Defining the Word, "Leaving", in Internet Terms

Note

As pretty much everyone on HubPages (as well as a whole lot of other places on the Internet) knows, recent months in the "Internet world" have been trying for a lot of people. Without getting in a whole, big, re-hash of things have been re-hashed again and again (and again) in the last few, "Post-Panda", months; it's enough to say that the last few months have been difficult for a lot of people (and their businesses, even if their "business" involves only writing). While people have been affected in varying degrees, I've not been immune to the impact on earnings. How bleak the whole picture is or isn't depends on the individual circumstances and choices, and most people realize that things are always changing in business. It just takes adjusting to those changes.

Having said all that, sometimes, no matter how frustrating or bleak the immediate picture may appear, you just have to find some humor in it somewhere. One of my stronger writing skills doesn't happen to be being able to write humor. I like to think I can throw a funny little remark into otherwise serious writing and maybe make a reader giggle a little; but writing anything that would, in general, be considered "humor" isn't something I do well. Even with that, I can't help but see the humor in some of the things that appear to almost have become a trend as a result of recent, challenging, Internet events. Whether I've managed to make the following at all humorous is something I tend to doubt.

In any event, I know I'm not the only one who has observed some of following; and I have nothing better to do this Sunday morning than to engage in a little silliness. I don't necessarily recommend reading this Hub. I just know it felt good to write it, because sometimes, in the face of a lot of unfortunate things going on (like knowing that good people have been hurt by one thing or another) it just feels good to lighten up and find a little humor where it can be found.

Maybe my sense of humor is kind of weird (I don't know), because, as I said, I've not been immune to a lot of the same stuff so many others have been dealing with (in one way or another). Maybe, too, I'm the only one who sees any humor in this. In any case, with due reverence, empathy, and apologizes to people who have gone through particularly difficult times with recent events (as well as "being in the same boat as many"), and with apologies to anyone who bothers to read this and doesn't find a shred of humor in it, here goes:

Introduction

Not unlike a lot of other people in my age range, I came to the Internet world from an era and an offline world to which the term, "Internet", was once quite foreign. Like so many things that are new and unfamiliar to us until we get to know them better, getting to the know the Internet world better wasn't all that difficult, but it was clear that, even with getting to know the Internet world better, there were cultural and social differences that required some adjustment (and I'm not talking about the mix of individuals who now "live" and work in the Internet world; I'm talking about the whole, overall, culture of the online world).

Without wanting to get into all the ways the online world is different from the offline world, one simple example might be with the use of the word, "visit". In the offline world (or at least in the pre-Internet era), the word, "visit", meant we physically went somewhere that we didn't live. Maybe that was a visit to the dentist's office. Maybe it was a visit to Aunt Susie's, where she'd put out crackers and cheese and tea. In any case, that's what "visit" meant. In the Internet world, of course, that word means something different. People can remain glued to their own little chairs, with their faces stuck up against their own little (or big) monitor screens; and call that "visiting" somewhere. Well, they're aren't using the word incorrectly. The Internet world and culture has expanded the definition. So, at this point, we're all used to the Internet (even those of us who can recall a world in which it didn't yet exist). Every so often, however, I become acutely aware that I seem, in some ways, to be a little bit more of an alien in a foreign land that, maybe, some other Internet-dwellers or workers are. It isn't in big ways, I don't think. It's more that every so often some little thing pop up to make me particularly aware of what seems, to me, to be a kind of strange little twist or take on the offline and/or pre-Internet world. One of those little things has popped up and become particularly noticable recently, as a wave of freshly disgruntled Internet people (for reasons I won't go into here) have been voicing their plans to "leave" HubPages (or other sites where similar disgruntlement has taken place).

Language Differences

It's the term, "leave", that has me thinking about the differences of my "homeland", which is, as I said, the offline world and pre-Internet era.

Now (I don't want to say "in my day" because I like to think today is as much "my day" as it is anyone else's), there was a time when the "leaving" was generally associated with 1) taking physical departure from wherever it was one happened to be, 2) terminating employment, or 3) separating from one's spouse or romantic interest. Kids who "separated" from their parents and home were said to either "run away" or else "moved" (as in the case of a grown child who gets his own residence).

For example, I worked full-time at one company for several years. When my family began to grow I switched from full-time work to what was called "part-time" work. A phrase that was also used for that arrangement was "working fewer hours". Yet another, although different, description of that kind of arrangement was "taking fewer projects". In any case, the term, "leaving", did not apply until I gave notice to my employer and said the following: "I wanted to let you know that I'll be leaving...." (or some words such as that). It wasn't until the actual separation between myself and employer that one would have called it "leaving". Of course, in order to leave there had to be a formal arrangement that "officially"linked (there's another of those words that has been changed) the individual and the employer until a termination date ended that particular affiliation (and there's another one of those words).

