Maura Murray

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Snowy wrote:

<quoted text>
i do. and webbed feet trudging in poopy. it goes round and round and round.

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Snowy wrote:

<quoted text>
i do. and webbed feet trudging in poopy. it goes round and round and round.

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hannah_b wrote:

Seriously, poppy. If you had taken the time to read every thread on every forum that preceded this one, maybe you would understand why the dislike of ducks and why newbies aren´t welcomed with open arms by all. There have been so many posters with so many theories they believe are new and outside of the box. They never are.

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Poppy wrote:

Advocate, I agree with everything you say. At the very heart of the matter is a young woman who is missing and the friends and family who live with the lack of her each and every day.
Had she have disappeared before mobile telephony and prior to the birth of the internet, those that knew of her would have slowly lain a blanket of empathy and reasonable assumption over her dwindling memory. And those that knew of her through TV, radio and word of mouth would be far fewer than those who know her name today.
On the plus side, the reach of information is broad enough to embrace the world and news travels fast. Sympathy, detective work and curiosity help raise unprecedented awareness and missing people can and are found quickly as a direct result.
However, it's also easier for conspiracies to grow and for people to claim a sort of 'ownership' over someone else's tragedy because they get something themselves from the status they achieve as head of a forum family.
It's a fine line between moral decency and moral panic just as it is between doing the right thing and being self-righteous.
There are clearly some very balanced, rational people here (as on other forums) but I do think it's pertinent to make the observation, as an outsider, that this tragedy is not the property of a forum but is, instead, very human.
It's a sad thing when people's egos eat their empathy. I sometimes think people are so determined to see their own opinion validated that they come across as wishing the most brutal and terrifying end possible for the poor girl and I find the voyeurism a bit disturbing.

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Bumping for Maura wrote:

I´m trying hard to keep an open mind as for what happened to Maura after her crash at the Weathered Barn curve on Rte 112 in New Hampshire.
My impression, though, is that quite a few posters on this board are more keen on peddling their own favourite theory/theories, rather than discussing Maura´s case without blinkers and set ideas.
Highly regrettable indeed!

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hannah_b wrote:

I actually expected helpful and agree icons. Or at least a peanut.

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Poppy wrote:

<quoted text>
Oh, and you do know 'Poppy' isn't actually my real name, right? Any more than your parents called you Snowy.
Doesn't making fun of someone's online moniker plumb new depths of both childishness and utter pointlessness?
Well done.

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Poppy wrote:

<quoted text>
Maybe you should stop hijacking someone else's private grief or set up a closed forum solely so you and your (extremely virtual) friends can discuss what you like without distracting people who might be researching something for a genuine reason?
That's a ridiculous attitude and no different to me being puerile, rude and unpleasant to you because I once a knew a different woman called Hannah who I believed to be a granny-basher.
Or that you have no right to visit London because you are not a Londoner and you haven't taken the time to read 9000 pages of my subjective account of the city's history.
In addition, will someone please tell me what 'duck'
Means to you. Even Urban Dictionary doesn't help and, while it's endearing and exciting to have secret societies and made up words when you're 10, adults doing it in the public domain is both intriguing and so comedic I HAVE to know.
Much obliged.

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Poppy wrote:

