Someone left a hurtful comment on my blog; rather, they sent it through the contact form, very loudly and clearly. They then proceeded to leave several on a regular basis. I deleted all of them and blocked the user. Despite that, they found other dummy accounts to say the same words and even emailed me with their thoughts. I’ve deleted those messages. Since then they’ve dropped it, but occasionally I see a wayward comment to send to the cyberspace garbage. They know exactly what they say to get a reaction. The person is nothing better than a common troll. They’re also a bully.
Most messages that I receive through the comment form are either spam or rather lovely and kind messages from people who read my articles on Medium or requested reviews of books. I delete the spam and drum up the courage to respond to the kindness. Emails are much harder for me to write since I have a hard time thinking of what to say.
What’s interesting is that the person was a little bit obsessive. They focused solely on one post that went up a month ago, rather than the more recent one. I don’t even remember writing it, because it was a “ten minutes to midnight” rush job. It seemed very much that they wanted a reason to cause drama, as most trolls and bullies do. They believed their opinion was the best one, without the regard that it would have on the recipient. The only solution is to not respond, but they make it hard.
Blogging is hard. I maintain a blog on my website to keep relevant content, and thoughts for dear readers. It is not for the trolls that think their opinion is worthy of the gods. What’s more, it’s not for the real people that think they have a right to hurt others.
I’m pretty lucky in that I don’t get many trolls. GamerGate was bad enough and fostered an environment of hate. Yet this hurt. A lot.
Go out and leave a nice comment for someone you see online. It can be on Twitter, their blog, or content. Compliment someone in-person if you see them in covid times. You never know when someone needs kindness.
