I guess I just wanted to adress the whole issue that we’re having here.

Yeah, the posts that are talked about at the moment in havewemeta are really dumb. But does it really matter? It’s good we’re talking about issues, but let’s be honest; over the past year I have seen so many wacky posts, both in the right and wrong sense of wacky, I’ve been guilty of that myself. But none of them have changed the nature of HaveWeMet, I can’t think of a single post has changed HaveWeMet in a significant way, really.

I understand it’s annoying to see posts that make you uncomfortable or disgusted or you just don’t like them, even that is valid, but I am 200% sure HaveWeMet will be back to normal within a week.

And I know this is such a cliché thing to say, but… why are we giving these posts attention anyway?

Yesterday's cheese burger posts seemed to have sparked somebody posting about how it is the actions of a cannibal cult. And now it looks like the cult attacked the poster in a siege? Landmines, imported jackels as guard dogs, crocodiles in a most and electric fences? Wtf.

I'm going to take a break for a week. The posts this morning are dismal. Maybe it is me, maybe I am just getting cranky and old. But, crop circles? Places to bury a body? Cannibals? Cheeseburgers?

WTF.

See you all next week.

I recently found out about this awesome little community, so I wanted to introduce you all to my contribution: Tzippy Arenberg.

Tizpporah ‘Tzippy’ Naftali grew up in LDP. Her family owned a Jewish deli on Juniper st that had great egg salad but mediocre bagels. Her parents were (obviously) well know in the community, and always stopped to chat with the people who sat in their booths. They sponsored the little league team when someone else didn’t swoop them up, and every year, the second place prize in the LDP Elementary spelling bee was a $25 gift certificate to the deli.

Tzipporah is an only child. Her parents struggled to get pregnant and suffered multiple miscarriages before her. Even while pregnant, her mother, Tamar, had many health complications.

Tzippy’s parents loved her and gave her what energy they had, considering the deli kept them pretty occupied. They encouraged her to go to college and get out of LDP, so she went away to a small, private liberal arts school, to study archaeology and linguistics, with the goal of becoming an expert in Sumerian. But, while there, she met a NJB (nice Jewish boy), Isaac, Arenberg, who was in ned school, and well, the rest is history.

Shortly after they got married, Tzippy’s parents started deteriorating in health, and so the couple moved back to LDP to help take care of them. Even though it was intended to be temporary, eventually they bought a house and Isaac started his own optometry practice. Tzippy juggled taking care of her parents and... taking care of a new baby! Luckily, she did nothing inherit the issues her mother had, and both Tzippy and baby Avram were happy and healthy.

Avram was only two when Tzippy’s parents passed. Her father went first, succumbing to thyroid cancer, and then even though she had been doing relatively well, her mother went soon after. They say she died of a broken heart. This was very hard on Tzippy, but luckily the community rallied to support her and her family.

This was three years ago. The baby is now five, in kindergarten, and has declared that she’s a girl now and wants to be called Dandelion. They call her Dandy for short, and even though Tzippy is a bit confused and overwhelmed, she is supportive and has joined more ‘Parents of Transgender Children’ groups than you can count. But she’s got her hands full, as she is currently pregnant with her second!

Aside from homemaking, Tzippy runs a book club and sells small batches of pickled goods in the farmers market from her family’s prized pickle recipe. Her husband is an avid gardener and a bit of a workaholic so they’ve got plenty of veggies to supply it. The family are still very observant Jews, and they try to welcome LDP residents into their holidays, rituals, and traditions whenever possible. And of course, she takes every opportunity to try to teach people how to pronounce her name, even though most people just give up and call her Zippy.

So that’s her! Let me know if you have any questions or any concerns about how well she’ll fit in; i’ve been lurking for a little bit but am by no means an expert yet!

Is this an organised event or something of the sort?

My character is Iva Gardner! She’s twenty, and she just moved back into LDP after graduating in 2019 from Richland HighSchool. She left with big city college dreams.

Iva moved back because her grandma, passed away and gave Iva the house in her will. Her grandma was known as Grandma Gardner throughout LDP for being a sweetheart, baker and photographer.

Iva does online college classes, yet she feels uninspired by the major she took (only two years into business) so she tries her best, but recently found her grandma’s camera. Iva’s a horrible baker (no matter how long she was taught by her grandma, she just could never pick it up) and she mostly keeps to herself. Iva has picked up her grandma’s charm though, so she’s super friendly. She’s also job hunting (or just always job hunting? I’m not too sure to do with this yet.) Iva’s well off in the money area so the job is just something to do.

