Because, sometimes, it doesn't pay to be nice.

Hi all and welcome to this here blog. I'm pondering one of the big questions so this may become rather long-winded.

Let me set the scene.

Whenever I'm not working on a project, I usually leave my rooms open to everyone. There's two reasons for this: 1) sometimes the input adds something to the finished product that would never be there otherwise, and 2) it's a good way to interact with people before deciding whether or not I want them on my friendlist.

However, after tonight, I'm considering changing my practice. To make a long story short and to not name any names, someone came into one of my rooms and, while not obviously trying to wreck things, managed to mess up quite a few things anyway.

I tried to be nice to start because, hey, we all make mistakes. I knew a split second before they made the stroke that broke the camel's back that I ought to kick them out because they weren't "listening" but I didn't. I didn't end up kicking them out until after that stroke and after attempt to get their attention.

What makes it worse, of course, was that it was a friend's project they screwed up rather than one of mine. For my drawings, I usually don't care. I'm not invested in them. But it wasn't something of mine that was messed up - it was my friend's. Now, it didn't take long to fix but that's not really the point.

The point is that, as the owner of the room, it's my responsibility to gauge a situation and decide what counts as vandalism and what counts as an honest mistake and what counts as a not malicious person who just doesn't understand the rules. As I'm sure you know from your own experiences, it's not an easy decision to make sometimes - there's a difference between someone drawing male parts on whatever animal you happen to be drawing and embellishing a picture in an ultimately destructive way. "Ultimately" is the operative word in that sentence.

Anyway, what this basically comes down to is that I have another decision to make. Do I keep my open door policy in place and just be preemptive in my kicking practices or do I leave all my rooms friends only? I don't like conflict and I don't want my friends to worry about their work being messed up but I can think of numerous occasions where having an open door let very interesting people in.

For those of you who bothered to read all of that (and who may be willing to offer some thoughts on the subject), I've got another poem from that old poetry book.

Ahem.

"I'd rather have fingers than toes.
I'd rather have eyes than a nose.
As for my hair, I'm glad it's still there -
I'll be awfully sad when it goes."