The Ugly Side of Blogging

Blogging is usually a lot of fun. You can write just about anything you want — from your heart, your head, or your funny bone. And the whole world is out there; you never know who will read your posts. Will the message cheer them up? Will it make them laugh? Will it inspire them or motivate them to do something?

I routinely submit my best blog posts to reddit (www.reddit.com), a collection of thousands of blog posts,  for additional exposure. One of them recently sort of “went viral” and garnered more than 200 hits in two days. That was very cool!

But…prior to that, I’d submitted my very first personal blog post to reddit and happened to go on the site to see how it ranked. (Readers vote individual blog posts up or down and the best ones rise to the top of the lists in various categories and are, subsequently, read by more people.) The post was about the method I use to keep my clothes clean while I eat breakfast in the car on the way to work. Found it and saw that there was a comment from a reddit reader.

I opened the comment and my  mouth fell open!  It said something like, “You fat f****g pig, why don’t you just eat breakfast at work!”

Ouch.

In my rush to delete the comment before anyone else saw it, I clicked the only Delete  button in sight, which removed the entire post.

At work, part of my job is to manage a corporate blog that about 6,000 people around the world can access — which includes the unenviable job of being the “blog police.” I’m all for free speech, and try to be open-minded, but it’s amazing the things that supposedly well-educated professional people will write when they’re signed in as Anonymous. I unpublish inappropriate comments occasionally and sometimes get more anonymous feedback asking who the jerk was who did that, and what was wrong with that “innocent” post…

Like many things in life, blogging has its good and bad sides. Thankfully, the good parts (the great blog posts written by talented people on every subject under the sun) outweigh the bad.

 

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4 Responses to The Ugly Side of Blogging

  1. Sandi says:

    It is interesting how ugly people can be when they don’t have to sign their names. It also reflects their cowardly personalities. Ignore such stupidity. They have the problem – not you. It takes courage to share your inner thoughts and feelings and open yourself to nasty comments. Thanks for your writings. They usually brighten my day.

  2. Yes, I agree with you. It is interesting how the chance to be anonymous can pull out the worst in the persons….

  3. Carolann says:

    I have seen much worse comments from very mean people on the net. It’s almost painful to read them and imagine how hurt the person receiving them must be. You have to just close your eyes and pretend you didn’t’ see it and move on….or you will never blog…that’s what I do. I realize there are a lot of messed up individuals out there. Great post!

  4. J.R. LeMar says:

    Yes, this can happen. And it’s strange, you never know what is going to bring out the trolls. Sometimes you know if you’re tackling a controversial topic, like something to do with religion or politics, that someone might vehemently disagree, and so you brace yourself for it. But then often I see people reacting with vulgarity and anger to even the most benign topic, like you just describe. It’s crazy.

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