Message to Flamers and Trolls
There are two types of people who tend to set me off, both personally and professionally:
- One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people regarded as social superiors.
- One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect.
One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
Most of the time I simply cringe, shake my head, and move on when I run across them. There are times, however, when I’d like to grab them around the neck and squeeze the garbage out of them. Those times normally come around when a friend has become the target of their stupidity.
I think the generic term most of us use on our websites would be "trolls." Trolls are people who apparently don’t have anything better to do than surf websites and leave nasty comments. Most of the time their comments have less to do with the content of the website, and more to do with their own snobbery and bigotry. They apparently think that they are better writers, people, parents, or some such nonsense.
I don’t have a problem with people expressing their opinions, anyone who has read more than a few pages of my blog probably understands that. There is, however a tactful way to express yourself constructively. Telling a person the "originator needed better schooling, I have read better from drop outs and drug addicts" is not very constructive. Leaving such a comment on someone’s blog anonymously is also cowardly and rude.
If you take the time to read most of what the people have written on their blogs, you will probably understand that very few out here are professional writers—nor do they pretend to be. They are simply people who want to share parts of their lives with others. They invite you into their world freely, and you are welcome to share with them or use the little red "X" on your browser to leave their world with no hard feelings.
If you’re going to take the time to leave a nasty comment on what someone else has written, at least have the common courtesy to leave your information so everyone else knows what an asshole you are. If you’re not proud of being an asshole, then perhaps you shouldn’t leave nasty comments.