Thinking of posting a rude and/or patronising comment on Laurelin In The Rain? Here are some helpful tips to make your commenting experience the fun-packed adventure it should be!
1.
If I ever mean to say ‘all men do/think X’ or ‘all women do/think X’, then rest assured I will say it. I doubt I’ll ever need to, as there is very little likelihood that I will come across something that all men/ all women do/think. To make sure people are clear on who I’m talking about, I add words to show which group of men/ women I am referring to. To take an example completely out of thin air, if I write a post about men who use prostitutes, and then say ‘these men do/think X’, rest assured that that I am referring only to those men who use prostitutes, and I am not expressing some bizarre, irrational hatred of every male who walks on this planet.
Just to clarify, I will quote Biting Beaver in saying that ‘If you are NOT guilty of the things I post about then I’m NOT fucking talking to you.’.
2.
If you wish to disagree with me, there are polite and respectful ways to do it. I suggest ‘Laurelin, I do not agree with you about X because of Reason Y’. Saying ‘you are delusional/ wrong/ hate-filled/ stupid/ evil’ just won’t cut it. The best way to not get deleted is to address me respectfully and state what you disagree with and why you disagree. I may or may not respond, depending on what I feel is most appropriate. Some criticisms I leave unanswered for the other readers to mull over; some I reply to because I feel I have an immediate point to make. Simply said: be sweet or I’ll delete.
3.
While I accept that people have the right to call themselves Anonymous, if you’re here to argue you will make a much better impression if you put a name. I take full responsibility for what I say, and I expect the same from you.
4.
If you have come to tell me my blog sucks consider going and getting a life.
5.
I’m a control freak. I’m very protective of my blog space, just as I am with my physical and emotional space. So I am delete-happy if you piss me off. This is my blog, and I get to decide what stays here. Simple as.
6.
There are no bad names for feminists that I have not heard. So don’t bother. Oh and I know I am obnoxious, opinionated, stubborn, self-righteous and sarcastic so don’t bother pointing it out.
7.
Fan mail is always welcome. And I accept apologies.
has everyone started getting trolls? i thought it was just me cuz I was new.
(But he went and erased his own comments after I told him I would erase them….nice troll)
Comment by lost clown — January 23, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
it does seem to be the season of trollery at the moment…
Comment by Laurelin — January 23, 2006 @ 10:34 pm
blech.
Comment by lost clown — January 23, 2006 @ 11:00 pm
It really is, tonight I am an anti-man bigot feminazi stupid idiot, apparently.
But, unlike my abuser, at least I don’t have a tiny penis!
(I’m also a bit drunk.)
Comment by Andrea — January 23, 2006 @ 11:52 pm
hehehehe
(no problem)
Comment by lost clown — January 24, 2006 @ 12:28 am
how does one deal with someone who calls you, umm, i dunno, puritanical, and then makes a fake ass apology saying that they take it back, but it really is the best word to describe what they mean when you’re railing against objectification of women?
(sorry, I put this in my blog and I’ll never get an answer, just more crap from said poster)
Comment by lost clown — January 24, 2006 @ 1:51 am
Hey, I got my very first reductio ad troll argument today. Damn, I felt all special, too.
Comment by HeoCwaeth — January 24, 2006 @ 2:43 am
Lost Clown, I have no idea how you deal with these people. I go with restating what I said if they are completely misrepresenting it, and I find it very hard to back off and accept that they aren’t interested in what you really said, only what they wanted you to have said. I guess there’s a point where you have to say ’screw it’ because you’re not going to get through. When I worry about being misunderstood because of trollery, I just remember that all anyone needs to do to discover the truth about my attitudes is read the rest of my blog. And if they don’t want to understand, I can’t make them.
Heo Cwaeth, you are very special, troll or no troll
Comment by Laurelin — January 24, 2006 @ 10:22 am
I’ve had a better time of it since I started banning them at first screw up. But yeah, I think winter is the time for trolls *grin*.
I think that amoung the worst ones I’ve had was the guy who proclaimed that raping a woman while sleeping wasn’t rape because (I swear, this is a direct quote) “The rapist doesn’t get anything out of it”.
And yes, I considered something so brazenly sexist at a radical feminist site to be trolling. Something he couldn’t seem to grasp.
Anyway, love the rules Laurelin! Everyone should have rules like that hehe.
Comment by Biting Beaver — January 24, 2006 @ 1:47 pm
Hmm, I am obviously not mouthy or radical enough – I hardly get any trolls. I think I may have had one once…
Better they stay away though.
Comment by TP — January 25, 2006 @ 12:32 pm
I used to rarely get any. But very recently there has been an upsurge here and on other feminist blogs, so I decided to pre-empt any further trollery with The Rules. It’s a self-protection thing! I hate my words being misconstrued.
