The Invisible Woman

I tend to have issues with forums.

The bickering often leaves me with a bad taste and an uncomfortable feeling. I haven't found a forum yet that doesn't at some point fall into an abysmal mass of fighting children, no matter how well moderated.

I have seen forums where the fighting goes on for months and then the instigator and friends leave because everyone is beating up on them and the forum breathes deeply of the fresh non-toxic air, while those few friends left behind talk about the injustice of it all.

I have seen forums where those with names like nipple-twister try to act as if they are the end all when it comes to the knowledge of what SEO tactics are best for the web at this time.

I have seen well-moderated forums where the moderators begin to forget that they were once just like the rest of us and they spout things like, "The friends I make here are the best ever and the head honchos care about everyone!", directly after a most wanted post with a profile picture of a head honcho not seen since keyword stuffing was en vogue.

In all these forums there seems to be one common thread. I am virtually invisible. I start a thread that immediately begins its slow drift to the unknowns of the second page and beyond. I comment on a post and later posters address every post but mine. I post every day, all day for a year on a forum then leave for two months. When I come back I see others who have been gone being called out, "Hey Nipple-Twister! We missed your nipple twisting wisdom!" or threads asking where others have gone and why they are no longer posting. But not me.

I leave and no one notices. This isn't something I think about all the time, no matter what the length of this post suggests, but I do wonder what it is that I do different that makes me invisible? Is it that I don't friend, well, anyone? That I don't PM or IM? That I don't cheerlead or instigate? Or is there something in the way I write that screams out at everyone to just skip my posts and move on?

Who knows? This post may even fade into invisibility without a comment and then what does that say about me?