Scammers are a lot like bullies and cheaters

[Please read the whole thing, I may say somethings that will offend you, but I also try to point out what we can do about scammers]

In Animal Jam, scammers have always been a problem. 

Yes, even in the beta days, but then there wasn't anything to scam, and it was extremely rare to meet a scammer. 

But now they are more of a problem than ever. 

Scammers are just like cheaters(as in school wise).

Now they are alike in the sense that they cheat to get what they want/feel better about themselves.

However I can't have a scammers-cheaters opinionated analogy saying they are 'just like' with out saying I feel diffierently about them, because I don't.

What I'm saying is that I feel the same way about scammers as I do about cheaters(as in on cheating on tests, etc). 

If you can cheat the system, great! 

Basically, what I'm saying is that if you can trick a person into giving you their items, good job!

However, I am not saying that either cheating or scamming are correct. I do think they're wrong morally, but if you can out think the system, great for you! 

While we're still on this topic, I'd like to say scammers are a bit like bullies.

Yes, they do make you feel bad, but that's not what I want to highlight in this analogy. I say that scamming will never really stop, just like bullying. 

Sure, you can have cute little riots in AJ saying things likes 'Be green and hop for no scamming and safe jamming!' but do you really think that's going to stop a scammer? Because I surely don't, in fact, a scammer might join the rally, in hopes of looking like a better person, or trying to make it seem like they wouldn't scam, but that is just like all those 'stop bullying' groups you see around. To be honest, if I would think nothing of those groups/rallies. Sure, some of the 'stop bully' groups do show you what to do if you come across a bully, which can help, but let's be realistic. I have seen bullies at school, and what did I do? Nothing. I panicked and forgot, and I told myself that if I said something the bully might pick on me, which is selfish, but it's true, and I'm pretty sure it's human instinct.

Now you might just think I'm a cold hearted person, who is probably a scammer, bully, and cheater, and I'm trying to justify my actions. 

I'm not doing any of what's written above, rather just stating my opinion. 

Here's the last part of the whole scammer-bully analogy. 

They also are alike in the sense that they can be 'solved' and 'treated' in the same way. I'm only using these words because I couldn't think up any other sorts of words, I'm not saying start a rally/group to stop them, because as I've stated above, that really wouldn't work.

What I mean is that we should be teaching everyone how to emotionally deal with bullies, meaning we should teach people how to deal with telling on a bully, how to not let them bother you, and basically things along those lines.

~wolfs4evea

Can you buy love/friends/happiness?

Hey everyone! Today a friend of mine brought up an interesting topic during break at school. 

He said something like 'It's so dumb how people think you can buy happiness!' Instantly, my friend (imacutebunbunbunny) and I disagreed. 

It's very possible to buy happiness. Of course there's that cheesy saying 'You can't buy happiness/love/friends.' But it's not true, it's really not. 

Sure, it's a cute saying, but it's the farthest from true. 

Here's a good example of how you can buy happiness (it's the same example I used at break): When I got my computer I was so happy, and guess what, it still makes me extremely happy whenever I use it. You can apply this to anything really. I know several people you get happy when they get something new, or (my favorite) food. Therefore, you can buy happiness. 

Sure it's indirect, but let me tell you how it can be direct.

Say you pay me $2000 dollars (any price really), let me tell you, whether or whether not you tell me to 'be happy' I'm going be pretty happy. 

See? Buying happiness is so easy. 

Now here's where it gets a bit more complicated-buying friends. 

Let me tell you straight up, yes you can buy friends. 

If you ask me if you can buy genuine friends, the answer would be no. 

However, let me put a spin on this.

Say in your school or whatever if you don't wear a certain type of shoes or have the right backpack and hair, no one will be your friend. 

Well if you go buy those shoes, backpack and get the right haircut, technically you can indirectly buy friends-technically. 

Here's the bit I was saving for last, buying love.

This is sort of a mature topic and isn't really appropriate if you're a young 'un.

If you choose to stop reading here, fare well!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

~wolfs

"The school system is fine!"

This is something that has been bothering me for a very long time now. 

The school system is messed up. 

I'm not talking about common-core or whatever. 

I mean what it does mentally to students. 

Have you ever looked up on google 'why does school make me...'? 

No? 

Here's some screenshots of the results.

Tell me this isn't wrong. 

Just looking at it makes me choke and start tearing up. 

This should not be what comes up first, school should not make you feel this bad. 

I'd love to say this only happens to anti-social students with bad grades, but it really doesn't. 

In elementary school, for a long time in the final year, I would have meltdowns as a daily thing, and then I got back a writing assessment and got a terrible grade on it. When I came home I was shaking, and I cried and threw up so much that night, I skipped dinner, not wanting it to come back up. Thinking about it makes me choke up. I even remember using a lighter and burning my wrist slightly before slashing deep into my thigh with a knife

(still have the scars for proof). I had good grades and great friends then so this doesn't apply to kids with bad grades.(Oh god, now I'm dry retching.)

