Attitude Adjustment

Now, if you have clicked on any of the answers here, then may God bless you and give you strength. I guess in that case I can understand bitterness.
However, if you did not, then I would gently suggest you re-evaluate some of the things you write in here.
When "adults" in this forum use their posts to criticize the spelling, grammar, and survey ideas of a 17-year old boy, then I have to wonder who the "adults" really are.
We wonder why our children take guns to school and shoot at each other. What are we teaching them by our actions?
For example, if you had a high school sophomore, would you be proud of his/her belittling a 5th grader for spelling or something similar?
It is, in my opinion, far worse to see adults acting like children, than children acting like children.
This place was supposed to be fun, but in reality it appears to be just another internet bully site.

So the point is we should count our blessings and be thankful for what we have?

karmakat - Um...this site is meant to be fun AND informative. And, actually, I find it more enjoyable when people do use the spell checker and don't SHOUT IN ALL CAPS. I think every community has its norms, and people are invited to comply with them. But, frankly, to chastise us for what goes on by asking us if our children are dead is pretty harsh. In fact, if I were someone who had lost a child or was battling cancer, I'd be pretty insulted by this survey.

A) We attack Brian mostly for reasons other than his spelling and grammar, it's his continual abusiveness, bad manners, paranoia and persistence in ignoring perfectly sound, reasonable and polite advice.
B) The fact that he's seventeen came out later and is irrelevant.
C) Some of the people attacking him are not adults, they are younger than him and infinitely more mature. This is not necessarily a forum for only adults.
D) Brian is indeed a "17-year old boy" - that's part of the problem - there's no reason he can't be a 17 year old man.
E) This place IS usually fun, Brian unfortunately curtails the fun of many other people here though, hence the backlash against him.

karmakat, you may want to consider that your perspective might be different than other people who have been using Survey Central for longer. Much of the negative reaction to Brian comes from accumulated annoyance that has been building up for over 6 months. You may want to review all of Brian's surveys to get an idea of the problem (though that doesn't really cover it all). Also note that I have actually deleted most of the worst surveys (approximately 20, I think).

Still, I do think that most of the hateful meanness that we (yes, I have done it too, more than once) directed at Brian is a waste and I wish it didn't happen.

And finally, I must say that this "survey" is pretty bogus. It's not a survey at all, it's just you chastising everyone. I fail to see how this kind thing does any good. You're just playing the same game as the people who insult Brian. You've now insulted them. Was your goal to take sides and escalate the problem?

Tell me why I shouldn't delete this "survey"?

What the hell? What does this survey title have anything to do with these choices? These options do not "apply" to one's life like extra options apply to a new car.

Actually, I could check more than one of these options, and it's incredibly upsetting to me that you would use these things in a so called survey just to illustrate some point. I don't know how to fully express what I mean, but just know that I think it was a bad choice, even if I can't explain why.

and you assume I believe in god.

not sure where this is going, but none of the above

i guess "turn the other cheek" just isn't an option around here lol

huh???? what is this???

Are we being asked to reveal personal tragedies, or just whether any of these particular tragedies apply to us?? My mom has had several heart attacks since January, and I have an endocrine disorder. Those aren't as tragic as most of the things on this list I guess, but they sure feel tragic to me. Oh, and I also believe I was with an emotionally abusive partner for about a year, though I've never been physically abused. I almost wish I had, it would have been easier for me to identify and get out of.

Oh, I see, it's just a platform for someone to make a "point" -- not an actual survey question.

Well, karmakat...welcome to survey central! I get the feeling that you didn't mean this quite as harshly as everyone seems to be taking it, but maybe it wasn't a good idea to assume that most people here aren't affected by these things. I'm an optimistic, upbeat person, like you (I'm guessing). People like us have to realize that not everybody else sees the world the way we do. Sometimes things seem dark and bleak to people, and a survey like this is not the way to make things look brighter!

As for Brian, he just happened to have provoked me for the first time when I was having a rough couple of days...so he got it with both barrels. If he's going to act like a jerk, I'm going to treat him like one, no matter what his age.

As for what we're teaching our children, I don't know about you, but in helping my partner to raise her daughter, we're teaching her to be a kind and compassionate, yet strong person. She is loved and respected, but also held accountable for her actions. We show an interest in her life, and we know how she spends her time. I'm quite sure she'll never be taking any guns to school, even though her father has a house full of them.

