Braying Jerks
Sorry, but this is gonna be a bit of a moan. I have to let off steam. I’ve rediscovered something I had learned to forget; that the Internet is full of braying jerks who can’t *wait* to criticise and dismiss every thought, every suggestion, every shared feeling, hunch or personal opinion by tech bloggers. I don’t intentionally write to cause controversy or distress. I don’t write to wind-up the readers, either. I write from the heart, I write from the head, and I write from a desire to share my enthusiasm for technology with what is – I assume – an audience of like-minded, intelligent people. Yet – there are some noisy individuals who, it seems, exist merely to attack, condemn, criticise and insult the efforts of those of us who are trying to create interesting content on a regular basis. What I produce for The Apple Blog is fun to write, fun to research, fun to share. I’m proud of what we do as a team and the modest contribution we make to the Apple community. And I know we make a valuable contribution because, long before I wrote for TAB, in the days when I was gearing-up to switch from Windows to the Mac, TAB was one of the first websites I enthusiastically added to Google Reader. I still love reading the articles that appear there. It’s still a valuable service I use all the time. I’m moaning, I know, but I’m so sick of the arseholes who troll the articles we publish over there. They’re damned quick to declare our efforts as “terrible writing” and slap arrogant statements like “worst article ever” and other similar such bullshit in the comments. But, y’know, I don’t see those ‘critics’ making any effort to produce content for, and make meaningful contributions to, the tech community. And no – acerbic, idiotic comments at the end of articles does not equal “meaningful contribution”. I’m no MG Siegler or Dan Gruber. I know this. I’m just me, trying to enjoy my love of technology and trying to make a contribution. And usually, I can ignore the trumpeting whines of those faceless, anonymous trolls and their pathetic cries for attention. But sometimes, just sometimes, it gets to me that those morons are given a platform from which to spew their vitriol. I notice that this isn’t unique to TAB. Every other tech website I visit suffers the same parasites. In fact, when I look at cnet, zdnet or engadget it’s pretty clear to me that over on the The Apple Blog we don’t have it so bad. And, this isn’t a new problem. Anyone who has spent time on a discussion board knows already that anonymity encourages (nay, breeds) The Stupid Ignorant. I can’t help but think these people were bullied at school, hate their jobs, harbour bitter dissatisfaction with their lives and so, with twisted glee, compensate and de-stress by attacking people they (secretly) respect and admire from behind the mask of anonymity afforded them by the ‘net. Cowards.Posted via email from Liam’s posterous | Comment »
