I think it's a terribly difficult thing to confront someone about unless you're *absolutely* sure you're right, or you don't care about the fallout from being wrong.

It is -- I know that in the case of the weremonkey (ptui), I thought he was acting like an asshole in his later times in the thread, and I suspected a lot of his stories had to be exaggerated for effect (although I never went so far as thinking his whole identity was a fake), and I would never have said a damn word. It felt like it would've just been attacking him and bringing the drama when other people loved him, and so it was easier to duck out of the conversations when he made random appearances. (And that fact? Fucking kills me know, because of all the harm and hurt and fallout after the fact.)

So much of what we do -- not just WE we, or discussion-board and social media we, but all of human society we -- is necessarily built on really incomplete information about what's happening in other people's heads. And we trust it, because that's EVERYTHING (and it's beautiful and makes the right neurons go); I think the very same desire to trust makes it makes it really easy for a good con artist to work the strings, and makes it really hard to go against it when everyone else (appears to be) sending out the all-clear signal.

It is fascinating, but it's also incredibly sad. Especially when it's Munchausen by Proxy for real, not just internet stories.

Yeah. In the Warrior Eli case there's lots of people who have cancer themselves who wasted time and energy dealing with her. A lot of people were very emotionally vulnerable when they met and befriended Eli.

But I don't recall anyone saying anything until after he "died."

Well, not here, no. Because he was here.

It would have to be huge for me to think it worth it to disrupt the community because of suspicions that may or may not play out, and for which I don't have proof. I totally understand avoiding that sort of confrontation.

Hell, it was contentious after he left. Imagine the ruckus if someone had challenged him here?

::points at amych's post::

What the wise woman said.

Well, also, we were had previously had a very contentious episode with a community member who suspected a new community member was someone (perhaps the only person) we ever banned. The person with suspicions ended up leaving on a very bad note, and later it turned out he was correct. I can't imagine anyone bringing it up after that.

Also, we know the story wasn't that it was a were-monkey, just a regular monkey. right? Which seems ridiculous, but not as impossible as a were-monkey.

In non-were monkey news, the building management of my office park has starting bringing in food trucks twice a week. Today's was Thai food, and it was really good, but now I want to eat all the Thai food in the world, even though I just finished lunch.

I suspected a lot of his stories had to be exaggerated for effect

Sure, and really, who cares? Until we do!

Also, we know the story wasn't that it was a were-monkey, just a regular monkey. right?

The joke was the he had been turned into a were-monkey, after being bitten by a regular one.

Hmm, Ben&Jerry's just tweeted that it's National Chocolate Ice Cream Day.

The joke was the he had been turned into a were-monkey, after being bitten by a regular one.

Yes- I was just afraid that the people who weren't around thought the joke part was what we believed!