Internet tough guys

Something Tara said reminded me of a comment I read on someone else's blog somewhere:

"If we didn't all have our own blogs, we wouldn't be so nice to each other"

(Or something along those lines).

It's really brave of people like Rumi and Karla to allow anonymous posters on their blogs when I'm sure they know they're leaving themselves open for a few horrible people to leave comments that are just plain unkind.

It seems to be one of those sad things that happens on the internet, but it's been discussed since the time of Plato. If you know you're not going to be found out, do you take the chance to do something bad? On the internet you can be really mean to people, without ever feeling worried that they'll come find you and smash your face in.

But is it better to get anonymous posters who are mean and feel that they're being honest than have people who are happy to post their name, but only in the hope you'll pay them some attention?

From a reading point of view, I love the mean commenters because they are usually hilarious. I do not like, however, the idea that they would upset anyone and I think they are cowardly for hiding behind the anonymity and stupid for wasting their time on something they don't like! Save your efforts for making friends, not enemies.

The rise of the internet celebrity has probably opened doors to some very strange places for many of the people who write the blogs we know and love. There will always be crazies on the web and although I don't think that we can expect everyone to always be nice...for those of you who post just to be spiteful: perhaps you should read one of Gala Darling's latest posts...

(Again, an irrelevant picture. I've just been trying to get him into a post for a while and he sure is one tough guy...)