Well done Karmakat, nice to see someone can speak their mind in a mature and orderly manner

karmakat- if any of us have had or do have any of these situations in our lives, it does not mean we would/will be bitter. if you had a comment to make about our attitudes here then i would think that an "adult", as you say, would have made a survey about the question/comment they had. not this back door judgment that if we don't have these things going on in our lives that we have no place being honest with our feelings. i agree with bill that sometimes the things that have been said to brian have been harsh but brian does provoke most of what is said and i think most of the time he pushes and pushes until he gets that level of reaction.
as bill said, you should go back and follow the pattern of his comments and surveys as well as everyone else here.
when brian was banished previously from sc, i had put in my comments that he should be allowed to come back, but once he was back, he was almost worse then before. i agree, he is only 17 but he is an immature 17, at least socially and as said previously spends most of his time provoking others. if he acted this way with persons younger, the same age or older than he, he would get the same reaction. most people here have started out being nice and reasonable with him and were pushed to the point of no return!
sue bee, i don't agree that others here aren't upbeat or optimistic or that they are dark..... i think it was the non-direct approach of the survey that made people mad. from beginning to end, the survey and the comment made by karmakat is a judgment on a situation that he/she was not present for or has not researched fully. although orderly ,as wicksy says, i still find it judgmental.

SueBee - amen to that! I have two stepdaughters. I would never castigate the younger one, who is 8, for not being able to do what the 11-year-old can do. But I certainly straighten her out regularly for acting like she is 3.

and all adults act 3 at times.....including myself...and that is where my outbursts at Brian come from...that place in me where the little three year old Veruca with the BIG SHARP STICK lives. I am more than happy to give people a chance. I was more than generous giving Brian the benefit of the doubt in the beginning because of his obvious immaturity(This in no way relates to his age...ask PANDORA :) how old she is?)But he started to insult me personally over and over again and I whalloped back(NO REGRETS then still none now). You must be an incredibly centered and perfect person karmakat...if you never lose your cool occasionally....

Behold! Karamat is the second coming of Christ! (Only the first if you are Jewish)

Jettles - I didn't mean that the people who made negative comments on this survey are dark or pessimistic. I guess I was assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that this survey was inspired by some comments in the Worst Fear survey. Maybe that's because I don't see how this "attitude adjustment" is supposed to make us want to be nice to Brian even when he's acting like a jerk, so I assumed there was a deeper meaning to this survey.

There are all kinds of people, from those who continually spout doom & gloom and can't find anything good in life, to the overly optimistic ones who sugar coat everything. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle, and I'm thankful that we're not all the same because that would sure make life boring! I haven't meant to insult anyone's attitude...I was merely trying to state my own.

karmakat - Since your main issue seems to be in regards to Brian, why didn't you raise that in one of the several surveys that have been written about (or by) him instead of using a survey as a personal forum? I entirely agree that there have been unwarranted personal attacks against Brian and I wish they weren't here. There have also been some warranted criticisms about surveys he has created (for example, using surveys as personal forums) and about his own behavior (for example, continuing to create those sorts of surveys after being repeatedly given suggestions on ways to make the desired points without creating a survey as a personal forum). And there have been compliments as well, though in Brian's case I find it unfortunate that the negative comments and impression have far outweighed the good surveys he's made.

You might also want to revisit what you define as "fun" and whether you're attempting to define it for other people. For me, thought-provoking, challenging, critical, sometimes intense discussion (note that I am not using the word "intelligent" on purpose) is something that is fun to read, listen and even participate in. I get the impression that many other people at this site feel the same way, both from their responses to their surveys and from conversations with them in person outside of SC. If someone doesn't want to deal with the level of intensity here, just as you've commented in other surveys the internet is a big place and I'm sure you can find what you're looking for somewhere else, if not create it.

to what end?

But I already knew I'm lucky.

wow.

I am, once again, reminded how fortunate I am. I was once suspected to possibly have breast cancer and went through a series of breast ultra-sounds, tests, and re-tests. Even that was an attitude adjustment experience.

well- I don't know, maybe I just got out of bed on the right side or something. Or maybe I didn't read the ridiculous comments from the creator before answering the survey, but I was kind of curious to see if anyone here did have their live changed in one of the ways mentioned, and thought it was an interesting topic for a survey.

as to the discussion that followed- well, I did find that dull, but one of the things I've learned in my long journey to "grown-up-dom" has been to simply ignore stuff like that.

I also thought it was an interesting topic (though the options would have to be more generally applicable for it to really work in that way), and was thrown for a mild loop when its true nature was revealed.

Life is great!

Yes it is! I just turned in my second to last final! No more nightmares, heart palpitations or chest pains! Ahh! :D

None of these apply to me.

100% non-applicable. What's the point of a survey like this?
Who is this Brian that's being referred to in the comments? I'm completely clueless to what's going on here.