In terms of Gus: I think he may have started by adding flavor to a Pseudonym and then let it get out of hand. But if instead of "dying" if he had confessed, he might have been forgiven. Don't know. I did not get the worst of it. He fooled me on something comparatively minor which I spotted as false before his "death". But he never promised me a free car, or dragged me into serious emotional discussions. For sure, nobody would have ever trusted him. But that might not have stopped people from enjoying his entertainment value. But faking his death, and tricking some into actually mourning him. That is causing a pain and crossing a line that would make most people not want to see his pixels.

But if instead of "dying" if he had confessed, he might have been forgiven.

Or, you know, he could have just drifted away. He was already doing that -- he wouldn't post for months at a time, and then would return with stories about why (i.e., off in the jungle being bitten by a monkey, busy replicating aspirins in Switzerland, etc.) he had been scarce.

So it's not as though he had been a daily poster, at least not by the time of his not!death. His posting had had so much lag time between posts that he could have just drifted off.

But instead he felt it necessary to go out with a bang and stir things up, and that annoys the shit out of me.

Yeah, he totally didn't need to die to leave. Dying just earned ill will, and seems like a play for sympathy.

He didn't *just* "die", though. He created a grieving girlfriend to post, too.

Thanks for filling me in on the NYE, Tep.

The entity behind Gus is a creep for manipulating y'all.

He'd mentioned the girlfriend often enough before that. The whole dying thing seems kind of . . . impulsive to me. Partially because of the timing.

If he had just drifted away, I would have been fine with that. But every time he posted, I got a big smile and greeted him with enthusiasm since he was fun to talk with. When the big reveal came about what a fake it all was, I felt so used, in a strange way. My pleasure over talking with him was tarnished and I have no fond memories of him at all now. I can't even go over to the tropes site without feeling resentful.

I can't bring myself to get too worked up about it, though what I'm most regretful of is the bad feeling among us both on that NYE and after Cindy blew the doors open.

I am intrigued that the LA Times got a story so much closer to the truth.

So I twice started this big long post about what I think and twice aborted it. First my phone ate it, and now I think I need to rethink. Hee.

I'm starting to suspect that any research I do down this road will only lead to victor-chasing-andy-kaufman levels of weirdness. And maybe I don't want to go there.

ION of me. The parsnips were one thing, but my produce box now includes like two pounds of daikon. What the hell do I do with that?