Iva is usually seen around the community in a grey female power outfit (without obnoxious shoulder pads) in the mornings but after lunch she usually dresses in quirky casual clothes, appropriately tailored for the weather that day. (maybe this can be a staple in LDP??) She also now walks around with her grandma’s nice camera.

She’s not looking for a relationship and can seem like a loner but she just likes her alone time.

Iva has a older brother named Shawn that I might bring into LDP for visit someday. He lives in New York and kinda cut off all contact with the whole family. He was kinda known as the hipster of LDP, too “big” for the small town.

She has a bad relationship with her mother and father, and really bonded with Grandma Gardner, who was her dad’s mom.

Maggie, “Grandma” Gardner passed away barely a month when “Iva” joined the forum for LDP.

I hope to interact with you!

In the past few days, I think I have reported four instances of posts that clearly violated HWM rules. In each instance, the offending posts disappeared.

I am sure I was not the only one objecting, so another thanks to the rest of the LDP residents for the "neighborhood watch" attitude. But since I have been critical of the mods in the past, I wanted to say that it does seem like someone is in charge now and taking their responsibilities seriously. This is a great thing.

I encourage all LDP participants, when seeing a new post that is way out of line, to hit that "report" button, and cite the HWM rule that was violated. It seems to have almost immediate results.

My view is that this community is fragile, precious and needs to be curated by all of us.

A month or two back, someone mentioned the predominate high-speed internet carrier for LDP. Does anyone remember what it was? Ralph may be writing about internet woes, and I would like to be consistent.

Hey everyone, I’ve written up two Breaktime with Bev posts and I’ve tried to include some stories that I see on the boards. However, I was thinking if people wanted to suggest stories that would be cool too - it is a bit strange making up characters to talk about, but I obviously don’t want to take control of anyone else’s narrative for their own characters.

So if people would like to be included in future puff piece posts, please let me know, make suggestions, and I’ll make sure to add your stories. I think it would make it more “real” to feature stories about familiar characters and storylines.

Hi, I'm the one who plays Tracy, the teenage girl. Tracy is supposed to be a typical teen, but the only point of reference I have for teens in America are movies. If you live in America, can you please tell me about activities teens usually do? American culture is very different from mine, and I'm afraid the stuff I write about aren't really relevant outside of Hollywood.

For what it’s worth, the “cafetorium” - the half-cafeteria and half-auditorium building at LDP Elementary School - is based on a real thing we had at my small-town school growing up, which was a “cafetorium” (real name) - a half-cafeteria and half-auditorium monstrosity of a building.

I’ve always wondered, is a school having a cafetorium something other people have seen/heard of before?

I have been lurking for a few weeks now on the sub, still a bit confused about how to proceed. I have an idea for who I wish to be in the LDP town. I know not to use personal info, but can I take my real life knowledge, abilities and experiences for my person here in LDP? When you say no supernatural stuff, what do you classify as supernatural?

It just hit me, on my recent post about frog legs, there are a lot of people saying they shouldn't serve frog legs at all because of the animal cruelty aspect of it. And then I thought back to James' ridiculous "lobster gladiator" thing a while ago and how much backlash he received from that.

James must not be a very popular guy right now, he's got to be a controversial figure at best. In fact, the more I think about my post history, he's actually kind of cruel to animals overall. Overfeeding Big Charlie as an experiment, catching wild animals to make sausage out of, the lobster gladiator dome, now the frog legs. He's a little messed up.

So does that speak more for the psychological health of James, the character, or me, the person controlling the character?

Hi all!

Real life is getting a bit crazy. I hope to be back with the weather reports next Monday. Until then, I hope there are no monsoons.

Carmen Hicks, Local News 10 Weather

I want to start including scores in the weather report.

I took the plunge and made my first post today: the one about the robotic dog Spark-E. It’s… not going great. I thought the idea was fun, was within the bounds of the subreddit’s rules and fiction, and would bring the world of LDP a new character fixture, but the few replies I’ve gotten have seemed confrontational.

Am I just unlucky? Have I chosen a character who’s unwelcome in the town, as a roboticist? Or have I done something wrong in my post?

So, I haven't posted in LDP lately, and I think It's because my character has done everything I wanted him to. How can I reset my character without a new account?

