Yeah, I know I am one. =) This post isn't about me, though.
There's a guy who writes on another blog I write for who gets under my skin. I don't know him that well. He's been blogging on our mutual site longer than I have. I notice that often, after I write a blog post, he leaves me comments on the post or on Facebook that, to me, come across as sarcastic or even critical. I don't know what his problem is. I rarely comment on the things he writes and when I do, I keep it positive and friendly.
His comments... I dunno... they seem kind of like thinly veiled insults or back-handed compliments. The worst part of it is, I asked a mutual friend who knows him better if she thought he had a tendency to be kind of critical. She said he's really kind of spacey. So now I feel like I'm being gaslighted; like my perceptions are wrong. One time I replied that I wasn't sure how I should take his comment. He said, "It's a compliment, silly." Really? Because I'm not mentally retarded or anything and the tone of his comment came across to me as one part confusing, one part thinly veiled snark, and one part backhanded compliment.
My husband says he thinks the guy might feel threatened because someone else is contributing content to the site. Maybe he feels like I'm invading his turf or something. But, the thing is, I was under the impression that our mutual goal is to get people to read the blog and maybe purchase some stuff on Amazon.com. If I write something that brings people to the site, that should be a good, mutually beneficial thing. If he writes something that brings traffic, that's also a good thing. We write about different subjects and have different styles, so we're both bound to bring in different kids of readers.
One thing that kinda does annoy me is that this guy seems to think he knows my tastes. He's made comments along the lines of, "Wow... I'm surprised you like that. It didn't seem to be something you'd like." Bear in mind, though, that I've never met this guy in person and he doesn't really know me that well. How does he know what I like?
I actually have very eclectic musical tastes. I like everything from classical music to bluegrass, with a healthy smattering of rock, gospel, country, ethnic, disco, blues, and jazz thrown in. I like what I like. I don't see how someone who really doesn't know me can tell what kind of music I'm going to enjoy. The only music I uniformly hate is Muzak. And I hesitate to call that music, anyway. My dad used to listen to it in the car and I hated it because it was so irritating it made me want to jump out of my skin.
So I don't know what the deal is... I kind of wish that guy would let me do my thing the way I let him do his. I don't make critical comments about the wordiness of his articles and his never-ending list of the obscure albums he enjoyed in 2012. I wish he'd let me write my posts about music without making weird comments that I don't know how to take.
There's a guy who writes on another blog I write for who gets under my skin. I don't know him that well. He's been blogging on our mutual site longer than I have. I notice that often, after I write a blog post, he leaves me comments on the post or on Facebook that, to me, come across as sarcastic or even critical. I don't know what his problem is. I rarely comment on the things he writes and when I do, I keep it positive and friendly.
His comments... I dunno... they seem kind of like thinly veiled insults or back-handed compliments. The worst part of it is, I asked a mutual friend who knows him better if she thought he had a tendency to be kind of critical. She said he's really kind of spacey. So now I feel like I'm being gaslighted; like my perceptions are wrong. One time I replied that I wasn't sure how I should take his comment. He said, "It's a compliment, silly." Really? Because I'm not mentally retarded or anything and the tone of his comment came across to me as one part confusing, one part thinly veiled snark, and one part backhanded compliment.
My husband says he thinks the guy might feel threatened because someone else is contributing content to the site. Maybe he feels like I'm invading his turf or something. But, the thing is, I was under the impression that our mutual goal is to get people to read the blog and maybe purchase some stuff on Amazon.com. If I write something that brings people to the site, that should be a good, mutually beneficial thing. If he writes something that brings traffic, that's also a good thing. We write about different subjects and have different styles, so we're both bound to bring in different kids of readers.
One thing that kinda does annoy me is that this guy seems to think he knows my tastes. He's made comments along the lines of, "Wow... I'm surprised you like that. It didn't seem to be something you'd like." Bear in mind, though, that I've never met this guy in person and he doesn't really know me that well. How does he know what I like?
I actually have very eclectic musical tastes. I like everything from classical music to bluegrass, with a healthy smattering of rock, gospel, country, ethnic, disco, blues, and jazz thrown in. I like what I like. I don't see how someone who really doesn't know me can tell what kind of music I'm going to enjoy. The only music I uniformly hate is Muzak. And I hesitate to call that music, anyway. My dad used to listen to it in the car and I hated it because it was so irritating it made me want to jump out of my skin.
So I don't know what the deal is... I kind of wish that guy would let me do my thing the way I let him do his. I don't make critical comments about the wordiness of his articles and his never-ending list of the obscure albums he enjoyed in 2012. I wish he'd let me write my posts about music without making weird comments that I don't know how to take.
He sounds like a lovely person. When I was about eleven, I used to frequent a Gordon Lightfoot site for no apparent reason. I liked the music of Gordon Lightfoot well enough not to ask that the channelon the radio be changed when one of his songs came on, but thatwould havebeen th extent of my feelings ofr his music at the time. I just stumbled upon the site and kept going back.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, there was some guy at the sit who caled himself "the Watchman." He jumped all over any comment I posted. He was convinced I was really a 40-year-old housewife tring to pass myself off as a child. I didn't care what I thought about my age, so I ignored his comment to that effect. On other points I argued with him, though. and it often got very personal. I'd like tonthink he'd feellike a complete fool if he knew he really was arguing with an eleve-year-old, but who knows? He might have considered it a badge of honor.
I went back to the sit a few weeks ago. It sstil exists, but the archives don't go back to the day when the watchman and i argued, which is unfortunate. As far as I can tell, he's no longer a contributor to the site, either.
The Internet is weird. I can't imagine why people would get pissy over Gordon Lightfoot. Sounds like that guy needed to get a life.
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