Three months ago, I wrote a post about how misunderstandings on the Internet can spiral out of control, rather fast.
The last few days, I got to witness this first hand, as the comments on the original post spiralled out of control. When I closed them due to personal reasons and lack of time to moderate, the dissenters moved elsewhere on the blog, to comment on recent posts and accuse me of various things.
The standard blogging thing is ‘don’t feed the trolls’ but I’ve never been very good at subscribing to that school of thought. Especially not when the people who are loudly disagreeing with me move off my blog and start harassing friends and readers.
I am probably doing the entirely wrong thing, feeding them the attention they want and dragging the whole sorry mess out into the open for discussion. But I like open discussion and honesty and transparency.
The premise of the first post was misunderstandings, with a twitter conversation thrown in for good measure, to illustrate what I meant. The person who tweeted the opposite side of the conversation didn’t find my post until months after the fact, when she demanded her right to reply.
Now if I’m going to be finicky, the only person who has rights on this blog is me. I own it, I moderate it and if I had chosen to only let comments from supportive friends come through, then that is my right.
But it’s also not how I work, believing firmly in letting people disagree with me if they feel they have to, even if I don’t like it.
So, back to the accusations, that started with slander, moved through to libel, breach of copyright and falsifying information. Apparently I’ve left out giant chunks, in order to be spiteful. I agreed in the comments that I may have missed something, but thought it unlikely. Further research and going back through the twitter archives (care of google) lands me with exactly the same conversation that I posted out on my blog the first time, so no, I don’t think I missed anything.
Now let’s talk about the continued harassment a little, because it’s annoying me.
At this point in time, I have gotten comments on a few of my recent posts, from commenters using different names. However, the IP remains the same IP that was used in the original comments on the twitter post and on emails that I’ve received. I think that needs pointing out – all these bullies appear to be 2 people, no more.
Before this whole drama, I could never see why people would shut down their blogs because of bullies. I mean, bullies are bullies and the internet has an awful lot of them. They’re everywhere, on forums, on youtube, ready to tell you what a dikhed you are and point out that your a fukwit. No one pays attention to that, at least, not really.
However, organised harassment is a little different to drive by trolling. By these people hanging around on various old posts, remarking that I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to care for my animals and commenting badly off topic, whining that I started this, it makes me wonder what is the next step for them.
I mean, reporting me to my host for alleged breach of copyright hasn’t gotten them anywhere, trying to bully me into taking down the twitter conversation hasn’t worked and trying to muddy my reputation with friends is failing fast, I’ve got to ask the question: Where do they go from here?
And that worries me a little. Where DO you go from here if you’re not getting your own way (on MY blog) and you’re not getting anywhere?
I think that’s why others have shut down their blogs. Because of the fear of ‘what next’.
Personally, I think I’m lucky that my bullies are on a whole different continent. There is very little they can actually do to me. Nasty emails and comments, well, dude, it’s the Internet. I can walk away from here, go turn off the computer and play in the garden.
That’s where I’m lucky.
However, I’ve still got them tromping all over my blog and complaining that the whole decor here is just wrong, which isn’t fun.
Bullying is a hot topic at the moment after the recent suicides. I think it needs discussing.
***
Edited to Add:
This post has been reviewed, rather unpleasantly by the bully in question. If you’re interested, you can see the review here and the unpleasant review from the other post here. It’s this kind of behaviour that is called harassment.
Also, I retract the fact that I say in the comments of the original post that I could have made a mistake. I do not believe I did and I don’t believe that there are tweets missing.
***
Please remember, keep all your comments polite, we don’t need to be accused (again) of being a gang and bullies ourselves. I want open discussion on harassment and internet misunderstanding, not namecallings, okay guys?
Also, because my harassers have been following some people back to their own blogs and being nasty there, please keep this in mind when you comment. If you decide that it’s not worth the possible risk, then that’s fine. I want people thinking about this, not being bullied on my behalf.
Bullying is not on. And people who stalk and troll (in a negative way, happy friendly stalkers are always welcome) should be ashamed of themselves. I would say that any person who does this is writing their own name in the dirt, and probably has some deeper issues.
They can’t really be considered trolls though, can they – they weren’t anonymous and they didn’t swear once! Definitely untroll like behaviour.
It feels like bullying.
Darls, not only are they trolls and bullies but they are breaking laws themselves.
