I’ve often mentioned the overflowing hospitality of Vancouverites, locked into their own little cliques: it’s like pulling teeth trying to make even the vaguest of social connections in this city. Congrats, guys. You’ve done it again.

I recently stumbled upon a collection of seemingly-interesting folks in the local area who do this blogging thing, keeping little online collections of words and thoughts to share with the world. (You know who you are if you’re reading this.) You do this because at some level you just want to create — to write words to tell others what’s going on in YOUR life — even if it is pointless drivel. I started this site here because I was new to Vancouver, living in a city where meeting people — no matter how hard you tried — was only possible if you fit into some predefined category. Go figure that most of the people I have “friendships” with here are people that are also newly arrived to the city. This place is about as welcoming as a brick to the skull. Even so, I’m here for a while, so every now and then I stick my head out a little bit and hope for the best.

So here’s the situation: a collective online blog contributed to by a group of people who — at least at some digital level — I seem to have one thing in common with. Their page is dwindling — I checked the stats — having gone from hundreds of daily hits a few months ago, to under ninety daily hits lately. Other than some vague comments about the city, they are amidst a dry spell of posts — and in fact no one had posted a single word in five days. So I — and while I’m not professional, some people might have been grateful for a semi-decent article given to them for free — posted a slightly modified copy of the ABBA review on their site.

Wait twenty-four hours, and: flame.

In the ongoing tradition of a city full of people who think they are better than everyone else on the whole damn planet, they flamed me for “cross-posting” an article between two sites — mine, this one, which group of people “a” reads — and theirs, which group of people “b” reads. Not a forbidden practice — in fact it was encouraged (which owner of said site did admittedly defend) — even among professional publications, especially since it’s not plagerism if I wrote the stupid thing.

Thus, another happy Vancouver slap-in-the-face. Welcome to the city.