[Child of the 7th Age]

Nimrodel_9

Can we nominate a whole thread? Me thinks the Death of Crystal Heart thread would win.

No, you can not nominate the thread. I am the starter of the thread and will not accept a nomination. This situation has never come up before but I am assuming the starter of a thread has the right to decline when he or she feels that a nomination of the thread is little more than an attempt to elicit a laugh at the expense of the people who posted there. I can think of no other reason for nominating that thread.

You might feel differently if you had posted on the original thread. For the past week, my mailbox has been stuffed with notes from people who did post on that thread. A number of these writers were 'philosophical' about what had happened--similar to Mark12_30's excellent post; some were clearly upset by the fact that a poster had unfairly taken advantage of both themselves and others in this way.

We seem to fall into two broad groups: those who find the situation hilarious because they enjoy seeing people duped, and those who feel that there is something wrong when someone tells a lie about death and sits back to laugh at what others say. I'd like to think I'd be in the second group even if I had not started the thread.

Bethberry -

However, one essential criteria is that the thread starter manage it successfully. I wonder if that has happened with The Fate of Crystal Heart thread.

You are correct. I did not manage the thread "successfully". For any interchange or conversation on this site to be "successful", people have to be willing to expose themselves enough to speak with some grain of honesty. This is as true in Mirth as it is in Books. When each of us posts on this site, we do so in the belief that others look at our ideas, whether serious or humorous, as having value. That did not happen here.

I can state with a fair degree of certainty that this situation will never again occur on this site. Moderators and admins will automatically assume that any announcement of serious illness, accident, or death is probably a hoax and will respond with corresponding skepticism. How sad and ironic given the meaning of the books that we are discussing!