Since 2005, I've generally tried to steer clear of blog and forum commenting, unless I want to yank a chain or mock someone for my own amusement (or commenting where friends and family frequent). My reasons for stepping back from the commenting brink are many and varied, but primarily I was A) Sick of rehashing the same old arguments B) Commented out and C) I realized there was little, if any, benefit or payoff involved, and there was a lot of work involved in something that was, ultimately, basically pointless. More generally, after about 2004, the online commenting community was infused with a whole slew of Internet neophytes who were technologically too inept to start their own online presence and opted to inhabit the comment boxes of others, and the dialogue started to devolve into rediculous nonsense. One need only witness the antics of AngryClown and Peevish over at Shot in the Dark for examples of parasitic, obsessive-compulsive, nonsensical blog commenters.
At any rate, I do occasionally get sucked back into online debate, particularly when it surrounds topics that are currently near and dear to my heart. Take, for example, this Post-Bulletin blog debate over MMA/UFC fighting.
Compared with comment wars I've had in the past with certain bloggers who shall rename nameless, but rhyme with Smoshua, it's pretty tame stuff, but I'm struck by how thin-skinned and pathetic some people are. Honest to God, the world has gone from Internet Tough Guy to Internet Pansy in less than five years.
Posted by Ryan at December 18, 2007 12:34 PM | TrackBack
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