This constitutes stalking which is a chargeable offence across all states and territories of Australia, whether the perpetrator or victim lives in Australia they are covered by these laws.
(((hugs))) xxx
Now THAT is very interesting.
Excellent post. I’m the first to agree that bullying is never okay under any circumstances. They’ve gone after some of my commenters as well. I would suggest if anyone feels harassed by this they take screen shots of the IP address and the comment with the matching time stamp, and then delete the comment without responding.
BTW, been meaning to mention that about your decor. Nothing personal…
Damn decor, it’s looking a little, I dunno. Odd.
Veronica – you can (if you know) the ISP – report them through that – that might put a damper on them.
As Jayne said there are laws.
As for your fear of ‘feeding the trolls’ you have a right to defend yourself on your own property (your blog) and if you have only post the postive comments, then so be it.
Whatever decision you decide to make is something YOU must be comfortable with.
Take care and remember, those with mothing better to do with their time, have very small minds and are unable to look beyond their own backdoor for fear of reprisals.
*hugs*
I_Enigm….
Thanks very much Heather.
Urgh, trolling. I honestly dont see the point. I love it when they claim freedom of speech, something that isnt an actual constitutional right in Australia. But moving along, I hope these people give up soon and rest assured decidecated readers of your blog wont have their opinions changed by a couple if people with low-self esteem and anonimity to protect them.
I can’t see the point either. I’m a big believer in ‘click away’ policy.
This time however, they’ve got an argument and I’m supposedly wrong and nothing will change their mind. So we’ll give them points for stubborness (and me too, probably.)
Oh, and I meant to add…
They are doing TAS no favours, whatsoever, with this vindictive, childish trolling as everyone who reads their comments will automatically connect TAS with this anti-social behaviour and that will be that.
Reputations are hard to build and easy to destroy, which is what they are doing in this endeavour to bully others.
Well I thought that too, it’s part of the reason I named no names here, so they can’t use the ‘you’re bringing us into disrepute’ argument again. It’s sad, because my original point had nothing to do with ‘scoring points’ or ‘revenge’ or anything they claim in the comments over there.
And they gave me TWO bad reviews on stumble, stating opinion as fact and just ugh.
The whole issue sucks hard. I have been knocked about this week a bit and it is exhausting and makes me sad. I do not want to have to put a moderator on my comments. Not everyone likes what I write (why do they read it?? WHY??)
I followed your drama on twitter recently, you poor thing. Talk about intimidation. Great post. xo
(((hugs))) I didn’t realise you’d been trolled this week? It’s horrid. xxx
Meh, you put it out there, you need to be prepared to cop some flak hey. Your case is a little different though. Thinking of you xo
Yes, I didn’t expect them to be silent about this post. The reaction on the first post and all my other recent ones yesterday/this morning surprised me.
Haha pointing out “your a fukwit”… hilarious and so true. You have a wonderful way with words, ma’am and I sincerely hope you don’t shut down your blog. Trolls suck x
Thankyou 🙂
I won’t be shutting down, I like my blog way too much for a few bullies to bother me.
Good to hear, give ’em a big STFU.
It is beyond frustrating for me as a reader to be witness to conversations about copyright and libel/slander (which in Australia now come under plain old “defamation”) on the internet when people are plainly wrong. I teach law as it applies to writers, communicators and journalists at university and it kills me to see people get it so, so wrong. How you put up with their (extended) nonsense on top of everything else you’ve got going on is true testament to your character x
I have small children, my ability to deal with nonsense and explain things over and over is well developed. Hehe.
I didn’t defame them, I wrote (I thought) a fair post that talked about a few different things.
bahahahaha! Nothing like a good repeat x 1500
No indeed you did not defame them.
Please never stop blogging. My husband used to have a leatherworking blog and shut it down after some guy kept leaving sadomasochistic gay sex comments on it and refused to stop. D told him to quit it and he kept it up. It got to the point where he didn’t want to post any more, just felt sick about it. It was the same guy, same blogger account, every time. He could have done something about it, but it was just too much to deal with even seeing those (very violent!) comments.
And D made the mistake of leaving his “contact me” email address on the blog. The poster made fun of his Christianity (his email was obviously a Jesus-happy title) and said all kiinds of stuff. I guess if you are a Christian and like leatherworking (making bootstraps, belts and bracelets) you must be into gay masochistic sex or something. It was just frightful.
