In Defense of my Blog

I received my first negative feedback today. I read it over and over again and my face grew warm and my throat closed up.  I knew it would happen eventually.  Of course I knew!  You can’t put yourself out there and expect no one to take issue with something you said or wrote or did.  I expected it with my first post with a comment that read something like “What are you even doing here in the Bloggesphere? Get thee back to whence thou came, Amateur!”  When it didn’t happen I started to hope that perhaps I had something to offer to the world.  Admittedly it’s not the ability to time travel or the abolishment of corduroy but still….

I have received some very nice feedback with helpful suggestions on page layout or menus and I was grateful for their help. Some who gave feedback were very experienced writers and bloggers who may not have thought my stories were Pulitzer Prize Winners, but they were still encouraging and kind.

This person was the opposite of encouraging and kind.  She didn’t mention good things and then suggest things I could improve on and close with more encouragement – the traditional & professional sandwich approach to feedback.  She just kicked me in the tits!  I thought “How many seriously self-conscious and worried bloggers does she read in order to base her judgements?”

Here is the comment:

“I see, that your blog needs fresh and unique articles.

 I know it’s hard to write posts manually everyday, but there

 is solution for this. Just search in google for- Atonemen’s tips”

I need fresh and unique articles?  But I’m trying really hard!  The comment was posted at the bottom of Guerilla Shopping; not my favorite post which could explain a bit of my horror. But that wasn’t the only thing about her comment that caused me to freeze.  I felt a bit ashamed that I had let someone down; hadn’t lived up to expectations.  And that something as easy as googling ‘Atonemen’s tips’ could fix my lack of originality and content.  How humiliating.

I trashed it immediately, hoping that I could forget that I saw it. I stopped the post I was working on; it now seemed terrible and worthless.  I went to make supper instead.  And then my head kicked my heart’s ass.

Who the hell was this woman?  Is this the way she comments to everyone?  I’ve seen some pretty terrible blogs out there but I wouldn’t ever consider writing something like this in their comments!

And then I came back in to the office and found her shitty comment in the trash and read it again.  I followed the link back to her and found someone that baked a cake which hardly seems a great credential in the shitty judgement field.  Oh Yeah?!  Your comma is completely unnecessary and any first grader could tell you that!  ‘Everyday’ should be two separate words, loser!  There should be an ‘a’ in between ‘is’ and ‘solution’, too!  And you believe you having standing to judge me?!

My first Google search turned up tips for atoning for your sins. Fuck That!  Then I went back and tried again and it turns out it’s something for maximizing search engine results to get more traffic to your blog.  Is this an automated comment?  Some asshole computer out there is making shitty comments that suck the soul out of new bloggers’ souls?  You would think it would have better grammar.

It’s more likely that this woman gets money to troll around promoting ‘Atonemen’s Tips’. Perhaps ‘Atonemen’s Tips’ should give her a few lessons on approaching prospective customers.  Why?  Because this is THE WORST FEEDBACK IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD!!

New bloggers should be nurtured! NURTURED!!  Not shat upon!  And guess what?  I’m pasting this blog post as my reply.  On behalf of all new bloggers everywhere, Fuck you!

PS: After a reasonable night’s sleep I have re-read that shitty comment.  Is it possible that the comment was meant to be helpful?  Has terrible grammar cloaked its goodness?  What if it said:

“I see that your blog needs fresh and unique articles which can sometimes be challenging when you are writing your posts manually every day. If you find yourself without any ideas, just search in google for “Atonemen’s Tips”.  They can help.”

That’s sounds so sweet!  What a lovely woman!  I would have sent her a ‘thank you’ reply for her generous suggestion.  It’s great how bloggers help each other, unselfishly.  It’s like a universe where people actually care for one another.  I guess the moral of this story is GRAMMAR MATTERS, ASSHOLES!

The second moral of this story is NEVER HIT SEND UNTIL YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO CALM DOWN!  If this woman only knew how close…….