(Aug. 13, 2017 8:26 AM)Beylon Wrote: You know, this is not the first time this kind of thread has come up. Sadly, I expect it will not be the last.
It's not hard to see that a great number of people who use this forum are familiar with the pain of being bullied - particularly at school - and the unfair mental stress that comes with it. For a lot of people, both young and old, hobbies like Beyblade are their primary escape from the struggles of real life at all ages. The game provides a structure for play where the rules make sense, cheaters are disqualified and sportsmanship is a top priority - justice - quite unlike the harsh reality of everyday life. In that sense, Beyblade is a genuine refuge from reality. So it is utterly heartbreaking to think someone might be targeted just for seeking refuge (from an already nasty situation) in their otherwise harmless hobby.
I want to applaud the WBO for maintaining an environment here which is free of bullies. Particularly in recent years, the committee has been notably just and fair in its dealings and attempted to make improvements wherever it has slipped. But also the general culture of the forums, inclusive of all the members, has been notably cleaner than its early MFB days. If find this is pretty rare online, making the WBO one of the better internet places.
So I wonder, given the already good example the WBO sets for its members, if the forum as a whole (perhaps through the committee) might make some kind of public statement on this. Considering the importance Beyblade has in the lives of so many people, and how many of them obviously suffer varying levels of real-world persecution for their personal interests and otherwise common depressive or bipolar symptoms, it would be nice to know that the WBO is not just a passive observer of this issue. Beyblade has the power to bring people of all ages together - and to see that they actually outnumber the bullies. I just sense some opportunity for positive influence here, I guess.
Also, I'm glad Dragon King brought up the issue of physical intervention. I know his advice is not very popular these days but I very much agree that "ignore them and they will go away" is just a total fallacy. Ignorance solves nothing. Apart from "taking a beating for pride" or learning karate (both of which are valid responses, I reckon) I'm very interested to know what kind of positive action-taking steps people might take to address the situation in the OP, were it to happen them. In fact, it'd be nice to see this incorporated into some official response from the WBO.
A blader's guide to bullying?
I personally do not think I am entitled to give any sort of advice on this matter, hence why I have avoided replying to this topic so far. Throughout my school years, I have barely seen any bullying. I do not know if we just hear more about the worst situations, but bullying has somewhat always existed, yet never to this extent, it seems. It is as if there are more idiotic brutes in the latest generation than there were before. However, most of the time, a person like that does not come to fruition on their own... I share JJR's philosophy that nobody gets born evil, it is society around them that shapes them as such. Therefore, probably as not a kid anymore, I turn my glare mostly to the parents of those kids, and can only hope that my own generation will be able to raise their children better.
The World Beyblade Organization is as open and disciplined as it is honestly because Brad and his friends paved the way to it. For instance, one of the past staff members is homosexual, and he therefore made sure that nobody used words related to that as insults, and we of course supported him in his hunt against senseless hate. However, I think the structure of a message board brings about way more accountability for everyone because nothing gets lost below a mass of new posts in a feed, and people have an easy way to report bad posts. We also have a very easy warning system, so we are not restricted by the fact that the only disciplinary measure is a ban from a chatroom, which would of course make us hesitate until we have to use the ban as a last measure. All posts receive basically the same exposure, they are not replies to a reply that get hidden away like on Facebook, and absolutely everybody can see your message, so beware of what you write.
All in all, I think we could try to find tons of reasons, but the truth is that a lot of message boards even in the past have had horrible administration, so you might have just been lucky and gotten into a hobby with a fansite that happens to gather good people, hah.
Anyway, the only advice I got that seemed to make sense, regarding bullying, is that you should seek an adult to intervene, not intervene yourself, and that is it. About your hobbies, I do not really know what to say. However, in my case, nobody learned about them unless they were my friends later on. Sometimes, you have to wait until the right opportunity to actually share your interests, for instance wait only until a convention to cosplay, or only until Halloween to dress up in public. For Beyblade, that opportunism might involve waiting until someone in your region hosts a tournament via the World Beyblade Organization, or until Hasbro hosts an event in a Toys "R" Us or something. "In my days", school was literally just for learning/studying, and making friends/socialising. If that is all everyone does, I barely see how bullies would fit in the picture.
I really hope that this person will return though, because the bullies will not stop just because he quit Beyblade, and I checked his Organizer's Quiz answers and they were actually legitimate.