Recently, a couple of the bloggers on JU have opined about the "Peyton Place" nature of JU.  Indeed, recently we have had many Drama Queens, Divas, macho blogs and drug addicts posting here.  And while some had some thoughts of wisdom, most were just antagonistic and a waste of electrons.

But that is what makes a community.  Think about it.  We have drama queens (or the chronic complainers I guess in real life), the Hoity Toity, and the Macho men in our neighborhoods, right?  We can ignore them, humor them or shun them.  In real life we do.  Sure we at first sympathize with the DQ as they tell us how bad they have it.  But after their incessant whining, we get tired of them and avoid them.

And we have the bullies as well, but then we can tell them to go to hell and 'git off my propety!".  And then the Hoity toity!  Those that are so much more righteous than us because they are "persecuted, minority, down trodden, picked on, or picked up".  Whatever!  They are the ones that seem to think they are the only ones that struggle with life.

And you know what?  They are here, and in your neighborhood!  Why?  Because while we are not neighbors, JU is a community.  And that does not mean we have to like everyone.  Do you like all your neighbors?  I don't.  I have a couple 2 doors down that I would prefer not to have anything to do with.

Same principal applies here.  We can interact with them, or we can ignore them,  and yes on occasion we blacklist them when they become too annoying.  Some will go away, and not darken our doors (blogs) again.  Others will continue to spread their hate among our neighbors, but then what do we do?

We lead by example.  We let our neighbors see who are are by our actions and words.  Sometimes (and I think this is a universal trait) we get a negative opinion of someone on first contact.  We are human.  But then, if our first impression is wrong, we see that the person is just different.  Not bad, DQ, HT or obnoxious.

I really don't see much difference between JU and my neighborhood.  Well, except one that Adnauseum pointed out.  Not many non-English speaking ones here.  We got tons from American, Australia, Canada, and some from New Zealand and other points.  And some from other countries, like India and Egypt.  But just a few.

But we cannot make people stay and blog here from anywhere.  We can accept those that do.  Just as we can accept our neighbors, even if they don't accept us.

JU is a cyber neighborhood.  Really no different.  And that is what makes it so special.  And why blogging here is better than blogging anywhere else.  Because of the interaction.  And the ability to ignore those we find offensive.