I received an email today from the person who runs the Online Gamers Anonymous site (about which I
once posted an entry):
Please remove On-Line Gamers Anonymous from you hoax website.
Please inform me when this has been done.
This is a REAL service provided for people who are addicted to computer/video games and have no where else to go.
Their concern is that when people do a google search, they see the name of the site in question followed by "Museum of Hoaxes," which could imply that the site is a hoax. This issue has come up before, and it's a legitimate concern for people with real sites, so I think I need to do something to clarify the status of things I post about. For items that aren't a hoax, I'll add "Not a Hoax" right in the title (so that people will see the status when they do a google search). And for everything else I'm thinking of adding some kind of status line, stating exactly what I think it is (i.e. "Real picture, fake caption," "crackpot conspiracy theory," etc.).
Comments
I like your idea of labeling each item. Perhaps it should be more like Snopes which has red or green dots beside the title that denote things TRUE or FALSE.
Just say it cost money to remove the stuff...how much are they willing to pay....You could also direct all complaints to me.....
Yes, but we know that doesn't work. You only have to look at the fake doctor notes thread to see that people don't bother reading the important parts.
At least until Snopes sends you a cease and desist email.
Subtitling is a good idea, & if anyone thinks you're copying their idea, so what?!? Imitation is a form of flattery, and it's not like subtitling is a copyrighted idea or anything.
Oh, and instead of a status line, how about something like this: Below each story (on its permalink and comments pages, but not on the main page), but *above* the comments, have a 'conclusions' section, separtate, and editable only by you Alex. Basically for Alex, after some comments or afterthought (or new revelations) to post the conclusions on the image, or the consensus from the comment (in situations that lack any immediate proof). This could then be changed several times, without changing any comments or stories.
Or something
Anywho...on to the gamers addict thing..."NOT A HOAX: Online Gaming Addicts"
Puts it right into the title. Then again, people who have not been a part of this conversation might come to your website Museum of HOAXES, and see all these NOT A HOAX titles, and thing, "Geez, this guy should call his site NOT the Museum of Hoaxes".
Although maybe you could ask them to prove it's not a hoax and see what they come up with. You have only their word, after all.
As for the rest, I can see it would be hard to show that all the websites in hoax-UL-space don't read each other and take ideas from each other. I'm sure it's frustrating for the webmasters, and its frustrating for the readers.
If they won't read even a few lines of the post, they probably won't read a second line saying "not a hoax," or whatever, either. You'll never please everybody.
We are sticking to the medium used by gamers, as that is what they are comfortable with.
Actually an A.A. meeting is a group of people gathered together, to improve their lives, with out Alcohol. The only difference between alcoholics at a meeting and alcoholics at a bar is one is not drinking and improving their live, and the other is drinking, period. They still are not home, and contributing to their family. They are still escaping their life, but they are doing it in a more positive way.
The same is true for O.L.G.A. The people have moved off of the gaming sites to the O.L.G.A. site where they can work on improving their lives and helping each other.
lizwool
Thank you for asking.
Just as most people who come into A.A., most gamers who come into O.L.G.A. are athiests or agnostics. By the time they get to the point of searching for help because they have tried everything they know of to quit, with no avail, they are usually spiritually bankrupt.
The 12-step programs are self-help programs. The two basic concepts they promote are spirituality and helping others.
I have stated, that the decision for someone to decide they want to leave gaming is the first step toward their spirituality. I believe spirituality is wanting to be better in my "real" life this year than I was last year, and to work on accomplishing that.
That is it - quite simple, and easy to grasp.
What is the group's definition of spirituality? "A spiritual experience is something that brings about a personality change. In most cases, the change is gradual.
Most of our spiritual experiences are of the educational variety, and they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of newcomers are aware of the difference long before they are themselves. Gamers finally realize that they have undergone a profound alteration in their reaction to life and that such a change could hardly have been brought about by themselves alone. Our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves. Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves the essence of spiritual experience. In any case, willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery."
I have found that having a spiritual life makes life on this earth worth living.
For my Higher Power, I do believe Jesus Christ is my Savior and key to heaven and I work at living the way He taught - Place no other God's before Him and Love Thy Neigbor as myself. I fall short, but I keep going.
Liz
Liz writes:
"Our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves."