Comment by Laurelin — January 25, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
I used to get hardly any, now I’m lucky if I go a day without one. Most of their comments don’t even get published, so I’m surprised they bother.
I’m personally fed up of the ones who are dumb enough to include a link to their hysterical anti-feminist page, but pretend to be starting off a reasonable discussion, so they can suck you in to being called a man hater and so on later on when they reveal their true evil natures.
I had two off the same anti-fminist today, one as himself, one as ‘anonymous’. Neither got published.
Comment by Andrea — January 25, 2006 @ 1:19 pm
I’ve been thinking about doing the screened comments, or possibly going the way of the Den, because I’d really like to ban someone, apparently deleteing all of dr. slack’s comments are not deterrent enough. Ugh.
(on another note, I visited Susie Bright’s blog (I don’t know, I wanted to be angry?) and she’s been getting trolled too. Wonder what her trolls look like, us?)
Comment by lost clown — January 25, 2006 @ 5:17 pm
I had a visit from Dr Slack. though he was relatively well behaved at my place.
I like the comments moderation on blogger. You can deny them attention completely. Hah!
Comment by Andrea — January 25, 2006 @ 9:59 pm
ugh. probably got there through my links. grrrr.
Comment by lost clown — January 25, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
It’s the age old question. “I want to link to other feminist sites so they can get read too but I don’t want them to inherit my trolls!”
*grin*
Most of the time I don’t think other writers mind so much. I know I don’t mind swatting down an occasional troll for it.
On a side note, I think that just as bad as the trolls are the ‘clarifiers’. The ones who show up, read an entire rant, and pick out 1 line that they have a ‘problem’ with.
I had a fella on my site, Dim posted a nice long post which stated that if you think that bigger is better in terms of penis size then you’re screwed up because a 12 inch penis really isn’t good for much else than hurting women.
Now obviously, the message we intended to convey was this idea dudes have that they want to be hung like a bull so they can be more ‘dudely’. You know the type I’m sure.
Well, I had a fella who came in telling me that I was being unfair to men who just naturally had huge penises. He wants me to ‘clarify’ and ‘change what I wrote’ so that he doesn’t have to be offended when I state that a 12 inch penis is quite possibly a painful experience for the women he’s with if he’s not exceptionally careful.
As if ME, of all people, am in the business on stroking men’s insecurities about their penises? Ummm…reality check boys, actually READ the blog and you’ll note, rather quickly, that I’m not in the business of making men feel better about their penises or otherwise.
The ‘clarifiers’ drive me crazy. They seem to think that I should paint in every possible ‘escape hatch’ to exclude each and every single person in a rare scenario to avoid stepping on toes.
Obviously, I can’t do that. Not because I don’t want to, but because I am limited by the written word.
In any case, they rank right up there with the outright trolls in my book.
Comment by Biting Beaver — January 26, 2006 @ 12:53 pm
On a side note, I think that just as bad as the trolls are the ‘clarifiers’.
You are so right. It’s all a way of co-opting the discussion.
Clearly, having men in charge of every other facet of life is insufficient, and they also want editorial control over feminist blogs.
Comment by Emma — January 26, 2006 @ 1:21 pm
This guy is funny. http://www.cooltools4men.com
He really didn’t like my men blaming post, yet considers it perfectly acceptable to portray women as pigs.
It’s also quite funny that he believes I actively try to feel like a victim, when he indulges in ‘the feminist threat will castrate us all’ melodramatics repeatedly.
Comment by Andrea — January 26, 2006 @ 3:09 pm
Excellent post, you have every right to be a control-freak about your space, otherwise it wouldn’t be your space would it?
I’m lucky not to have had any trolls on my blog yet, hopefully they’ll continue to ignore my little bit of webspace aswell
I also hope you keep writing interesting posts, i enjoy reading them.
Laurelin1
xxx
Comment by Laurelin — January 29, 2006 @ 10:30 pm
[...] UPDATE: Laurelin in the Rain has her own rules of engagement which I agree with completely. Lots of similar issues as here and a wicked sense of humour. Biting Beaver gets the award for the most concise sentence ever written about commenting on blogs: “If you are NOT guilty of the things I post about then I'm NOT fucking talking to you.” Thanks Laurelin, you reminded that I had read “Da Rules” before but forgot where I'd read them! [...]
Pingback by THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY » Blog Archive » FUN WITH TROLLS — May 12, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
[...] UPDATE: Laurelin in the Rain has her own rules of engagement which I agree with completely. Lots of similar issues as here and a wicked sense of humour. Biting Beaver gets the award for the most concise sentence ever written about commenting on blogs: "If you are NOT guilty of the things I post about then I'm NOT fucking talking to you." Thanks Laurelin, you reminded that I had read "Da Rules" before but forgot where I'd read them! [...]
Pingback by THIS IS NOT MY COUNTRY » FUN WITH TROLLS — May 18, 2006 @ 1:32 pm