Be positive. And no, I'm not joking. You wouldn't believe how many people I run into on a daily basis (both IRL and online) that get irritated at things like me smiling or talking to them with a bubbly attitude. And it disturbs me a bit. Let's forget the IRL part for now and take a look at the these forums. In the year and a half or so that I was here I've been shut down multiple times because of my "positivity." I've gotten comments from people saying "it doesn't exist" and "you're only doing it for attention." Apparently it's wrong to create threads that promote well-being and doesn't contribute to mental degradation. Apparently it's weird that I use smiley faces and that I say "haha" a lot. And there are a lot of people who legitimately believe that kindness doesn't exist online. I don't know, call me weird but it really does disturb me a bit. The reason I'm posting this is to bring a little awareness to the situation. It's OK to be nice. Maybe not overly nice to the point where people walk over you but there is a fine line between being positive and being fake and you shouldn't confuse the two. I recently got a PM from someone and I quote: [quote]Why do you keep making positive threads? Seriously just -blam!- off we don't need any of your fake kindness around here[/quote] I won't mention any names but that really got me thinking. What do you guys think? Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I need to go to bed and stop thinking these things late at night?