart.

I don't know if there is anything that I can do to help - but I am here if you want to just talk about it.