Monday, August 28, 2006

A Civil Tongue - er Comment

It seems I hit a nerve or two with my comments about Calista Flockhart in my blog about the Emmys. Two of her ardent admirers disagreed very disagreeably with my assessment and then expected me to memorialize their comments by keeping them on the blog.

Disagreeing is fine,what is not fine is the way they did it, hiding behind the veil of anonymity, in one case, and the relative anonymity of a name without a corresponding blog.

So, I deleted them.

Then, this morning, one of them was back, and even more vitriolic, saying "Betty can dish it out but she can't take it." Duly noted.

Delete, again.

I wouldn't put up with rude comments from anyone who came into my home, or called or e-mailed. So, why should I put up with them on my blog? In my home, I would have invited such an intruder to leave, or hung up on the caller, or deleted the e-mail. And, that's what that little trash can in the lower left corner of the blog is for, isn't it?

Here's the message: Disagree with me all you like. Do it civilly, and without the rude personal comments and I'll even leave it there for others to read. But, if you're expecting to start an argument, forget it.

I try never to match wits with an unarmed person.

9 comments:

F&W said...

Bwa ha ha! Go, Betty, go! I agree wholeheartedly and relish the times I can slam down the phone receiver.

Your blog. Your way. :)

Chancy said...

Betty It's your blog and you can delete comments if you want to..

Sung to the tune of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" ;)

Probably that was a troll and my motto is "Never feed the trolls"

Newt said...

Trash in - Trash out - nuf said.

Kell said...

You go girl! Let 'em have it! Yeah!

That's my mom :)

Anonymous said...

Some of my old posts were responsible for some 'interesting debates' in my comments section, and that's one of the things that I enjoy about blogging, but rude and insulting 'trash' has no place.

Jay said...

The internet is full of trolls. The love to pop up and make insulting comments and get arguments going and then run away. They are always anonymous when they post and usually suffer from problems with impotence.

Mari Meehan said...

I too have been whacked by some hiding behind anonymity. Knowing they were local was a bit unnerving but then bullies don't tend to like face to face confrontation. Some comfort in that but awareness of character, or lack thereof, is wise.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you had some cowards attack you. Sounds as though you handled it exactly the right way.

Maya's Granny said...

Betty, My Grandpa told me not to wrestle with hogs, 'cause you just get muddy and the hog loves it. Good for you!