Awhile ago I rejoined spells of magic because I was in need and was going through an emotionally grueling time. the past four months have been quite hard on me and I was asking for help.
when I mentioned the spell I'd need or what my problem was
I was hit with afew bad seeds who commented things like
"I'm going to cast a binding spell on you so you can't cast magic"
like ??? what the, this is a magic site for people to be and feel welcome and share thoughts and ask for sincere help, not to threaten people with words or say you'll ruin their spells.
I was asking for help for a spell to convince my friend to leave their mentally and emotionally abusive relationship and I was the one being attacked for that.
also not everyone believes in the three fold law or follows the path of Wicca, although I do believe in respecting others and making sure to not cause harm in spells.
I don't use my real name or nickname or use any real photos of myself because of these people. it makes me feel unsafe on this site sometimes, the thought of someone with a photo of me and using it to make my magic go bad is quite unnerving and feels like I am violated in my sense of Independence and privacy
BUT
I met and have seen lots of nice admins and members who offer and have helped me a lot, I am truly grateful for the mature people who have open minds and hearts and tend to actually take the time to address spells and problems and care for me as a person and member. instead of just right out telling me hurtful things without listening or bothering to read anything I've wrote. so thank you to the nice members of Spells of Magic, I was wondering if anyone else encountered stuff like this too? it's happened to me twice but once was enough
but as always I am totally grateful for this site. you're all amazing!!
If you feel you are being threatened, report it to the admin. You also have the ability to block users who are sending you a type of mail you do not care to get.
I have not really been around for long enough to have encountered any open hostility, having only joined up about two or three months ago. However my first impressions weren't the best and there was in implied suspicion and ... I'm not sure how to put it really. There was a decided lack of tolerance from the mods I guess. It resulted in my going through a couple of nicknames until I was able to directly touch base with a couple of them. Since then, things worked themselves out and I am quite happy indeed in calling this community an online home.
Pulling from experiences in other communities, however, I have encountered all sorts of interesting things. I have encountered otherkin sites with people joining and making profiles, simply to enter the community and cause trouble including insults, threats, declarations of ineptitude towards other members, declarations that the community is fake, or full of perverts, violent threats, and legal accusations.
And then from within the community there is a constant process of encountering people with misconceptions accepted as truth, immaturity, people losing the distinction between exploration and role-play, and... other things. (As a note, the community does embrace both role-playing for fun, and introspection as well. They just prefer that people make that distinction visible to avoid confusion.)
I suppose that what I am trying to get at by way of example, is that it doesn't matter where you go, or what community you enter into, there will always be encounters like this. people are people, and there are a -lot- of people who are all nuanced and different, with varying attitudes, experiences, maturity, ability, and mentality. Some are more ego-centered than others, some are more ethnocentric than others (Everyone has -some- measure of both though), and others just plain might be having a bad day and are grumpy at the time. Even the best of people can misread something, or make an assumption, or have a controversial opinion, or disagree with the choices or actions or ideas of another person.
In the end it is very much akin to walking outside and going for a walk. People expose themselves to all manner of risks; some dangerous, some just unpleasant. But we go out anyways because we accept those risks as a part of life, and act in awareness to avoid the factors that make them worse.
