Written by Damien Daville

About vampirism and the internet.. We are all affected in some way by the relationships we have with the many groups on the web. Many of us are members of more than one group that is part of the internet community. As many of you know, there are many groups on the web who offer their services to you.

I only caution that with any organization that you reserve any judgment until you have been able to visit their web site and even better spoken with someone who is a representative of that group. It is easy to have an opinion based on something you may have heard from a member of that group or another group. There is much competition between organizations serving the vampire community and this to often leads to feuds and accusations and arguments between them, many of them based on heresy and innuendo and untruths. Where there needs to be unity of purpose and relationship often falls victim to petty bickering and false rumor and accusations.

Maybe some of you have experienced this kind of negative energy between other groups, and there will always be some disagreement between all as such is the nature of diversity. But, if we let ourselves be dragged into that bickering and fighting, we just become as much the victim as are the organizations to this device. Where we want to see the organizations we join serve the vampire community and reach out to those who genuinely seek us, we can easily see this fall prey to the disagreements between others. I know I have seen this happen with other organizations, and we also become it's victims as members of them. It is sad that such energy is wasted when it could be put into the vampire community that they both serve. We must remember that we will always remain divided if we do not work together, and in that we fail those who need our help and those we wish to educate.

I have lived and worked in vampire communities for over 35 of my 57 years. I have worked in vampire organizations and communities both on the internet and in the offline world in many places in the States. I have also supported many other groups whose desires paralleled mine, and that is to help the vampire community with a haven or home of real vampires and with a resource for information and knowledge. But one constant I have always noticed is the crap you get from some groups about one thing or another. It either has something to do with your support of one person or group or your lack of the same. When all is said and done, we are all trying to do similar things, but there will always be those who just won't work with others or don't care to get along with others, and would rather complain and bitch about who likes who and who supports who.

As I have heard it said by others, if you have a dispute with someone, either solve it or get over it. But some would rather spend all their energy ranting or bashing others, instead of just moving on and working on whatever purpose in this life you have, but then there are those whose only purpose is to fight with others. This is just a sad thing for everyone and any negative energy is useless energy. I do not expect everyone to agree with me in everyway, but I also know I do not agree with what everything others do. But the one thing I expect is that people try to get along and set their petty disagreements aside so that people can accomplish the same thing. While one group is hating another, people are seeking help about vampirism. It is not a wonder that I see people just giving up on it all and leaving every organized group. If there was any reason to be here, I would hope that it would be to reach and help those who ask and seek it. For we just become an embarrassment with petty squabbles.

My message is simple. We must not let ourselves fall into this trap between those who would rather argue over petty differences, than reach out to the vampire community, and to those who would genuinely seek us for their own enrichment. As members of any vampire organization, we want to see our leaders work to reach others and help educate those who have misconceptions about us. We want to be in a group where we can exchange our own experiences and learn about those of others. It is easy to come to judgment, but harder to remain open about who each other is. There are many who need us and seek us to learn, we must be there to help them and ourselves. Hate and hostility are harder to stop than prevent. Please remember in your path of this life that arguments will always be, but it is how we handle them in preventing the discord that affects us all. As we become involved in more groups, it is imperative that we work together than apart, for it is those in the vampire community who will benefit from our diligence.