I actually think it was a form of anti-Christian hate.
Anyway. Do keep blogging if you can. I will understand if you need to move your blog and hope you pack me in your suitcase. 🙂
See, that’s the kind of things that gives S&M a bad name. Do what you like in your own bedroom, but don’t bring others who aren’t into that sort of thing into it. I bet it was a small sad man, at home alone. Poor D. Same with religion. I might not believe what you believe, but who am I to make fun, or be horrid about it?
I won’t be shutting up shop, although there may be some changes to comments and how long they’re left open for.
A simple (?) way to figure out if the original post (the copying of a twitter conversation & then a post on it) is to contact Twitter directly…
https://twitter.com/tos
Under the heading Copyright Policy… there’s an email address. You’d have to find out what the California laws are on Copyright infringement. I believe, though, that as long as you make a solid effort to identify the origination of the things said (i.e. the twitter user name, which you did), then you’re covered.
As for the “bullying,” well… every one of us reserves the right to delete/block comments for any reason, even for those who are not paying for their own domain.
I use Askimet- because I can easily auto-spam comments from any IP address.
Not that I personally am popular enough to get trolls. One day I aspire to be, though. *wink*
Tweets aren’t copyrightable and yada yada. But yeah, I’m covered because I gave credit, etc.
And hey! I saw your review today, well done, nice review for sure. Especially for a quickie one. (and no, dude, I want to be majorly popular, like 100k visits a month will do and trolls suck. Don’t aspire to trolls, aspire to brilliance. xx)
*rolling eyes* Like there’s nothing better for these people to do than be irritating.
For what it’s worth, I adore you and look forward to reading what you write.
And PS, the decor suits me just fine. 🙂
Apparently in their free time they like to throw their weight around. Them and their 7.5million page views a month. (For serious, they made sure to point that out to me)
Veronica, you and your mum have both been gracious under fire. More power to you both.
Trolls end up making the world uglier, which is a real shame. There’s enough ugliness around already, and clearly some people have far too much time on their hands.
Thanks, I tried to remain as calm as possible, although some of my snippiness probably shows through on later comments in the other thread.
Came over from a friends blog (not sure if she wants me mentioning who, given the circumstances!), and just wanted to send some virtual support. While I’ve never personally been attacked by trolls – my lil blog is too small I think 🙂 – I did write a post once after seeing another blogger flamed.
I feel sorry for these people – can you imagine how their lives must be? Who wants to be around someone who gets their jollies by attacking random strangers?!
Thanks so much, I appreciate it.
Ladies and jellybeans, I give you… screenshots.
http://www.rrsahm.com/2010/11/whaddayaknow-joe.html
I KNOW! Whodathunk that I was telling the truth all along?
At Primary school we were taught that ’empty vessels make the most noise’, Joe and TAS would appear to fit this criteria quite well. Perhaps they should concentrate on their own sites rather than yours, because they certainly aren’t doing themselves any favours here!
We mustn’t forget all the others who have commented on their behalf too (all with the same IP address).
Ah well.
When I read posts like this I am kinda glad I am not really that well known!
The only form of harassment on my blog was from my ex but I never approved any of the comments so it quickly died out.
I have read the previous posts and to be honest am not 100% sure what all the fuss was about BUT what bothers me about these sorts of attacks is that they are personal and have nothing to do with the issue.
If you post something I disagree with I will say “I disagree with x because of this…” not just “You are dumb and your points make no sense”. Comments were made that you didnt have all the information – but no information was provided to say you left xyz out. I cant continue debates/arguments with people like that!
Its a little bit like having a 2-year old tantrum where you run around screaming and shouting and drawing on walls hoping someone will acknowledge you!
You see it’s really weird, because I don’t consider myself well known or ‘big’ in any fashion. But then things like this happen and I’m surprised. Maybe I’ve just got an argumentative tone and people don’t like me sometimes. Who knows.
And yeah, I agree. I will disagree with a point someone makes, but personal attacks are never fun.
I hate it when people have nothing better to do than go and upset others. What’s the point? They obviously have no lives of their own. If I don’t like someone, I don’t care what they’re blog looks like, I just don’t read it!
One way to continue with your blogging (I know you’re not closing it) is to have approval on comments, that way, your blog won’t be seen for a big troll fest place. Set it up so that you have to approve all comments. Only temporarily until this person gets bored. You have valid reason for not allowing their comments.
