Feedback
Yesterday I experienced a large volume of traffic due to other people's promotion of my blog, be it appreciated or not some of the feedback I got was interesting to say the least. I've chosen not to censor comments since I truly believe in the value of free speech and even though this is "my place" to express myself I feel the internet as a whole somewhere for everyone to express themselves. That said, I'm not saying I won't censor comments, however, things have not gotten to the point at which I would yet.
The most interesting feedback I got was through e-mail, and give my new site disclaimer, I felt free to share some of the choice selections with you, my wonderful, devoted readers.
Most of the negative feedback took the form of:
You must be ugly since you're funny for a broad and you're in law school. Please send me a picture to prove that you're not ugly/fat/deformed.To be fair, I should mention most of these e-mails had typos and the writers did not actually appear to have any sort of grasp of puncuation. To address these e-mails. I really don't care what you think of me, and I'm not about to send my picture out to some shaved ape and risking loosing my thinly vailed anonminity because you want a picture to jerk off to. Go find a porn site and leave me out of it.
The positive feedback tended use a much bigger vocabulary, and actually have a grasp on how grammar and puncuation worked. My personal favorite was:
I'd be careful, I think this guy has an Andy Kaufmann complex and might challenge you to wrestle.While I appreciate readers who enjoy my work and send positive feedback don't hold your breath that I'll be sending out any pictures anytime soon.
6 comments:
I have encountered the same problem in the past, and the metaphor that comes to my mind is that the "anonymous" part of the Internet elicits a similar psychological reaction to "road rage" or at least "rude driving":
1) "I am anonymous."
2) "I am isolated."
3) "I am accountable for nothing I do in this medium."
4) "Therefore, I can let my 'Id' run wild, for once!"
The problem with letting this psychology take hold is that the "cathartic" payoff that you expect never comes, just like "flipping someone off" on the Interstate.
If a guy wanted to see your picture, the "rational" thing to do would be to try to create an Internet environment where you feel comfortable showing it.
However, the enumerated items above are obviously not rational premises, so rational behavior is not to be expected.
Anyway, I am sorry for your recent bad experiences. The positive comments on your 'blog heavily outweigh the occasional negative one.
Oh, I meant "as" instead of "to" before "road rage."
The undisputed "Sexiest Asshole Of The Week" advertised your blog on the sherdog boards, you probably received a few comments from keyboard warriors under the influence of steroids.
I subscribed to your RSS cause I was dying to see the "woman as funny as a man" in action. The pressure is on you now "woman as funny as a man" ! Go for it !
hopefully, my link to you did not bring any of this undeserved negative traffic. i have, however, recieved several comments from friends who checked out your blog and liked it. i mean, it's no total consciousness upon your deathbed, but hey, at least you got that going for ya.
Zen-I think you're absolutely right, in fact I think that is why most of the offensive stuff I got wasn't even posted here but sent through e-mail where "only I" would see it.
Zobi-I'll try not to disappoint, but I've never actually considered myself to be funny.
Dicta-You are DEF not what I was referring to when I complained about the traffic I'd been getting. You and a couple others were not the problem, but moreso what Zobi was referring to.
To all of you who left nice comments and e-mails I really appreciated it. It was the few assholes who have really made me step back and consider what I am getting from blogging and if I should continue. While I really enjoy it I think if this keeps up I might need to move. The problem is that I want people who are actually interested in reading me to be able to keep doing so. I've decided to hang on for awhile and hopefully everything will cool off. I've just never handled negative feedback very well and I don't really want to put up with it here, since I do this just to make myself happy.
I think that you have a good blog. The assholes will stop showing up if you ignore them. And I figured most people would appreciate it because it's funny.
And that's the last thing I'll say to you. You've made it clear that you are annoyed with me.
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