Lately I’ve been giving thought to what groups I’m a member of and what if anything I get out of each one. It is really easy to overload yourself with Yahoo loops, etc. I left two groups because I just didn’t feel “a part”–you know?
Now I’m looking at some others. In the process I’ve realized something about myself. I’m kind of a joiner–but I have real issues with being told what I have to do. I’ve been this way since I was four (probably birth, but I don’t remember that 
). Little things make this issue of mine raise its ugly head-like list rules. When I was a child it was being told I “had” to clean my room when I had planned on doing it all along. Stubborn little me would then decide cleaning my room was about the last darn thing I was going to do that day.
On loops it’s things like…Tag lines should only be three lines long. Clip your replies. Here are the list of topics you can not post on. You HAVE to be here, or do this. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Stupid thing is, I frequently agree with the rules (and if was asked–not told–would do them voluntarily), but some horrible little demon in me comes out when someone makes it a dictate. I have left groups because of it–I mean seriously, sometimes you do not have control over how Yahoo chooses to break your tag line, and is that extra line of white space going to totally ruin someone else’s day?
On the other hand–it is annoying when you are on digest to have to wade through old messages because someone else on digest forgot to clip and resent the whole darn thing.
But the scolding? Please. In general I believe, almost all the “rules” and “have tos” should instead be suggestions. The rules that really seem to rub, are the ones to protect me from myself. I’m a grown up. Let me worry about my own annoying self.
So, there you have it, I’m a joiner who doesn’t like living under the contraints of other’s rules. Guess I need to either get that issue under control–or quit the joining.
How about you? Are you a joiner? Do you like the rules or bristle under them?