I hope that you aren’t taking them too seriously
Take care
Jane
I know and the lack of rational thought that they appear to show! I’m wrong apparently and no one will convince them otherwise.
Hi Veronica-I’m a long time reader, I enjoy your perspetive but I’m a first time commenter. Scratch that, I’m a 2nd time commenter!
Take what I have to say anyway you like but please take it from from the viewpoint of a grizzled veteran.
Do not ever try to justify yourself or your views with an anonymous entity.
Always remember its your blog, your views are ultimately why people like us tune in.
Whomever else that drops in to cause trouble can FUCK OFF ROYALLY!
Simple really.
Never engage nor acknowledge them.
Keep smiling and keep blogging!
From someone who has learnt the hard way!
Thanks very much, I appreciate it. Someone said yesterday ‘Never explain, never apologise’ which is great advice. And it’s very likely that when they come in, screaming at me again, I won’t. But I couldn’t deal with the whole lot in silence you know, especially not when they were emailing my readers as well.
It’s just a giant load of crap really!
Steve, I think I love you. xo
Oh Steve, I love you too!!
Me too. Vote 1 Steve!
Who is bullying who?!! You’ve only got yourselves to blame for telling lies.
Only true facts have been told by V.
Actually, it is all of you that have harassed them, sending constant abusive messages, (and very vile some of them, you should be ashamed of yourselves) ignoring the facts, writing misleading blog posts, and Lori, your screenshots are missing the full coversation, so your new blog post is just a case of sour grapes. By the way, you cannot report them to their ISP, as they haven’t broken their TOS.
What is interesting, is that I agree with you, ‘Joe’ is an idiot, mainly because he assumed that some of you had a smidgen of intelligence, which you clearly prove in all these posts that you don’t.
Oh Mrs P. I’m assuming the thing about reporting them to their ISP was directed at me? Please, use your smidgen of intelligence and go re-read my post. I wouldn’t waste my time.
What I have to say about such commenters isn’t polite, so I’ll bite my tongue in your house. But I can suggest you block the relevant IPs in your control panel. I suspect, if you leave it long enough and simply let them voice their opinions to an empty room, with no reaction from you, that it will gradually die off. Has worked for me in the past. If there’s nothing to bounce the angry/spiteful ball off, a person eventually loses interest.
All else failing, moderate for a short time, until the commenters realise they will not get any air-time. Ultimately, show no fear and quite simply, ignore them. X
I think I’m going to go with ignoring them and suggest everyone else does the same thing.
One thing that this as shown me, is ‘keep away from bloggers’, they really are a law unto themselves, disgusting, foul mouthed and vile internet bullies, any credibility that you may think you had.
I’ll take that as a complement
Golly, V, all this going on while I have my head buried in NaNo and am virtuously ignoring the blogosphere. I am sorry you are going through this, and you have all my deepest sympathies. The Internet can be a dirty rotten playground sometimes.
I’m not sure if you approve comments on your blog/s, but if you do moderate, perhaps it’s time to start deleting rather than publishing any more of these kinds of comments no matter which post they appear on. The person/s surely cannot have anything new to add – you’ve generously allowed them to have their say, they’ve had it, game over, I would have thought. I had an argumentative commenter pop up on an old post on one of my blogs and I published their first two comments, then, as they were basically repeating themselves and getting less polite each time, I just deleted all the following comments.
There is no obligation in law or ethics to publish every comment left on a personal blog, unless any arrangement with your advertisers requires it. My opinion only, butt seems that “David” and his good friends are being extraordinarily persistent in their efforts on this and you really don’t want a months-long derail on your hands.
I agree, I think if it continues I’ll switch to moderation – but we’ll see how I feel. As a whole, I prefer to not moderate, but meh.
Hey! How is NaNo going?
Shockingly well, actually. 18,000 words down and not stuck yet! No idea why, but it’s flowing for me this year.
Well done! That’s going really well.
There’s really only one way to make this go away Veronica, remove the post. The conversation has been falsified. The screen shots by Lori prove nothing, there are still tweets missing. Are you sure you want to continue with this? I would say that this is pretty bad netiquette? Don’t you care about your blogging reputation?
