There are times where I am genuinely frightened at how some bloggers find it all too easy to completely hate on another blogger, tear them down, make false accusations, and just be pretty much lame.
This is even more scary when we do it as Christians.
The blogging medium is, without question, a very effective tool at communicating.
Unfortunately, many people have decided to use it as a vehicle to tear others down instead of building each other up.
It’s just way to easy to criticize, make assumptions, and slander others on and through blogs.
It’s too bad, especially if we’re attempting to blog a message of relative positivity that will put us as being different than the rest of the decaying and dying world.
I wish more people would take a moment to pause and give thought before they hit the “Publish” button.
I wish more people sent an email attempting to “clarify” a situation before publicly pulling someone down and shooting them in the face with something unfounded and rude.
I wish more people took their finger off the blogging trigger and attempted to put more thought into creating value for others than trying to devalue others and their work.
I wish I didn’t feel compelled to write this tonight, but after today’s back and forth with one blogger who called me out as someone who “censors” commenters, I felt it necessary (after pause and thought) to write something.
Although, my gun’s not loaded, and I’m not looking for an opportunity to use it.
But, I’ll be honest: Those comments stung, and my feelings got hurt. That’s part of being human I guess. I’m just as guilty as the next.
Sarnaa says
way to lead my friend. great post…As true on the web as in person. The problem the web presents, is it allows us to operate much the same way as the KKK. Sheets on can virtually–and digitally–be called "blog on" and burn crosses on the cyber lawn of your front yard. Your site or mine, it's on the internet for the entire community to see.
Hate, by any other medium, is still hate.
human3rror says
thanks for this sarnaa. yeah. it sucks.
Daniel_Berman says
I was rather surprised by the intensity of the exchange, and somewhat unsure of how to respond. I was impressed by your restraint though. It's always curious when you run into people who take any sort of a technical glitch and automatically assume the worst.
human3rror says
I handled most of it through email as he finally reached out to me after I broke my silence after finding out.
ugh. what a waste of time.
Jay says
The most unfortunate thing is, it could have all been resolved quite easily had he just made the effort to contact you to find out what the situation was. He didn't even make the attempt and instead tried to attribute to you a sinister motive for what happened.
Mr. Usher, as somebody that says he is not an enemy of truth (and I'll accept that), you need a good dose as a result of this incident. Read James 3:8-10:
"But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so."
Please read that and meditate on it. Perhaps next time if you feel that you've been wronged, you'll consider seeking out the person who you believe wronged you instead of taking the issue out into the public and engaging in gossip.
Peace.
Jim says
lame…
jaledwith says
I know a lot of this seems like common sense, that we ought to confront a person about a grievance before we talk to others about it. But there's two things to consider. First, in the heat of the moment we all have forgotten how we ought to treat others, even those things that are obvious. Having looked at the situation for all of four minutes, my rough analysis says that's what happened in this case.
But second, we have to allow for the fact that even some things that we think should be obvious to everyone are actually not obvious to everyone. I remember reading that Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.net) created a comment policy for his website, largely to spell out exactly what was and what was not appropriate. I think a section like that could be expanded to include thoughts on what to do if you, the reader, think your comment has been removed unfairly. Obviously this doesn't prevent someone from accusing you on their blog, but it does spell out an avenue to peaceably resolve the issue.
I searched and found Darren's policy, in case you're interested.
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/03/pro…
human3rror says
Dude, thanks so much for this. I read Darren's post a while ago but had completely forgotten it…!
This is most excellent.
TomUsher says
Okay, John,
John, you wrote a comment saying that my comment disappeared because I submitted a duplicate. I wrote a thorough response showing that that was incorrect. You chose to ignore it. You rather said that I should have contacted you (something I have done with others many times). In my reply, I said quite openly that I would apologize and post a prominent retraction if you can explain how the comment showed up, was indexed by Google, and then disappeared.
You were told early on about the problem, but did nothing – claiming later you didn't have time.
Now, other people here are possibly attempting to see into why I'm might have concluded that I was censored. Nowhere have you taken a second to sympathize with the fact that all over the place wholly appropriate comments of mine have been blocked and I've even been banned by atheists and others for standing up for Jesus or that I have made contact about comments not showing up plenty of times but that I felt that in this case, it wasn't warranted. Was it a hasty conclusion? That was your stated position, but now what have you done?
You never answered my questions about how the comment showed and then disappeared. My Intense Debate comments had not been having problems before your site. Now they are.
You then wrote an email to me saying that you don't want me to put the content of the email online but that you were going to "drop it" (the issue). Now I've been notified by others that not only did you not honor that statement but you've posted the above post without any notice to me from you that you were reneging on your unsolicited email to me. Interesting method. If you weren't dishonest before, you certainly are now. If people can rebuke me here but don't rebuke you for what you've plainly done that's slimy, that's their problem.
You may have plenty of visitors supporting your position here; but considering that your explanation about duplicate comments and spam was without merit and that you've now clearly done exactly what you said you would not and after I've been attempting to find out more about what might have happened where I was possibly in error, well, John, you may be disappointed, but now I'm even more disappointed.
Why should I believe you now about the original disappearance of the comment after you said you were dropping it and also wrote to me, "Whatever you feel led to do you may do"? Now clearly exposed as dishonorable, are you to be trusted?
I had more issues come up regarding Intense Debate and pursued the issues with it in mind to return here sincerely to apologize (to repent of any error) if it turns out that Intense Debate screwed up and not you. I put the new information online for all to see.
You didn't answer my comments or questions because, as you wrote, you "have much more important issues to deal with than this," but you found the time to write this post and answer these comments without letting me know or commenting on my site, etc.
Yeah, it sucks is right.
I'll leave it to others to decide who's being completely honest here. I know.
Tom Usher
P.S. The choice of image for this post is extremely misleading.
TomUsher says
The truth can be as a bullet to some souls. You wanted proof? It was there – the comment was there back on May 20. You put it back up on what, June 1, 2009, only after it was brought to your attention again.
Here's your proof people:
http://www.realliberalchristianchurch.org/images/…
I don't have any control over BlogCatalog or Intense Debate. Together, they show it was there, just as my eyes told me. Your statement that both comments went to spam because I had submitted a duplicate is false. Both comments showed up as normal and not spam. My comments were the only ones that disappeared and you're saying I should have contacted you. Then you turned around and said don't post our emails and that you were dropping the issue but posted the above without saying anything to me.
I'm done. This is prima facie.
human3rror says
thanks so much lauren!
Lauren Rodriguez says
The world moves so fast online that I can barely keep up! I'm catching up on my reader just now. Thanks for the wise words John. You've handled yourself very well.
I especially like the idea of putting "thought into creating value for others." Seriously, that's what this is about and that's what I love about your blog! Keep up the good work 🙂
Crgo says
Dear John,
I appreciate your comment and your blog. I believe that whatever we do needs to be in edification to those that we serve. Christian living applies to all of our doings. Matthew 18, and the commandments that Jesus taught us, Love your God… and love your neighbor as you love yourselves. I have seen this even more on twitter. We as Christians need to be careful, otherwise, the freedom we exercise will become more binding and burdensome and rules will appear that would makes us slaves and not free in the gospel.