Rules For Haters

Hello readers and commenters, how are you? I’d like to take a moment and dispel a few recent comments on both the quality and the content of this site.

If you’re drinking Hateraid, as seen in some of these comments, this post is for you.

Rule 1: You don’t have to read this site

Seriously. I try hard to make things fun, interesting, and good here. You know, ‘worth checking out.’ I make part of my living from writing and I hone my craft with my aimless wanderings and stories posted here. These can mean different things to different people. Most of my friends were ready for the Woodstock story to end, but others really loved it. I appreciate both pieces of feedback.

But to take a queue from the great Tony P, don’t fuck with me. I will banish your comments the instant they come in, I will hate you out with facts, I will hate you out with good content. I love the fact that people read my words. That’s why blogs exist—to be read. The more people read them, the better that blog is.

Hell, I just made the Blogebrity C-list. How? Not by sitting on my ass and complaining but actually writing the words, one after another, stringing stories together, putting together stuff for this site. And, to be honest, a request to the great list-compilers themselves. Never hurts to ask, right?

Rule 2: Who’s House?

My house. My rules. Don’t go pissing on what’s mine. You don’t walk into a stranger’s house, someone whom you’ve never even introduced yourself to, insult them, and leave. I don’t have time for it and it will be banished as I see fit.

Part of me leans the way of Scoble, wanting to keep all of the stupid and ignorant comments. And that side’s been winning for awhile now. But things change.

Rule 3: Have An Identity

If your homepage link doesn’t work or you’re working anonymously, it better be nothing but love because the inability to trace you leaves you with absolutely no credibility. And deleted comments.

In a world full of opinions, you are only as strong as your previous work and your online, documented experiences. With just a text box and no trail, your comments are taken with a grain of salt—your significance on this planet if you don’t tell me why I should listen to you with a blog or a link or an email addy to back it up.

Rule 4: Constructive Criticism is Welcome

If you’re still reading dear haters, then you may have just ‘come off wrong.’ Happens to me all the time. Here’s the rub: When you say something sucks, and you just do so and leave, then you’re doing a disservice to whatever sucks. If you don’t know how to fix what sucks, then be quiet.

The silence of no readers is much louder to me than the aimless complaining of the masses.

If my stories suck, or you think I’m being “negative” (jigga what?) or you think that my writing needs work, I want to hear what works then contrast that with what doesn’t work. Otherwise my few fans (including my wonderful wife) will be on you like stink on shite and is not afraid to go toe-to-toe with people who just hate anonymously.

Now this post? Probably classified as ‘negative’. But me? I’ll throw it into the Public Service Announcement file. Read it or suffer the consequences.

So until tomorrow, bask in the ‘positive’ feelings of the Happy Tree Friends.

A compromise between honesty and lies
To lead me past, their sly disguise