Why Are You Such An Ugly Blogger?

A fourth question raised in this post and this post centers around what can be done about all the ugliness in the blogosphere that likely turns off many potentially interested individuals.

One of the last times that I expressed myself over at the Chalkboard, I ended my post by suggesting that an individual focus on his/her arguments instead of attacking an entire community of people.

(I was not alone in noticing that this person had been engaging in this tactic for what has seemed like a blogging eternity.)

I tried to make my suggestion as inoffensively as possible without sacrificing the message that this person needed to consider a different approach.

At being inoffensive, I apparently failed miserably.

That person pretty much took my comments as an invitation to turn his/her venom on me a bit.

I started to respond a couple of times.

And I just decided it wasn't worth it.

What could be gained?

What could I possibly hope to prove?

That person has expressed the same ugly point so many times that any hope of regular readers being open-minded to his/her points is lost.

I actually think that person raises some issues that are worth discussing and considering. (A FEW)

But any chance for rational discussion with that person is lost in the chaos he/she stirs.

I wish everyone else who comments on the Chalkboard blog would just ignore every single comment made by that individual.

Sure, that person might continue to express disagreeable views disagreeably.

But without the back-and-forth interaction, I really think there would be the potential for that person to lose steam and either change his/her approach or stop commenting.

I didn't like some of what that person said about me, but I just decided that I didn't need to defend or explain myself and that I'd be wasting my time by getting into a discussion with that person, trying to make a point he/she would have resisted completely.

(One funny thing arose. Some parents who know me made comments in response to what that individual said to me. One person said he/she knew me and indicated that I was a black man. I figured that the person must have meant to type "white man" instead.)

Blogging did make me even more aware that there are some genuinely ugly people out there.

I didn't just wake up and realize this, but previously, I mainly knew that ugliness was out there from reading the news.

There are some beautiful people in the blogging community, but there are some ugly ones too.

Behind the cloak of not having to reveal their real names, these individuals seem more inspired to unleash their ugliness.

Finding yourself aggressively attacked by an annonymous commenter can leave you a little uneasy, more so than when you at least know the identity of the person confronting you.

Some have thicker skin for that kind of thing than others.

I do strongly believe in free speech.

But I also hate how ugly speech can silence some/many voices.

A student (or teacher) blurting out an ugly comment can have a similar effect on other students' comfort levels as an ugly comment on a blog often has on that community's potential commenters.

As a teacher, you respond to a student's ugly comment, but once the comment has been released for everyone to hear, at least some damage is pretty much ensured.

Same thing in a blogging community.

When I gave up blogging and didn't return for quite some time, the biggest consideration was time, not being turned off by ugly commenters.

But even two years ago, when I first ventured into the "universe of the narcissistic," I found some of the communication distasteful, even a turn-off.