It is actually all of you that stalked and harassed them, maybe you should get the police on to them, would be very interesting
Have I stalked and harrassed TAS now have I? that’s news to me
Funny, I thought frogpondsrock harrassed TAS, not the other way around. The conversation shows Kim approaching them with a snarky comment which was not even directed at any of you, not the other way around. You can’t attack people and then not expect them to defend themselves. You’re all now whinging and whining about this but it’s your own fault. You should not post horrible and false things about people on the internet.
“You should not post horrible and false things about people on the internet.” You should really start taking your own advice ‘Malcolm’.
Funny, frogpondsrock admitted it was a smart arse comment, but apparantly everything TAS replied to her is “all lies” “false” “faked” “staged”.
Could I then also assume that frogpondsrock never actually said anything smart arsey at all and TAS faked it all to get her a bad rep on twitter, because she didn’t use the site often enough?
I think Ke$ha says it best. “Stop-stop-stop-talking-that BLAH. BLAH. BLAH.” (Her words, not mine lol)
I don’t see the posters getting less polite.
Maybe someone should start a blog about all of you? You know, showing screenshots of your conversations etc. I think that would be the only way you would understand how aggrieved the other party feels. It’s really not a very nice game you guys are playing.
Oh, I see, you would like them to be polite, while most of the bloggers here are extremely rude and vile? I have never met such an unpleasant bunch of people all in one place at one time, the motto here is, beware of bloggers!
Then why are you here?
Go through all the information already posted, which you obviously haven’t. By the way, Lori’s screenshots are still missing things, even when compared to Veronica’s, how daft.
*sigh* Please, Mrs P, tell me exactly what is missing from the screenshots, especially when compared to Veronica’s. PLEASE. That is all any of us are asking. Show me, and I will retract my post and post a picture of myself in the nude, or something suitable stupid. Please.
Oh please do Miss P, I really want to see Lori in the nud 😛
Like the facts have not been posted often enough?!!! Only, most of those are twisted and turned into lies. Like the one where legal action was threatened? Where?
Btw, are personal insults now the only thing you have left?
Negative trolls sums you up really well, actually. Such hypocrisy.
“I have never met such an unpleasant bunch of people all in one place at one time, the motto here is, beware of bloggers!”. So why are you still here?. hypocrisy.
I quite like your decor. I’ve obviously got no taste!
I also think that you’re dealing in exactly the right way with this. You’ve tried talking politely, that didn’t work. Best to ignore them now.
It seems to me that this has been blown out of all proportion. I wonder what the agenda is from these people (person?).
Sheesh. I go to the Bloggers Festival and your blogging world has imploded. Gah!
Hang tight, kiddo. We’re all here for you. Hugs.
I know! Madness. Even weirder is the fact that some comments seem stuck at the bottom of the page. Odd. Very odd.
Hi guys, I had to remove the last 5 comments because of a WP glitch, one of them was Kathy’s and one was from Nat3DS, the rest were from Miss P. Hopefully this fixes the issue.
The trolls seem to be quick to say it falsified but arent willing to show screenshots to prove their much cried innocence. I’m also wondering if they’ve noticed the irony of the fact that your post was small things becoming big things on the internet. Perhaps they just enjoy the drama? Stay strog V! Im a new reader (and, incidentally, started with the post containing the original screenshots) and I admire you for the way you write as it is easy and enjoyable to read!
I know. It’s really strange.
On the upside, the comment section appears to be fixed!
It’s because I commented, I magically fix website issues (true story)
LMAO I wish – I had to delete some comments. Somewhere in the coding they went wrong and the blog thought they were trying to reply to posts years old, but put them here. Froze everything up for a bit.
Veronica, the law states that even if you own a blog, you don’t own the comments.
Like I keep saying, over and over again, if you want to be taken as serious bloggers, you really need to know the law. And maybe treat people with a bit of respect?
But Mrs. P—- what if we don’t want to take ourselves seriously as bloggers? What if we post the things we post simply because it’s *gasp!* fun? Have you ever considered that?
There are quite a few successful artists in this world who don’t take themselves seriously at all. Being overly dramatic and serious doesn’t make someone any better at what they do— it just makes them annoying to be around.
I don’t know how old you are in real life, but I’m hoping it’s young, and that you still have plenty of time to learn. Life is long, it’s isn’t easy, and you really need to learn how to laugh a little at yourself if you hope to survive it sane.
