Ghandi

 Ghandi said "Be The Change you wish to see in the world"
  I'm inclined to think that's a pretty smart philosophy, but then I tend to be the sort of person who likes to take some form of action if I think there's a problem, even if it's just making it clear that there is, by god, a problem. Unfortunately, and maybe it's just a temporary trend, I tend to run into clusters of people who have this infuriating policy of going: "Why bother to do anything, it won't matter, nothing will change."

 I've seen it applied to literally every walk of life, and, it just kills me. Every time I see it in action I have to fight not to fly off the handle, because it makes me -that- angry. If people had gone with that theory with ME when I was newly emerged from the emotionally and occasionally physically abusive horrors inflicted on me by other children during High-school and Grade school, I don't know that I'd even be here today. I mean after all, under that theory, why would anyone reach out to me? I was angry, nervous of people and extremely withdrawn! Reaching out to me wouldn't have done any good, nothing would change, so why should they bother?

 Fortunately people did, and it helped change my entire life. Hell, my husband was among those who reached out to me, and to some extent, vise versa. If we hadn't tried to change things up, we wouldn't be here now, and MiniMonster wouldn't exist, and NomNom wouldn't be working hard to go for round two.

 This particular rage fit wasn't inspired by anything so dramatic as ignoring someone suffering from emotional scars, it actually came up regarding role play, and weather or not it was worth the effort to give people your thoughts, opinions and questions on their 'work in progress' characters when they asked for it. I argue, (no surprise here) that it is worth it. Not everyone is looking for real crits even if they say they are, since some people really just want a pat on the back and to be validated, but far more players than that really really are looking for the opinions of other players who already have active, successful characters. Why? Because you've got an active, successful character, they WANT an active, successful character, and they want, very likely, to be active WITH YOU. Therefore they want your thoughts and opinions to help them flesh out their characters and make them something you would like to interact with.

 Same goes for anyone asking for an opinion. Not all of the people who ask REALLY want it, but some of them REALLY do, and by assuming that no one does, and that it's not worth your time to reach out and make even the smallest effort, you could really be hurting someone.

 Use your best judgement, giving people a chance doesn't always mean you'll hurt in the end.