snarky comments

[Pepandfriend's mom]

Hi, I haven't lurked or posted in a while. It's probably a good thing because a person can really get hooked reading the wonderful posts about our Cairns. You also can get hooked on the comfort level that is not found on many other blogs/forums. A lot of "trolls" out there!

I had an experience early last month on the forum that brought me up short on the comfort level. It would totally not have bothered me on any other forum (try the Washington Post comment forums sometime, they are pretty brutal). But it bothered me here. It sure has stopped my participation for a while in this venue. But I have finally decided to bring this up just in the hopes that people will think twice when they think about posting, or in my case, responding to some dummy (like me) who had tried to make a nice comment in a personal message.

This is what happened: a poster (no identification, but their comments are invariably nice) included in a post a comment on an exciting event. If I identified this event further, I would have identified the person. I thought it would be nice to write the person a personal message to congratulate them on the event, so I did. I was just recovering from some pretty awful oral surgery the day before, so I will blame my mistakes in the message on being somewhat messed up with meds, etc. But I did make a mistake in facts, and the poster wrote back to call me on it. Apparently, the poster thought I was a pretty dumb lady and let me know.

My mistake as I see it now was sending anything after being still dopey with pain pills. And the poster made a mistake too. WHY deliberately get snarky on someone who was not being snarky to you?

Bradl, go right ahead and delete this if you want to. I actually am going to keep my participation here pretty low for a while. For anyone who thinks it's funny to be sarcastic in a personal message to someone you don't know at all, please think twice.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Pam -- and my only ever political comment here: Go OBAMA!

[Chez]

I know what you mean about it being nice on here. It is very easy online to forget that others may be dealing with stuff and there is a tendancy because of the anominity to be more upfront. I personally think that if you wouldn't say it to their face don't type it.

I can play devil's advocate here and propose that maybe you got a snarky reply because they were having a bad day and you were on the receiving end. You see you just do never know do you?

My advice; don't take it to heart and carry on posting as normal. After all human beings just don't get along all of the time, the thing is to let it go and move past it.

[jimnconnie]

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Thanks for letting me rant.

Pam -- and my only ever political comment here: Go OBAMA!

I'm sorry you felt the need to stay away from the forum. I hope that you are back to stay, but I don't feel that political promotion of either party is proper here. That can only open up discussion that would be really "snarky"!

[Jessica H]

I am glad to see you back! Please do not allow a snarky remark to keep you away.

[Pepandfriend's mom]

Thanks guys, you are REALLY very kind. And "jimnconnie," the political comment was my one and only fling in that direction, and now I kinda regret it. The boundaries on what is appropriate here do protect the Forum as a safe place for everybody.

Pam