Entering the Community Properly

By Jarryd

(Originally posted to the Vampiric Community Message Board on 11 July, 2004.)

Too many times I’ve seen people make introduction posts on message boards, enter chatrooms and ask questions through emails in the worst way possible to start off a "relationship" with the online community. And most of the time this is done by newbie vamps or people questioning their vampirism. So I’ve decided to write this little guide for all you people, those who don’t know what the "hidden boundaries" or "invisible lines" are.

First off, read all you can on the subject of vampirism, but also remember to not take anything as fact, eighty percent of most vampire sites are complete bullshit or totally dramatized. Just simply believe what you want to believe; just don’t assume others have those same beliefs.

Once your all "knowledge’d up", introduce yourself, but make sure you don’t do it too casually; the majority of the people on boards go there for knowledge. -- They're not going to think very highly of you if you begin your intro with, "whatsup dog! 'Tis a newbie in da house!" Please don’t think you need to act cool to impress all these "vampire people", please! Some of the vamps I’ve talked to are pretty pathetic. Also, don’t try to be too overly dramatic or formal, i.e "I am a young dark prince awaiting to be bestowed with the knowledge of the elders." You will either get confused replies, get insulted or laughed at. Just simply a casual intro is fine: "Hey, I’m Jarryd. I’m 15 years old, I’m a sang vamp, I’m hoping to learn a lot of things here."

Now that you have introduced yourself, don't assume that you are now part of the online "family". You do, however, have a lot of knowledgeable individuals to help you with your vampire issues, and maybe even on small occasions, your drastic life issues; but I doubt anyone’s going to be interested in what "Jamie" said to "Paula" about your best friend "Bob", and how bad it was. I'm sure you will see little circles of vamps, calling each other by their real names and talking about their personal issues; don’t worry, you will eventually fall into a group like that. But for now, it's kind of rude to just burst in with your personal problems, while there’s someone who posted below who just accidentally killed their cat because they were craving so much.

There are some issues that are kind of touchy in the vampire community. I mean, sometimes they can be put into the proper frame and be discussed, while other times they're best to just stay away from. Here’s just a few:

Turning -- the possibility, will someone turn you, how do you turn someone ... Most people don’t believe in it, and those who do don't discuss it.

Immortal vampires "The true ones" -- Some people go on about how immortal vampires are true vampires and we are just weak genes of the animal. This is another one that’s touchy because not many people believe in it.

Vampire virus -- Although it can be discussed sometimes, it's usually easily discredited. There was a rumor around the vampire community a while ago that there was a virus discovered that was the cause of vampirism; this turned out to be an idea for a television show. People just don’t like talking about it now.

Vampire soul -- This depends on which board you go on; if there’s a board that is affiliated with "otherkin", go ahead and talk about vampiric souls to your heart's content. If they don’t, be a little cautious.

Diagnosis -- We just don’t like to do it. I mean I’m sure a lot of us could go through names of people on boards saying who we think is a vampire and who isn't, but our word doesn't mean a thing.. We can give ideas, and maybe give you other reasons for symptoms, but it's just not good to turn around and say, "No, you're not a vamp", not that I haven’t done that on rare obvious occasions.

If you decide you have a really good theory towards vampirism, and you’ve been in the community less then a year, it's probably best not to share it, mainly because it will probably be discredited in a second. Maybe after learning A LOT about vampirism and experiencing A LOT of different aspects of vampiric life, you could begin writing articles like this. Just don't expect everyone to agree with what you say or everyone to like it. If you want to express yourself and feel like you're doing something for the community, then go right ahead.

So that’s basically a small guide for entering the community. I hope I prepared you so you don’t make an ass of yourself. I also did leave out a little bit of common sense like meeting others from the internet, joining suspicious houses etc., etc., basically because that's just common knowledge. Anyway, good luck!

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