<quoted text>
Since you didn't ask, m'dear, I'm a Features Writer for a UK lifestyle magazine. Full-colour, glossy, pick it up at the supermarket checkout,'my ordeal at hands of crazy stalker','my daughters husband is now a bird called Carol', here's a heartwarming story about a little boy's love for a goat called Barry, that sort of thing.
In March, it will be three years since an attractive, hard-working, popular young woman called Claudia Lawrence simply vanished from the streets of York as she made her way to work one morning. No one knows what happened to her. A body has never been found and, while police suspect foul play, no trace of her or her fate has ever been found.
Within days of her disappearance, social media was awash with people spouting the most vile, upsetting and poisonous (unsubstantiated) allegations about her character and her family. The conspiracy theories were equally rife with pyjama clad agropphobic keyboard warriors claiming such far fetched things as masonic rituals and alien abductions.
After a while, these posters were dealt with. Threads were removed and people were warned that such activity can be criminal.
However, it got us thinking: What has social media done to genuine compassion? While we concluded that it can be a marvellous means to a positive outcome, for the police as well as for victims, missing people, and their relatives, we also became aware of a disturbing trend.
We observed as people began to assume ownership over victims and missing people they never knew. We watched as these people justified their actions by accusing and hinting at dark deeds among family members (Madeleine McCann, anyone) and we recoiled as we noticed how another person's hardship became a hunting ground for insecure bullies who, devoid of status in their real lives, viewed arm-chair detecting forums as hunting grounds for their peculiar brand of vulture-trolling.
This March, we intend to run a feature on this very thing to coincide with Claudia's disappearance. I outlined much of the angle in a previous post. I was fishing.
Fortunately, I landed you and Snowy who are as prime an example as I have ever seen of the behaviour I describe.
Thank you for helping me do my job. My ultimate aim is that people might read the piece and find their hearts again. That they might start to think about Claudia, about Maura, about all the poor missing girls and their loved ones, instead of feeding their own inadequacies from a feast of human pain.
I wish believed that could happen but, like you, I think some people just see what they want to see.
I sincerely hope you are able to reconnect with the real world at some point but I imagine it's easier to find power on the internet than risk rejection in the real world.
Good luck, though.
Never did find out what a 'duck' is but, hey,'they even make up their own secret language to prevent people of differing opinions question their deluded beliefs' should do it.
My condolences to the missing and all those who miss them.

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Snowy wrote:

<quoted text>
did i first write "poopy"? no, i did not.
you must develop a sense of humour, duckie.
“Just tell yourself, Duckie, you're really quite lucky!”~ Dr. Seuss

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Snowy wrote:

<quoted text>
did i first write "poopy"? no, i did not.
you must develop a sense of humour, duckie.
“Just tell yourself, Duckie, you're really quite lucky!”~ Dr. Seuss

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Wowzer the real one wrote:

<quoted text>
You have no idea of the history and until you take the time to read all the past posts you shouldn't condemn anyone.

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Poppy wrote:

<quoted text>
, it will be three years since an attractive, hard-working, popular young woman called Claudia Lawrence simply vanished from the streets of York as she made her way to work one morning. No one knows what happened to her. A body has never been found and, while police suspect foul play, no trace of her or her fate has ever been found.
Within days of her disappearance, social media was awash with people spouting the most vile, upsetting and poisonous (unsubstantiated) allegations about her character and her family. The conspiracy theories were equally rife with pyjama clad agropphobic keyboard warriors claiming such far fetched things as masonic rituals and alien abductions.
After a while, these posters were dealt with. Threads were removed and people were warned that such activity can be criminal.
However, it got us thinking: What has social media done to genuine compassion? While we concluded that it can be a marvellous means to a positive outcome, for the police as well as for victims, missing people, and their relatives, we also became aware of a disturbing trend.
We observed as people began to assume ownership over victims and missing people they never knew. We watched as these people justified their actions by accusing and hinting at dark deeds among family members (Madeleine McCann, anyone) and we recoiled as we noticed how another person's hardship became a hunting ground for insecure bullies who, devoid of status in their real lives, viewed arm-chair detecting forums as hunting grounds for their peculiar brand of vulture-trolling.
This March, we intend to run a feature on this very thing to coincide with Claudia's disappearance. I outlined much of the angle in a previous post. I was fishing.
Fortunately, I landed you and Snowy who are as prime an example as I have ever seen of the behaviour I describe.
Thank you for helping me do my job. My ultimate aim is that people might read the piece and find their hearts again. That they might start to think about Claudia, about Maura, about all the poor missing girls and their loved ones, instead of feeding their own inadequacies from a feast of human pain.
I wish believed that could happen but, like you, I think some people just see what they want to see.
I sincerely hope you are able to reconnect with the real world at some point but I imagine it's easier to find power on the internet than risk rejection in the real world.
Good luck, though.
Never did find out what a 'duck' is but, hey,'they even make up their own secret language to prevent people of differing opinions question their deluded beliefs' should do it.
My condolences to the missing and all those who miss them.