I appreciate your reasoned responses
I want to learn all I can about this issue, so when people post a link to a post regarding it, I've read the entire thread. For the posts and thread you've linked to above, it seems he was asking the forum at large for three general pieces of info regarding real estate they own. He wasn't asking for personal specific info of any one member, and many members freely posted the answers he was looking for. It seems that you read that as, 'I want personal info on you and other members so I can use it against them irl'. That's quite a leap from what was actually asked, and likely fueled from past negative altercations with Pad that I'm not privy to...
You're referring to his general question of how he would go about getting someone's personal info, I can't see how that was aimed at any specific member. Do you feel it was aimed at you because of your relatively close proximity to each other? I'm not at all attempting to be obtuse in regard to these issues, I just cannot see what you are perceiving from the text you are pointing to...
Lol. Yes, that response was a head shaker. It seems unsympathetic and callous, no doubt. No argument there. I like and respect you, your mind is one of the finest on this board. Thank you for patiently attempting to show me what you see, it worked on this winterwoman response.
Pad and I go way back when I first got to RIU, when he was a mod in S&S&P. At that time, I only hung out there and then the Science/Tech section when that was created a couple of years later. Besides his intelligence, training in critical thought, and vast theological knowledge, what impressed me about Pad was his sincerity and his willingness to be so vulnerable. He would admit his social and sexual challenges so openly, he struck me as a brave man with a good deal of strength, especially for his young age. As the heavies that held up that subforum left one by one for various reasons, that board fell apart and its quality quickly declined and I lost interest. That's when I came over to TNT, a little over a year ago. Pad went to politics (a subject I have almost zero interest in), and we lost touch for the most part. I wanted to give a little background info to illustrate why I think the way I do about him. I got to know him well through thousands of posts and PMs back and forth over years, so when others accuse him of being so opposite of the man I knew I naturally need to see some hard evidence of such to sway my belief. If the hard evidence is now deleted, I'm in somewhat of a quandary. I respect you guys, and I also respect him. From my perspective it's similar to those that proffer conspiracy theory: they just KNOW there's a conspiracy and have seen the evidence first hand, but they cannot show it to others because 'they' have deleted it. Now the lack of evidence of the conspiracy is evidence for the conspiracy. My mind is open, and I value truth above loyalty or friendship. But lacking actual proof (at least at this juncture), yes we have to agree to disagree. I'm okay with that, I hope you guys are, too...