☆

You are the second writer Erik (spelling the same) I’ve met online, so maybe your breed isn’t as rare as you think.

Seriously though, I get an equal amount of hate mail from women, although I’ve yet to have a woman ask if I were fat or ugly. Haha. Now that I’ve posted this, I’ll probably get a few feminists asking what I look like naked just to help close the gap.

I’m eager to read some more of Deb’s letters. I love the discussions here, but this post has been one of my favorites.

One thing that I find amusing is that Phil and I are just about the only males of our species that are here (perhaps there are others, I apologize). Writers do tend to be females – which means that you are presumed to be “beta” by the mega-alpha males of our species out there.

This means you take far more than your load of crap. It also means that if you never saw yourself as part of a playground (or zoo) you never saw it coming.

On behalf of my entire gender, I apologize. Many of us are not exactly cut out for this genteel thing known as “civilization”. It’s a problem that we’re all working through, some of us with more success than others.

I haven’t had anyone call me a know-it-all since high school. That was actually kind of fun. [insert evil grin here]

What I get is people who write to me and say stuff like, “What gives you the authority to run a website for writers?”

(err… I know how to write?)

or “Why do you bother when there are so many better websites out there than yours?”

(umm… Because I enjoy doing it?)

Before I had my picture posted on my website, I also had someone ask if I was too ashamed of being fat or ugly to post my picture online. That one I only knew how to respond to with a hand gesture which, unfortunately, doesn’t come through so well in an email response.

The first few months, I couldn’t believe people could be so mean. Now, I’ve learned to laugh at it and just use the delete button. When I was 5, my mother told me the best way to get rid of a bully is to ignore him. Evidently, it still works when you’re 27 and on the internet playground.

It’s really sad some people spend so much time hating when clearly, they need to work on their own issues. Sad.

…That is so very true – that’s what it boils down to really, an individual having their own issues and trying to off load them on to someone else!

I get the “what makes you such a know-it-all?” kind of comment all the time. This must be because I write on so many different topics that interest me.

The correct answer is, of course, the fable of two men who are hacking through the jungle and come across a Bengal Tiger. The start running away, and one tells the other, “We can’t outrun a Tiger!” The other responds, “No, but I only have to outrun *you*!”

Naturally, people with specific expertise school me bad all the time. Unlike a fabled tiger attack, I emerge unscathed but slightly wiser for it.

Perhaps this is intellectual masochism here, but rather than be bothered by it I actually enjoy it.

Deb, I didn’t know you had an always! That’s a very useful thing to have, since it is always there and always at the ready. I only mention it since the one letter made reference to “your always”.

I also like your qualifications, possibly even more than your always. In all honesty, who among us is “qualified” to do more than eat, poop, and procreate? That’s pretty much what we’re built for, after all. The rest is a matter of training, which is always suspect IMHO.

Love your work!

No, I use Explorer. So apparently the problems are regardless of which browser you use.

Keep up the good work!

That’s alot of pent up sour grapes aimed at you!(And you managed to avoid being hit head on!)I enjoy blogging. You are right about everything you’ve said about blogging. Not to mention the more we write, hopefully the better our writing will get…

For Deb… I was surprized at some of those comments you received. This is a great site with plenty of opportunities, how can anyone complain about something so good!