But I've also managed to stay out of the fray of those teacup tempests for the most part this year because of this isolation. I just don't have the time to devote to this (and I probably shouldn't be writing this, as I'm trying to finalize a feature-length essay/interview tonight for mag publication shortly), but alas, I see that my apparent previous reputation for being a (self-admitted) internet asshole has preceded me. I received a Twitter direct message this evening, directing me to some comments made earlier today by Amanda Rutter of Floor to Ceiling Books, regarding a negative anonymous comment in this post (more recent at top):
@ElspethCooper @niallalot Feel free to snark away. It wouldn't be the first slanging match I've hosted-my posts seem to take people that way
@niallalot I include people like SFDiplomat and that crew in Larry's gang. They all adore each other.@ian_sales @Locksley_uk Probably. And it is someone who follows me on Twitter because last time they saw the comments I made here
@niallalot Oh, nothing much. Just a leading comment on my 101 Fantasy blog "Setting the bar really low here....."Also, depressed because ANOTHER full MS I requested for @angryrobotbooks has been snapped up by another publisher :-(
Oh, how wonderful - brave Anonymous is back on my blog with snide comments!
Hrmm....what should I make of this? I suppose the simple, rational thing would be to continue ignoring these sorts of odd accusations, but after a while of having others point these out to me via Twitter DMs, I think that wouldn't help too much. I guess I should begin by noting that I have not followed Amanda's Twitter feed for around half a year or so due to a lack of interest in the type of posts and comments she was making. That's nothing really personal, just more an admission that some people move in other circles and that it'd be best to just stop paying attention to someone rather than keep feeding fuel to that friction fire.
But this does get old after a while. When I decide I'm going to be the asshole in anything, the last thing that would ever occur to me would be to use an anonymous name. One would think that would be quite obvious considering I regularly use my first name in posting on forums, blogs, and this blog's name on LiveJournal those rare times I post comments there. But perhaps it is easier to believe that someone like me who can be acerbic would choose to hide behind a cloak of anonymity than to state flat out that another person's posts, opinions, fashion (non)sense, choice of pets, etc. are drivel.
Oh, I'm sure some are thrilled to see what they hope might be a nice cat fight. This does not interest me and I think it'd be best for others to forego sending me links to whenever Amanda goes into another one of her paranoid sob fests on Twitter, Facebook, her blog or string telephone thinking that I or another is behind those anonymous comments. I don't care to be linked to her comments, I don't want to read her blog unless I'm extremely bored and I browse a plethora of blogs I don't have favorited but are in other's blogrolls, and I certainly would rather it be stated for the present that I prefer to maintain that wall of radio silence, but if I have to state something negative about another, I'm going to go balls out and use my usual post name, since I eschew non-signed commentaries.
Got it? Now back to the more important stuff that actually pays me money.
Posts
9 comments:
In all honesty, I've never known you to respond anonymously, let alone without at least attempting to qualify your statement with something approaching evidence. She's pointing out pure trollism, not Larry the Occasionally Pretentious Guy Who Reads Lots of Books. I don't know what you did to rub her the wrong way in the past, but it's hard to look at that string of comments and not think it's all a tad silly.
Yeah, I wouldn't have a problem if some took my approach to reviewing or commentary to be something they disliked; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and all that. Maybe that's at the root of this and my abrasiveness on occasion might have been taken for more than the premature curmudgeon commentaries that I might be guilty of doing. All I know is that a nerve was finally struck and I thought I'd tear it out rather than let it continue to annoy me on occasion.
Yes, using dynamite to kill a fly might be too excessive, but when have I ever settled for half-measures? :P
Those comments aren't pure trollism; if you ignore the fact they are anonymous, the actual content is spot on. Like Larry, I don't comment anonymously but there are lots of things I don't comment on publicly because of my job. I imagine that is why these comments are anonymous (the first is signed "a novelist & a reader").
Anonymous comments are part and parcel of the internet. It is strange to be so concerned about them, particularly when they aren't even aimed at the author of the post. I am intrigued to learn more of your gang though.
Larry's Rabid Squirrels, how's that for a gang name? :)
Damn, and now I'm tempted to waste my time and check Amanda's blog (which I haven't visited for ages, either; I have too many blogs to follow anyway). ;)
I largely want to stay out of this, but her reaction seemed very accessive. Basically, the anon comment said that they disagreed with the books chosen. Sure it was a bit snarky, but it wasn't insluting. It was clever and had some substance. In other words - a good and worthy comment.
And there was no evidence or reason I could see to single you (and you squirrel mafia) out as possible culprits. Especially considering the comment style was very different from anything you'd do and that neither you nor your mafia (sorry, it amuses me to no end that you now have a squirrel possie patroling the internet) tend to be shy about public disagreements.
Ah, just realised my comments above refer to the previous post, didn't realise Larry had link to the Fantasy 101 post.
Squirrel mafia? Hrmm....that does have a nice ring to it. Perhaps I'll find a gangsta squirrel pic and add it to this post later.
All I know is that it's almost insulting to think that the umm...squirrel mafia?....would lie low. Runs against the grain of being rabid, you know ;)
It's all 4chan's fault.
I thought it would be Danny Bonaduce's fault, but what do I know?
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