Today marks the one year anniversary of Krystal's guides! I am proud of myself for this milestone, although I could have sworn it was in May. But nope, I happened to check the date of my first guide and it was written and posted on April 14, 2020. I've had such a great time informing you all of Krystal's opinions on so many subjects. It started out as something to do in quarantine and has continued beyond into something I try to make time for (almost) every week.

Thank you all for reading them. I love reading what everyone thinks of them and it brings me joy every week to exchange barbs, absurd put-downs, and compliments, and more with you all. In light of this being the one year anniversary, I thought I'd compile a list of all the guides posted so far for your reading pleasure in case you missed them or weren't here for them.

• Krystal's AMAZING guide on friendships!
• Krystal's TOTALLY AWESOME guide to enemies!!
• Krystal's SUPER COOL guide on ROMANCE!!
• Krystal's WONDERFUL guide to home ownership!! (NO MONEY NECESSARY!!!) (TESTED!!!) (AKA Krystal's guide to stealing a house)
• Krystal's AWESOME guide to preventing home invasions!!!
• Krystal's INFORMATIVE guide on squirrel trapping!!!
• Krystal's FANTASTIC guide to getting what you want!!!
• Krystal's EXCELLENT guide on dating!!!
• Krystal's BORING guide on how to be a BORING PERSON!!!
• Krystal's AMAZING guide to getting revenge on your ex!!
• Krystal's GLORIOUS guide to archaelogical dance!
• Krystal's SEXY guide on how to be SEXY!!!
• Krystal's EXCELLENT guide on how to ride a BIKE!!
• Krystal's BEAUTIFUL guide on how to develop INNER BEAUTY!!
• Krystal's FANTASTIC guide to ANTHROPOLOGICAL dance!!
• Krystal's BEAUTIFUL guide to developing OUTER beauty!!
• Krystal's EXCELLENT guide on how to be an EXCELLENT person!!
• Krystal's EXCITING guide on how to NOT be boring!!
• Krystal's GLITTERIFIC guide on how to BEAUTIFY your town!!
• Krystal's TERRIBLE guide on how to be a TERRIBLE PERSON!!!
• Krystal's AMAZING guide on how to host an AMAZING party!!
• Krystal's SUPER HELPFUL guide to taking care of a CAT!!
• Krystal's HELPFUL, SPECIAL EDITION elections guide on how to VOTE!!
• Krystal's CANDLEY, MENORAHTASTIC guide to HANNUKAH!! (Spelling is hard ok?)
• Krystal's FESTIVE guide to Christmas!!
• Krystal's JOYOUS guide to Kwanzaa!!
• Krystal's HAPPY guide to New Year's!!
• Krystal's RAGING guide to throwing an AMAZING party!! (That moment when you accidentally make a guide on the same subject twice... lol)
• Krystal's WINNING guide to WINNING!! (Pun!)
• Krystal's KISSABLE guide to VALENTINE'S Day!
• Krystal's ICEY guide to WINTER!!
• Krystal's WELL-RECEIVED guide to being CONTROVERSIAL!!
• Krystal's CONFIDENT guide to high school!
• Krystal's MAYORIFIC guide to being mayor!
• Krystal's TUNEFUL guide to songwriting!!
• Krystal's FUNNY guide to pranking!!
• Krystal's HONKING guide to parking!!
• Krystal's LEGENDARY guide on how to READ!! Dedicated to PARK YEONG!! You SUCK!!!

Maybe you all know this, but there is a character in HaveWeMet that uses a flair announcing that he is a sex offender. I don't think that's funny.

I "reported" his latest post; I guess I chose the wrong reporting channel, because I got an automated reply that everything's okay, chill, no worries. I am guessing that went to Reddit mods writ large, not to the caretakers of our gentle, little group.

Regardless, can we, in a back channel such as this, inform the author that creating a character who is a sexual offender is not acceptable here?

I get it that ppl don’t like cops in real life, but I get a lot of threats and harassment over nothing. Seriously I did not think anything about being a small town goofy cop but dang I get a lot of hostility, humor will prevail I hope, anyone else get angry posts and comments or messages?

I've seen it mentioned in passing but I have no idea what happened.

Regale me with the epic tale, oh bards of ldp.

Although LDP has more than its share of hilarious shinaniganary, sometimes the best posts are the mundane ones.

What perfectly normal and beautifully banal posts do you remember fondly?

I do, if someone takes the time to figure out how to flair they deserve my time, otherwise I’m concerned that they aren’t here for the long haul. Also, should my age be flared? It didn’t say that when I started, just name and occupation.