But if it's an inner resource then how could it be greater than themselves? Isn't it a part of them? Those people that do quit gaming or alcohol, or whatever they were addicted to, is it really the result of a "higher power" or did they just find the will power that already existed within themselves?
I guess it just seems to me that believing that a higher power is responsible would make a person feel more helpless than empowered.
How much control/power do we really have?
I cannot control things, including myself, or else I would be perfect.
Ones own will power may work for a time, (it is called controlled gaming) but the "call" becomes to great and the person just gives up and goes back to what they there gaming. It is a standing joke on the game boards. When someone announces they have quit, and are out of here, everyone laughs, and says, see you in a couple of weeks!
The 12-step programs are for people who have already tried to quit on their own, and that has failed. Their own will power in itself, did not give them the strenght to stop their compulsive gaming.
I find the less I am in control, the more peace I have. I can't do it, or I would have.....
Liz
But didn't you? Maybe you should give yourself more credit. When a person quits an addiction, it is because they found the power to do it within themselves. We are all responsible for ourselves, not at the mercy of something else.
"I cannot control things, including myself, or else I would be perfect."
How does the ability to control yourself make a person "perfect?" We are all imperfect because we have limited information on our surroundings to make decisions. However, a perfect being would have perfect information and perfect control of us, and therefore we would be perfect.
That's just the way I understand it. I just think that telling people to admit that they "were powerless over on-line gaming" is underscoring the goal (to get them to quit). Wouldn't telling them that they have the power to quit and providing support and advice be more helpful then telling them they are "powerless?"
If a person follows the 12 steps and successfully quits it is because they took the effort to put everything they had into quiting. If they were truly powerless, there wouldn't even be 12 steps, there would be 0 steps because there would be nothing they could do about their addiction anyways.
It just seems to me that 12 step programs care more about converting people to a religion then actually helping them get over their addiction.
Liz, do you have data proving the effectiveness of OLGA or 12 step programs in general?
Thank you for your note.
I am answering your post in two sections, because it is too long to answer in one post.
PART 1
I have experienced life on both sides of the spectrum - the side where I do acknowledge my spiritual life and pray and try to be a better person, and the other side, when I pretty much did what I wanted, and ran away from life, because it can be so ugly, and I didn't know how to live.
I know how I live, without spirituality and my program - I get bitchy, I get depressed, I drink, I want to die, I hate myself, I don't try to improve my life.
When I do acknowledge my spiritual life and live accordingly - with a program, recognizing that I have help to get through this life, and trying to do better every day, I am more peaceful and a better person.
So many of the gamers I know about have never looked at or acknowledged their spirituality and are running from life, because it can look awfuly bleak at times. I know that side. I have been there. Until you are given a choice to see another way of living, life can be awfully depressing.
I, myself, knew of no other way, until I came into A.A. I was so excited that there was a program out there to help people live a better life - and that there were actually steps showing me how. It is a great tool, to live by, to have a more satisfying life on this earth.
I want to give other people that chance.
Have you ever been on a retreat Razela? Are you in touch with your spirituality?
Go to next section - Thanks, Liz
Like I stated before, what the activity of compulsive gaming is doing to thousands of people's lives is very, very sad. The games are being created by people with degress in pshychology to make them as addicting as possible, so the people will keep playing them.
A lot of people seem to go into a trance once they start playing, and it actually takes over their lives. They ARE powerless over it. They are drawn into it, and that is all they can think about, and do. They leave their real lives, their real life relationships, and just play, play, play. They say they can quit when they want to, but they never WANT to.
Getting to the first step, is when, for whatever reason, (I call it a spiritual enlightenment), the person decides he/she can't do this anymore and they want to come back to their real life. Than they start looking for guidance on how to do that. Step 1) We admitted we were powerless over on-line gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable.
Until a person gets to that point, there is not much that can be done.
Like I said before, people do quit, a lot, and eventually go back to the gaming.
I absolutely know, that if I did not have the 12-step program, I would not be sober today.
I really don't know how this 12-step program works with gamers. So many of them come to our site spiritually bankrupt, and want to hear nothing about God. But the fact is, until a person has tried all other ways to quit, and the only way they haven't tried, is to ask God for help, and heartfully hope he/she can get it, that is when the 12-steps come in. If they have decided they want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it