Veronica – I wonder if they’re continuing this argument simply because it’s directing traffic to their site? It’d be silly, but maybe it’s true. Negative publicity is still publicity, after all.
Read the previous comment (before yours) properly, Nat3ds
I have to say the flame war/trolls have been very amusing. I can’t believe they haven’t got anything better to do with their times. I did try to follow the various comment threads but very quickly got over it.
Veronica keep sharing your life with us and ignore the idiots who feel they’re going to gain something by constantly flooding your comments section with inane comments about things from the past. (I know you don’t have any plans to stop blogging, but just in case you have…)
I will keep writing and we’ll ignore everyone else.
Guess I have missed major drama while I’ve been busy with the baby….sorry you were/are going through this…I was just in the middle of the same type of thing from ppl I actually know in real life on facebook….and b/c now they live far away think they can say whatever they want b/c it’s over the internet…I just don’t understand why people have to be so nasty to others.
Babies are the BEST distraction! I’ve had some issues with people I know IRL before and that’s so hard to deal with. Sorry it’s happening to you. xx
V so sorry you are going through this, I’ve actually been trying to comment since last night(couldn’t find the right words), well last night for me, anyways my blog being so small has never had something like this happen but I was for a short timed bullied in school so I know how frustrating it can get. It is so much drama over nothing really, hope it all blows over soon, you know cause as much as drama is fun to watch/read I would rather see the fiction drama that is on TV and read it from a book than be reading it from a blog that I love.
I was bullied in Primary school, makes me wonder if bullies ever really grow up?
Storm in a teacup really. xx
I read your blog. I have you in my Google reader and I don’t remember seeing any blog posts about rude tweets or a blogger spat. I must have blinked and missed it. But if the rude stalkers want a blog to talk chit about they can go troll through my archives. I have a lot of controversial posts to rile folks up. I don’t mind rude comments. I think the ruder the comment the more stupid it makes the person look. Ppl can see through low intelligence commenters just trying to get some internet attention.
I would never shut down my blog because of some losers who have nothing better to do than start trouble in my comments. I would suggest you just moderate your comments and not let the idiots comments get through. I know it’s a pain in the butt to have to do that but if it keeps the drama down it might be worth it.
And you are right about one thing… this is YOUR BLOG and you can post/say whatever you want to.
I know! Honestly the post wasn’t a big deal until recently.
Hey V—
Do you mind if I post a link to this article with some commentary about the stupidity of Total Art Soul, complete with links to their site? If you think it will cause you any grief, I won’t do it. But the mood I’m in… I wouldn’t mind breaking my blogging silence for a fun little bit of roasting. It’d be kind of fun thing to write.
Oh, and Total Art Soul? I had absolutely no problem with you guys having an issue with Veronica’s comments. I mean, I don’t think the law is on your side, but I can understand you guys having your feelings hurt, or whatever.
On the other hand, EVERY SINGLE TIME you guys commented on one of Veronica’s posts… and EVERY SINGLE TIME someone commented on one of your posts, it was directed to my email box (since I tend to comment a lot on her posts and click the button to receive followup comments.) Do you guys realize how annoying it has been to be flooded with your negative, whiny vitriol? I understand you guys changed your name, but to anyone with a half a brain, it’s easy to distinguish writing styles… even if you had bothered with trying to change the tone of your comments (which you didn’t) it was obvious it was the same person, over and over. I didn’t need Veronica to tell me it’s coming from the same IP address.
Do you have ANY idea how annoying it is to wake up to the same stupid set of comments negative flooding my inbox? You do realize that every single person who commented on Veronica’s previous posts probably woke up to the same thing? Are you guys TRYING to make yourself look childish and annoying? If you are, you’re doing one helluva job.
When Veronica wrote the post, I was completely bored with the topic (Sorry, V!) and after a perfunctory comment I forgot all about the post. Now, thanks to you guys, Total Art Soul has been permanently branded into my mind, and not in a good way. Well done. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Oh god, I didn’t even think about people who had subscribed to comments! That’s why I started using a plugin, so when I reply here to you, you get email notification of it.
Is this the review you were talking about Veronica? Do you want me to smite them for you? Send some pestilence their way? Acid rain? Locusts? Crotch Rot?
