"The Change" was bound to happen. Ever since I've been at PT, there has been fighting. I've watched so many people get attacked here. People have a hard time being open minded. People can get so judgemental and set in their ways sometimes. And certain people can be so cruel. I have seen alot of people get kicked when they are already down.

It eventually breaks the spirit.

I know that it's broken mine quite a bit. I don't feel comfortable being myself on PT. I quickly learned that being honest and forward just causes bashing. I talk about things in my life, but for the most part, I hold back on alot of things that I am thinking or doing. I only discuss certain things with my PT friends through PM's or messenger. I know I am not the only one that feels that way.

I don't think there is a solution though. We've got thousands of members here. We've got all ages and backgrounds. We're bound to have different personalities and opinions. I don't think we can force each and every PT member to be compassionate and open minded. Everyone has to put their two cents in. That eventually runs people off. They get tired of wondering how their post will be judged. They get tired of seeing all the bickering. They get tired pretending to be perfect all the time.

Because, God forbid...no one here makes mistakes, right? We all have a huge savings account set aside to pay for our animal's vet bills in case of an emergency. We'll let our children and our selves starve to death before we neglect our animals, right? We all have a backup plan if we suddenly lose our job or our house. None of us have ever accidentally left our dogs outside over night. None of us have ever accidentally caused our dogs to escape. None of us have ever procrastinated on spaying or neutering our dogs. Now you can stand here and say that when those situations have come up, PT has been supportive. Yeah, I have seen people react wonderfully sometimes. But SOME of those same people turn around and bash the person through PM's and their Live Journals. Some people think that they are the perfect pet owners and everyone should be just like them.

Who wants to wonder which situation will be bashed and which will be supportive. I've seen the same situation, different people each time get totally different reactions. I guess how popular you are goes into play too.

Now, I really don't need to explain myself. The open minded, compassionate, honest people on PT will understand that I am not speaking of PT as a whole. Only the guilty ones will be offended by this post.