Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

*grinds teeth*

OK, I have a pet peeve. I must make it clear that, to my knowledge, none of my flist has ever fallen foul of this peeve, so please don't think it applies to you.

There are many popular LJ-ers. Some are popular because they are Big Name Fans in a particular fandom. Some are popular because they have a webcomic or because they are authors or because they have a presence in one area of the internet or another.

Not all of these LJ-ers are successful and for many of them, money is tight. When you have a small flist and nearly all of that flist is known to you personally, it's understood that when you whine about being broke or needing this or that, you're just venting. You don't expect your flist to dash off and buy whatever it is you want. Offer moral support and encouragement, yes, absolutely, but not reach for the credit card.

When folks have a big flist and they KNOW there are people who will support them in whatever they do, I do start to wonder about all these disingenuous mentions of "Oh, it's my birthday tomorrow and I wish I could buy this (link to something on amazon) but I can't afford it but I can't!" Or it'll be a child or spouse's birthday same thing. Or it's coming up to Christmas or there's a widget they need to keep supplying us with the product we want, be it a webcomic or some other online endeavour. And wouldn't you know it, the next post is "Oh gosh, you guys are just amazing! Thank you so much for you generosity, I had no idea that people would help when I posted earlier!!"

Oh bollocks.

The first time this happens, yeh, I can understand someone being caught out. A genuinely casual mention of something can often lead to generosity beyond expectation. And that's fine, that's cool, I'm all for acting fairy godmother myself, when I can. What pisses me off is when it happens repeatedly. After the second or third time, you know damn well the poster knows what could happen, it's not like it's not happened before. So the posts of "Oh, darn, my paid LJ account ran out yesterday.....oh gosh! Wow! Thank you anonymous donor!" and all done as if they had no hope of it happening really. piss. me. off!

I just saw an LJ where a spouse touchingly writes to her hubby, whose birthday it is tomorrow "If I had the money, I'd buy you this, this and this...", and guess what? It includes links to the goods and to his frickin' wishlist! I bet you a tenner that by tomorrow, that wishlist will have been whittled right down and I'll be reading a "Oh wow, you shouldn't have!" post! The really annoying thing is I have (had) a lot of respect for this woman, she works damn hard keeping the household together and I know her to be a decent person. But....this is just taking the piss and I think less of her for it. I don't care if she posts it wasn't intentional - if it wasn't intentional, don't post bloody links to the things! And while I'm at it, go look up "manipulative" in the dictionary.

She's by no means the only person guilty of this, I see it a lot on LJ generally. I wish people wouldn't fall for it. It's one thing if it's real life friends who'd have done it anyway, it's when it's aimed at strangers with the pretence there was no intent behind it that it annoys me.

OK, I'm glad I've got that off my chest. :P