There is an unpleasant side to blogging. I saw it today and I felt for the recipient.
Bloggers are all different and a blog is whatever the Blogger wants it to be. In my opinion, although people are trying to make money from blogging (and I am told some are successful at it), this isn’t essentially what blogging is all about. It’s about having something to say and saying it in a public forum. It’s about first and foremost interaction and conversation with people who share your interests. It’s about enriching your knowledge and understanding and more.
So there you are blogging away, as an acquaintance of mine was, enjoying people commenting on your blog. You don’t necessarily agree with every comment, but that’s fine, viewpoints are valid and disagreement is o.k. Or is it?
One day you post something on your blog that someone, somewhere does not agree with, does not like. They take it personally. Very very personally. So, they say on your blog they don’t agree, and they present an alternative view, right? WRONG!! They go back to their own blog and post a nasty vitriolic, extremely personal attack on you! And I mean nasty. Full of expletives, vile, personal slurs, and chock full of the strangest assumptions. Against the person, not the post. By the way, they don’t know the person.
Of course, it’s all under the umbrella of a “rant” and “my blog, my rules.” As I said to my acquaintance, the vitriolic and very personal attack reflects poorly on the blogger, and they don’t even realize it. It’s a strange thing to do particularly as one of the blogger’s aims for their blog is to make money from it. You get a glimpse into the person’s character, a clue as to what they might do or say if riled. Maybe this is the real them. Would you buy content (or anything for that matter) from someone who did this? I wouldn’t.
If you are a blogger, you know that you should have a fairly thick skin to deal with hateful comments. You hope you won’t get that many. And you can always delete hate comments from your own blog. But you can’t from another’s blog. Rant all you want, but keep it to the non-personal. That way we can all get along agreeing to disagree.
But it is pretty low and un-businesslike to personally attack another blogger on your own blog… makes your credibility suck. Big time.
To my acquaintance and to anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a personal attack –
“Nihil carborundum illegitimatum” or Don’t let the bastards grind you down. 
Have you been personally verbally attacked over something you wrote on your blog? How did you feel? How did you handle it? Did it change your view of blogging and bloggers?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
YES! I’m immediately placing “Nihil carborundum illegitimatum” or Don’t let the bastards grind you down on my howl page. By the way if you put technorati tags at the end of your posts they will get picked up by search engines and that means you’ll a wider range of readers. :0 oow ooww owWWOOoooo
timethief referred me to this post. I had a brush with the dark side. I made a post on my blog [humiliation] and the first person who commented brought in religion in response to the post [my post had no mention of religion] and then I had counter comments and so on.
Iedited some then I just closed the post for further comments.
Why did I close the comments? Of course I would want people to comment, people to discuss but I would not want my post, my blog to become a place for fights – and fights in which people bicker and squabble around all day. I do not want people to draw out the guns and start shooting each other.
Kashmir, thanks for leaving this comment. I think you absolutely did the right thing. I also wouldn't want my blog to become a fighting ground either. Some people unfortunately don't know how to stay on point. The more emotive a topic such as the subject of Kashmir – and I took the time to read it- the more likely you are to get comments from people who, equally emotive, are only willing for their view to be the dominant one. It's impossible to have a discussion under those circumstances.
Thank you so much for reading about Kashmir. Yes, the issue of Kashmir flares emotions. My blog is an attempt to speak what I feel. I just do not want my blog to become a ‘forum.’ There is an interesting discussion on wp forum whether or not comments should be moderated. What is your take on that?