photo by: stevenjude
To comment or not to comment? I found myself second guessing if I should leave comments on blogs for about 15 seconds this afternoon and then decided to blog about my experience instead. I got a nasty email to a response I wrote on a blog. The blogger basically told me my opinion was not welcome and ignorant. The comment I left was sarcastic because that is part of my nature, but it was clear that I agreed with their point in the article. This person took time out of their day to write me an email because they did not like the wording of my comment. I have had writers disagree with my comments, but they publish their replies and I think everyone enjoys reading the back and forth volleys. I think if you are blogging to simply state your opinion as fact, then do us all a favor and turn off your comments. I enjoy getting comments and I don’t care if the person agrees with me or finds me offensive. I think the power of blogging is that it can generate discussion and new ideas. This blog is a collection of thoughts, experiences, and links to things I find interesting. I am aware that not everyone will understand my sense of humor or agree with my stance on certain issues. I don’t think this makes them less of a person and I often find that it gives me something to think about. That being said, at this point in my life, I don’t find my opinions shifting all that much. I believe in civil liberties for all, milk chocolate, firm butts, LOL cats, sweet tea, instant replay and I think it is stupid to wear socks with sandals. If you disagree with me that is okay! I respect your right to your opinion and please feel free to share it with me in my comments. I wrote the blogger back and I apologized for the comment and I promised to never write another on her blog. She won’t get the sarcasm in that either.
Update: Communication is a fragile thing and written communication allows for a lot of interpretation. I am not embarrassed to admit I was wrong about this instance. My fellow blogger did not understand my comment and I did not understand hers.
All of this made me laugh even more when I saw this: Celebrity blogger
I’d love to see that post and comment. Ultimately however it doesn’t matter, I think the email to you was complete overkill. Blogs are not forums, that much I believe. If people write weird or offensive stuff on my blog (very rare) I just delete them. I’ll admit a couple times I have written the comenter but never heard back. One time that sticks out in my mind was when I wrote how psychiatric drugs were over-prescribed and sometimes people should just take a breath. One person WENT OFF on me calling me ignorant and epithets I won’t repeat here. My point is, our blogs are our personal spots, we should be able to do whatever we want on them. I’ve been reading your stuff for at least a year off and on and I can’t really imagine you writing anything offensive. Hopefully you won’t let it bother you and just keep on commenting. I have learned though it’s best to avoid sarcasm on comments (I am very sarcastic) because it’s easy to be misunderstood.
Damien: This has taught me to watch the sarcasm and I will continue to comment because I think it is important to blogging. Thanks for all your great comments!
It’s sad that some people can’t handle sarcasm, their loss! But I must agree on the socks with sandals thing, I think it should be a crime. It defeats the purpose of sandals…just wear a freakin’ shoe if you’re going to wear socks! I also can’t stand crocs, think they belong to hospital workers only & look stupid in any other setting (just thought I’d throw that one in lol).
Anahid: My husband hates crocs and UGGS with a passion. I own both in part to pick on him.
I must issue an apology. I did not understand the email the blogger sent me. Communication is such a fragile thing and I need to tone down the sarcasm so I can see beyond my own duh? moments. I am indeed sorry about the misunderstanding and I will give commenting another shot on the site.
You know Beekers, I often find myself doubting on if I should leave comments on peoples blogs. Sometimes you don’t know how the other person is going to react to what you say, how sensitive are they.
A perfect example is when I was reading a blog and the writer wrote about how her cat attacked her and I wrote a reply and somewhere in my reply I had mentioned “I think cats are useless creatures.” The writer of the blog got incredibly offended. Hey, I said IIIIIIIIII think cats are useless, I’m not forcing you to think that cats are useless and I’m not preaching about how they are useless. It was a simple statement and the blogger basically attacked me. All I could do was laugh about it. I never realized people were THAT sensitive!!
But yeah, not only do I think socks with sandals is a major faux pas but I’ve been known to go on tirades about how white socks are the root of all evil unless you are going to the gym and they are tiny anklets!!!
Oh another reason I don’t like to reply on blogs is that my replies end up being novellas!
Very insightful post! Personally I love it when people leave comments on my blog. If I didn’t want feedback I would write my stuff in a diary. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog.