Well, here's a little lesson. I got annoyed at a comment spammer and so I bit back. I got two negative feedbacks from readers.
I don't get much negative response from readers, they generally side with me. But not on this issue. Most interesting. What was it that set them off?
Did I come across as sanctimonious? I'll admit I like to write a little bombast into the blog now and then just to spice it up. At the end of the day this is journalism.. of a sort.
Is it as the Dalai Llama says (I've been privileged to hear him speak twice), that a violent response always begets more violence, no matter how good the cause? Did my aggression give susceptible readers permission to release their own?
A bit of both, I suspect. My take-aways from this:
- keep it nice, no matter the provocation
- let every post "settle" overnight before publishing it
- watch your own behaviour elsewhere
- next time send a warning email or just delete the bugger