I remember around Thanksgiving break, on Saturday I felt a weight lifted that I didn't even know was there. On the next Sunday before school, I literally cried for an hour before throwing up until there was nothing in me anymore and I began drying retching in front of the toilet. A similar thing happened recently during on the last Sunday of winter break. Not to mention I had trouble sleeping because I kept having nightmares about school during both breaks. Now I'm dreading spring break because of it and I'm not even sure why this keeps happening-my grades have been great. 

Maybe you think I'm just a wimp who's got terrible anxiety and is extremely squeamish.(I'm not on medication, however I had to visit a consoler for a long time.) 

However, I do hope I have convinced a large lot of you that the school system's not right.

~a very upset wolfs

'Only Members!'

So there's this thing I've been seeing around AJ recently.

I used to see it a lot more a few years back, but it seems as if it's making a come back (cheesy sounding, I know)

It's the whole 'Only members!' thing.

The term litterally can be put anywhere, from 'Party in my den ONLY MEMBERS!' to 'Fashion Show in my den ONLY MEMBERS!' and I'm here to say I'm so freaking sick of it.

Some people can't afford memberships/parents won't allow them, or can't get them in their country and because of this you're going to discriminate and make it so they can't go to your online party? It's as wrong as when blacks were discriminated against (even though in this case it is not as extreme).

Because this post is so short I think this is the perfect transition for another topic that's been bothering me for years now.

Members and non-members are not suppose to have equal rights in AJ.

Members pay actual money to get the privileges they get. Would it make sense if non members got the same privileges for free?

If they did then no one would buy memberships and AJ would go bankrupt.

You may be asking why this matters.

It matters because AJ is a business, like it or not, and they need money to run the website. It costs more than you'd think.

Now this may sound like a controversial post-as in first I'm saying 'non-members and members are equal' and then 'members pay so they get more privileges'.

Besides, compared to other websites non-members in AJ have a lot more things. For example, if you're non-member in Club Penguin or Moshi Monsters it can get boring fast.

Well what I mean is that non-members shouldn't get all the privileges members do because they don't pay, however that doesn't mean you should discriminate them.


~wolfs:D

The Beauty of AJ Relationships

Just as a side note before you continue, when I say 'relationship' I'm not just saying friendships, I am also referring to dating/crushes or basically any sort of relationship with some one on Animal Jam. 

Also - I am not using IRL/in real life because that sounds a lot like saying my friends on AJ are fake, and we're not really friends, and they're not real people. 

I recently realized AJ relationships are beautiful. 

I have a few reasons for this, however I believe even though I don't have many reasons, my reasons are strong. 

I think it's beautiful because you know nothing about the person other than their personality. 

As in, you have no idea what they look like, if they have an accent, where they come from, and so on. 

I'm not just saying that Animal Jam is exclusive in this sense, really you can apply this to any online game or chat room/internet friend. 

I have met several people on Animal Jam who I came close to, and I would actually consider them better friends than some of the people I know outside of AJ(heidei, rileyri62, xxquicksilverxx, lightnightstrike85, lovebug, etc...). 

And when we drifted apart, I felt loss. 

Most recently with heidei and rileyri62, when we stopped talking about a year ago, I felt a huge loss in my chest and honestly typing it here is making me tear up, and it's hard to admit because I'm afraid they don't feel the same, and think I'm just 'some girl on the internet' and don't feel loss like me. 

I feel the same about dating on Animal Jam.

I'm not saying you should be dating on AJ, as many girls/boys rush into dating strangers on Animal Jam because (I guess?) it seems cool.

I'm saying when you actually have feelings for someone on Animal Jam, and they don't necicarly have to be the opposite gender. 

If you've never had legitimate feelings for someone on this game, then you're probably thinking I'm crazy and you can't have feelings for someone you don't know. I thought the same, I actually remember one day I was in Sarepia Forest and I saw someone say something alone the lines of 'I don't understand how you can have a crush on AJ when you don't know the person.' and I thought, Yeah I agree, how can you have feelings for someone on this game? 

However, I ate my words not very long after. 

I met a guy and basically I we ended up dating and it was nice, I actually had feelings for him, and to me this was amazing, because outside of AJ I have not had an actual crush since the 1st grade. I've lied about crushes to fit in, but that's not the same as the feeling you get in your chest when you have a real crush. 

I've had at least 5-7 crushes on AJ and many of them I have dated, and I would like to say not all of them have been boys. 

Now I'm not going to say I was openly looking for a girl to date, rather I was catfished. 

If you don't know what a catfish is (other than the animal) it's basically a way of saying when someone makes a fake profile and poses as someone else. 

As in I met a 'guy' and it turned out he was just a girl pretended she was a guy, and I've been on both sides of this, as I've been the one who was pretending to be a guy, and the other way around. 

And both ways I had feelings for the other person in the relationship. 

I didn't mean to make such a long post about my relationships in AJ just to prove a point, but I do feel it was important to have.

~wolfs