What leaving involved was having paperwork done, packing up belongings, handing in a badge, and taking care of a number of exit procedures before officially walking out the employer's door for the final time. "Leaving" didn't necessarily mean "never having any contact with fellow employees again". People make friends. Former co-workers who had also become friends became friends I would see in a social setting, or else people I'd keep in touch with over the phone.

Now, I'll admit that my own style of "leaving" probably has a lot to do with my idea of what "leaving" means. For example, I'm kind of a reluctant leaver. I'm more the sort who holds off for awhile, seeing if things get any better, and making my private plans in the meantime. My thinking is this: Once a situation has gotten to a point where I've gone from "trying" and on to "thinking about leaving", there's not a lot of reason to talk about leaving. It's all a matter of waiting out whatever has to be waited out in order to confidently make the choice (and clean break) of leaving. While I don't tend to think of myself as one to burn bridges; as I look back at the reality of my own history of leaving, I realize that it's only under the rarest of circumstance that I haven't burned a bridge behind me.

In any case, when I brought my alien-self to this foreign Internet world several years ago, I adjusted reasonably well (well, sort of), and only occasionally find the cultural differences anything to pay much attention to.

So, now that I've raised the issue of the meaning of word, "leave", in my homeland, and on my long-ago and far-away planet, Offline World; I'd like to share what I've learned about this odd Internet world in which I have somehow found myself.

What I've discovered (as I suspect you may have as well) is that in the Internet world there is something called a "site". Back where I come from, "site", was (still is) a word used to describe "location" (as in the case of a "construction site"). So "site" is another one of those words that has been changed by the Internet world (but I digress).

Anyway, here's what I've figured out about what the word, "leaving", means in this Internet world, and as it applies to one's presence (or lack of it) on any site: I'll use HubPages as an example because it happens to be a site where a heck of a lot of talk about leaving as been going on in recent months:

Following are several uses for the word, "leaving", in the Internet world, and on a site like HubPages.


Defining "Leaving"

Leaving Type 1: Officially announcing one is leaving but not leaving YET.

Leaving Type 2: Officially announcing and/or talking about leaving but continuing to participate in the forums, read Hubs, and write only the occasional Hub.

Leaving Type 3: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (at least for the moment, also known as "at least not until seeing what happens"), but continuing to read other people's work and comment on it, and continuing to post in the forums.

Leaving Type 4: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (at least for the moment), continuing to read other people's work and comment on it (maybe), but no longer posting in the forums.

(By the way, I know some of this is kind of confusing. That's the thing for people like me. But, I digress..)

Leaving Type 5: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (at least for the moment), not posting in the forums, but continuing to read and comment on other people's work.

Leaving Type 6: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (at least for the moment), continuing to read and comment on others' Hubs, and "mostly"not posting in the forums.

Leaving Type 7: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (truly, EVER AGAIN), continuing to read and comment on others' Hubs, and "mostly" not posting in the forums.

Leaving Type 8: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (truly EVER AGAIN), continuing to read and comment on others' Hubs; and truly not posting in the forums, and without possibility of ever posting in the forums again.

Leaving Type 9: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (truly, EVER AGAIN), continuing to read (but not comment on) others' Hubs; and truly not posting in the forums, and without possibility of ever posting in the forums again (keep in mind "ever" is a long time, but we'll go with it and assume the "ever" holds).

Leaving Type 10: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (truly, EVER AGAIN), no longer reading others' Hubs at all, and truly no longer posting in the forums (EVER) - except for once in a great while.

Leaving Type 11: Announcing one is leaving, not writing any Hubs (the EVER AGAIN should be assumed from here on with regard to writing Hubs), no longer reading others' Hubs, and REALLY REALLY (absolutely no possibility of) posting in the forums EVER AGAIN.

Leaving Type 11, while the most extreme type of leaving, should not be interpreted to mean "completely leaving", however, because in order to reach a complete definition for the Internet definition of "leaving" it is necessary to further divide the eleven types of leaving listed above into degrees of, and percentage of, removal of Hubs.

Note: Determining actual percentages of removed Hubs requires knowing the number of each author's published and unpublished Hubs on any given day; and percentage of Hubs may be affected by the normal and day-to-day account tweaks and additions of (permanant or temporary) Hubs. This means that while actual percentage figures may not be available, degrees of Hub removal have been categorized (for the purpose of simplification) into four groups, with those groups consisting of the following:

Group A: Removal of no Hubs

Group B: Removal of Some Hubs

Group C: Removal of All Hubs.

Therefore, in order to define and classify types of leaving, it is necessary to classify beyond Type number and include the appropriate letter category.

An accurate definition, however, requires the further categorization of each letter group:

1. With the possibility of writing another Hub "here or there"

2. With no possibility whatsoever of ever again writing another Hub.

3. Either 1 or 2, but with the option to change one's mind at any given time.

4. "Just don't know at this point"

Therefore, in order to reach a clear definition of "leaving", the variations of definitions must be divided in something along the lines of the following: Definition 1B.1, 1B.2, 1B.3 (and so on), up to Definition 11C.2 (which would, of course, constitute "completely leaving".