Rated by cathysavels on Nov 09, 11:53pm
This group of women constantly bully and lie on the internet. I have seen them attack totally innocent people for no reason at all. I personally have received abusive messages from bogus accounts on Twitter. They are part of the Aussie Blogging Association yet they don’t seem to give a hoot about their blogging reputation. These blogs are really not worth reading. If ever you should wish to know how NOT to behave on the internet, then this is it.
Crotch rot, now that brings all kinds of unpleasantness to mind. *shudder*
Without reading all the comments, because frankly it all seems a bit nasty, I think bullying or harrassment of any kind is just plain ridiculous. I think you should all just move on and get back to writing your blogs and stop writing about what other people are doing. Get back to why you started this in the first place, ignore the craziness. I love your blog Veronica.
A good deal of the comments were lovely too, which has been nice.
Thank you!
The pen really is mightier than the sword. I wish people wouldn’t write things down that they wouldn’t stand up in front of an audience and say. Hope you’re okay. x
Well, the keyboard is in my case. My hands are bad with pens, I can only imagine the kind of damage I would do wielding a sword!
this is so sad, love to you V
Thanks very much 🙂
*sigh*
At least your trolls are visible. My little fuckers only ever email me.
Eat em alive little minions.
Mwaaaaaa haaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaa!
Love you sweetie.
I guess they do have that going for them. It started with emails though and the emails I’ve gotten have been not pleasant. Ugh.
We WON’T talk about the form email that he is sending to everyone else about me though (I just got another notification).
Nope, comments still broken (ish) with the last 5 comments down the bottom supposedly ‘stuck’. Anyone got any ideas why that’s happening?
I just wanted to say a big thank you to Total Art Soul. I never knew about this great blog until your total over reaction was linked to another blog I have been following. So thanks to your childish, immature behaviour I wound up reading the original post and all the comments that came after it. As someone who has come into this storm late and as someone who had no background on any of the people involved, I can tell you in all honesty TAS you have done yourselves a massive disservice. You have made yourself look stupid and vindictive, not through what was written in the original blog post but in all of your increasingly bizarre replies to it in the comment section.
So a big thank you to TAS for leading me to this blog which I would not have been aware of without your totally inappropriate rant and over reaction. You know, you would have come off looking a whole lot better by using two very simple words. I’m sorry.
Hugs Veronica.
I had to leave a forum I was very attached to because of bullying. The internet is like road rage – people feel separated from real life so think they can say anything. I know how frustrating I found it to have people tell me to disengage, or just not go back. They seemed to think that because it was ‘only the internet’ that it wasn’t real bullying, but the emotional effect on me was huge. I also get the dreadful fascination of not being able to leave it alone, and wondering what is going on behind my back.
You could wonder why, with their 7.5 million page views, they care about some small to middling blogs who aren’t in their target market anyway. You could also wonder how they had managed to be on the internet for more than a few minutes without seeing anything that upset them. Or if this is their normal reaction how they aren’t completely exhausted.
Unfortunately I never found a better answer than leaving, but I moderate on my blog. In this situation I wouldn’t hesitate a moment before blocking the IP address and not allowing the comments – you are the publisher of this blog and you don’t have an obligation to publish any more than Amazon does.
I am still failing to get it. If they say there are tweets missing, why not just show them? Surely that would vindicate them and prove you to be a dirty great liar and fantasist and cement your bad repuatation?
The only reason I can possibly see for NOT showing them is that they don’t exist, or cast them in a bad light.
I am just gob smacked by all the stuff I see going on in the blogging world to be honest. There appear to be some very deranged people out there!
Mich x
Veronica,
Wow! I drop out of the blogging world for a few weeks (OK, a few months) and I missed the whole damn thing…
Chin up, girl.
I am gobsmacked. When I read your original article I thought that TAS were the ones being snarky not frogpondsrock. They totally overreacted BUT as you said, they were probably just having a hard day and feeling unappreciated. Happens to the best of us. I just can’t help but wonder what might have happened if they had emailed you privately and said “hey Veronica, you know that post you wrote? well, I was having a really bad day and I reacted strongly but I was wondering if you would mind eversomuch taking your post down because I wish I had handled things differently and now feel like I am being reminded of the worst side of myself and am a bit concerned that it might have a negative impact on TAS.” I can’t help but think this whole thing would have been totally different if that had been the approach rather than a chain of increasingly out of control comments all over your blog.
Perhaps a reminder that when in doubt, or feeling pissed off, stop, breathe and regroup before responding.
Just a thought…
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