Passive observers
When people first hear of Chris, they may become interested or fascinated. While some will degenerate into White Knights, A-Logs, Enablers, Weens, or Carpetbaggers,there are those who choose to keep their distance from Chris and don't want to be a negative influence on him.
These select people are what we call passive observers. They enjoy Chris's antics from the delightful view of the moral high-ground while not directly interfering with Chris's life, and recognise that Chris really needs help from the people around him and trained professionals, not random people on the internet. Having a support group online of people who have your back is ok, but you're not going to convince him that the dimensional merge won't happen by pretending to be CPU Silver heart of the LeapPad Ultimate.
The Cwcki as passive observers
Some passive observers decide to record the more interesting and comedic events of Chris's life. On the Cwcki, avoiding direct contact with Chris is essential, along with trying to remain unbiased, but a little ribbing is ok. The Cwcki's wealth of information over the years has been gained from Chris's inability to keep information to himself, his incredible honesty has made sure we know everything we need to know without having to befriend him. Open-ended questions have also been a good way to get information in the past, as we've discovered from mailbags, and details of how to ask Chris a good question are provided below.
Criteria
Passive Observers are strongly discouraged from doing the following:
- Attempting to contact Chris - Do not directly message Chris on any of the social platforms he is on. If Chris tries to contact you or mentions you in a comment, ignore him.
- Defending Chris - Chris is by no means innocent and he is beyond help from people who aren't professionals - which you most likely aren't.
- Expressing hatred for Chris and over exaggerating his flaws - This makes you no better than Chris. If you really hate whatever Chris is doing, you don’t need to threaten him over it.
- Encouraging Chris’ bad habits - Playing along with his lifestyle is a very bad idea, as it only gives him more of a reason to remain as childish as ever.
- Attempts to troll or annoy Chris - This is not only is most likely to fail, it's also fruitless and often comes back to bite you in the ass.
- Profiting off of Chris's infamy for dishonest, self-serving purposes - Probably the scummiest thing you can do with Chris. While there is nothing wrong with documenting his life or making fanart, it must be done with integrity in mind.
Q&A Advisory Guidelines
In some scenarios, it’s perfectly fine to ask Chris questions under some set conditions:
- Make sure your question is actually for getting important details from Chris.
- Don't get too intimate with him. Chris is not your friend and likely never will be.
- Avoid asking repetitive questions like “When’s the next comic coming out?” or “Is Barb still alive?”.
- On the rare chance that Chris vehemently refuses to answer, just leave it at that and stop asking. If it doesn't work the first time, chances are it won't work the next hundred times.
- Your question must not be a negative influence on Chris.
If you are an editor of the CWCki and you'd like to ask Chris a question yourself, then you should post here. Just be sure to look through the various Discord Q&A sessions in order to make sure that your question hasn't already been asked, and remember to follow the guidelines.
Why passive observation works
You don't have to risk becoming an easy target
Concerns with privacy
Prevention of further degrading a mentally ill man's sense of reality
See Also
- Unholy Quintet - How not to observe Chris.