It is important to note, however, that types of leaving, as well the letter and number grouping for each type, do not always include announcing leaving; which means, of course, that before actual type and categories of leaving are determined; the whole complicated business should first be sorted into two major groups (Groups I and Group II), with Group I including only leaving that is announced, and Group II including only unannounced leaving (also known as "riding-off-into-the-sunset" leaving).

Categorization of the two major groups, however, should include the further categorization of each of those groups to include the following letter categories:

A. Non-Hostile Leaving

B. Hostile Leaving

While non-hostile leaving requires no further categorization, hostile leaving should be divided into the following number classifications:

1. Hostility with no ill will toward fellow members of the site and lots of ill will toward site administrators.
2. Hostility with no will toward site administrators and ill will toward all or some members of the the site.

3. Hostility toward every member of the site AND every administrator

4. Hostility toward SOME members of the site and any number of, but not necessarily all, administrators.

5. Hostility toward anyone and anything associated with the site, and any letters that are a part of the site's name AND the whole bloody Internet in general (or maybe not the WHOLE Internet, but some of it).

6. Hostility that includes one or all of the above WITH the added, and frequently stated, pronouncement that anyone who does not leave (whatever the hell "leaving" means to any given person, in any given situation) the site is stupid.

Additional clarification/classification should include each type of hostility categorized by whether or not the hostility is not expressed (otherwise known as "bottled up") or expressed, which can be further divided into following sub-categories:

a. Civil tone with hints of hostility
b. Open hostility toward one or more individuals
c. Insanely open, and out-and-out off-the-wall, hostility directed at one, more, or all targets of that hostility.


So, having reached a fairly clear definition of the term, "leaving", as it is used in the Internet world and according to the above system of categorization and classification; it would seem that the resident and/or visitor of the Internet world would have a solid understanding of the meaning of term, "leaving".

It's not, however, that simple; because in the Internet world (and again, using a site like HubPages as an example), members of a site can have more than one "user account" (this is a term that is largely used in the Internet world and seldom used in the offline world, where the word, "account", is usually sufficient).

What this means is that one person may be several users, each with a different user name; and that when one user announces his impending departure from the site, the same individual may/may not remain associated with the site, under one or more other user names. This means that in order to accurately define "leaving" it would be important to know whether it is an individual, or only one of his user names, who/which is referred to when referring to leaving.

In the offline and/or pre-Internet world, why it would be important to determine whether someone were leaving completely, or leaving a bunch of make-believe "alter egos"/"identities" behind might well make the difference between whether that individual was brought out to lunch, or whether one of his many files were removed from an "active" status. Of course, in the offline and/or pre-Internet world, having more than one identity is generally reserved for either individuals with mental conditions or criminals. In the Internet world, while it might be inaccurate to say that "anything goes", it would be fairly accurate to observe that "almost anything goes". It would be more accurate to say that things go that nobody from the offline and pre-Internet world would ever imagine might "go".

The point is that once a clear definition of the word, "leave", has been established with the use of the above categorization/classification system, whether or not the individual who is (or isn't, really) leaving (in any way, and to any degree) is one person with one user name or is, instead, one person who shall remain behind under one or more other user names. (This could, of course, help explain why, when someone leaves an Internet site, nobody brings him out to lunch.)

This leads to one final clarification of the definition of "leaving", regardless of the specific definition and type of leaving. That is that, regardless of whether a member of a site has one user name, two, or several; there is always the possibility that even if that member/user leaves according to the definition for "completely leaving", there's always the possibility he will return under another name.

What this means is that, when one user announces he's leaving, the first question that he should be asked is whether he will be returning under another name, remaining under one or more other names, and to what degree (as well as under what category/classification) he (the user) is leaving in the first place.

Not to be overlooked: There are those who leave (whether or not they announced it, and whether or not anyone noticed) and return as the same user (often with a "1" or other number after their original name), and then announce their return (whether or not anyone noticed it). And finally, there is the classic, leaving and coming back and then leaving again.

Ah, this Internet world is an odd world in which to find oneself - complete with its peculiarities in language, behaviors, and inhabitants.

As for me, I remind myself that I remain the same offline-world/pre-Internet world individual that I've always been - someone who tends to be slow to leave without first feeling certain that a situation will not improve, someone who says little until leaving (at which time the "off-into-the-sunset" approach is the one I prefer), is careful about burning bridges, and yet burns those that, indeed, are best burned.

In the meantime, I continue to make my way through this peculiar and Oz-like Internet world of good witches, bad witches, Munchkins, and individuals who hide behind curtains. It can be both very funny, but also sometimes enough to make a person want to (shall we say) leave (in one way or another).

By the way, off to the right and also at the end of this Hub, some parts of the muddled and mixed story are told - how else? - in emoticons and YouTube-video song.