Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.

The Genius at Oatmeal does it again. Here is a tiny snippet:

image

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things

Read the whole thing.

And now a message to the hateful, degenerate scum of the Internet:

 

Dear soul sucking trolls,

If you’ve publicly posted that you won’t buy stuff from my company because you don’t like me then I say to you: Thank you. The last thing I want are horrible stupid people benefiting from my work.  I realize that things I post, email, tweet, facebook, etc. can occasionally be taken out of context and be spun to fit whatever agenda the person in the media needs it to fit that day to get their page views. But nothing forces you to buy the crap they’re posting.  If you hate someone you don’t even know, you should probably seek counseling.

Making stuff and putting yourself out there can be very rewarding.  I know hateful trolls out there froth at the mouth whenever there’s some individual trying to express themselves. I understand your problem. You’re weak. You’re cowardly. And rather than trying to improve yourselves or having the courage to take a chance and try putting yourself out there you lash out at those who do. You’re pathetic.

In the end, you’re irrelevant. Once the people who create content realize that you don’t matter, you lose whatever power you might have had. Your predictions of their demise, your hateful tweets, your promises to not support whatever it is they make ultimately amount to nothing because most people aren’t horrible, pathetic creatures like you are. Good people outnumber you 1000 to 1.

My advice to you is this: Quit hating people. Look at yourself. Do some soul searching. Become a better person.  Don’t shit on stuff you don’t like but try to make things better. Don’t spend your energy trying to bring down someone you don’t even know who has done nothing to you. Make your own stuff. Share it with others. And if you can’t, then shut the hell up.

For everyone else, read this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things

The point being, don't take out your personal baggage on other individuals. 

Update:

And for those linking in and being offended by my message to trolls:  I have no means to keep stupid hateful trolls from being customers. I can only hope that they self-select themselves for removal. It makes life easier for us all.  I realize most trolls don't see themselves as such. So let me give you a hint: If you you are emotionally invested in harming some individual you don't even know, that should be a hint. If you're putting your time and energy to try to harm someone you've never met, has done nothing to you you might want to talk to someone.

If what I write rankles you, don't read it.  Find something else to do.  If you disagree but can control your angst, feel free to participate. Talk about it here. Join the discussion. But if I don't like Windows 8 and you do, then don't assume that I'm some Mac fanatic and thus an avatar of all things you imagine Mac fanatics are (which are probably in themselves false). If I have a different political view on some issue than you do, that doesn't mean that I subscribe to every political view you disagree (or hate). 

Remember, I'm just one guy with strong opinions on tons of stuff. I have no power over you. Until I'm made emperor of the planet (which, I think you can agree, is inevitable and my castle shall be constructed with the skulls of my real and imagined -- mostly imagined -- foes) use this opportunity to hang out, debate and talk about whatever.

Update 2:

I saw a thread that thinks this topic was inspired by one particular trolling event -- from September at that.  Get over yourselves.  Any time you put yourself out there, there will be hateful nasty people.  If you've visited her from some nest of hateful, nasty people don't assume this post is about whatever your particular grievance of the day. 


Comments (Page 2)
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on Nov 20, 2012

If I wanted trolls and things that did not make any sense, I'd look at Homestuck.

 

The funny thing is a board we both read is proving your point exactly.  I've seen better quality trolling from FGC Stream Monsters- it's truly pathetic.

 

 

on Nov 21, 2012

Alstein
If I wanted trolls and things that did not make any sense, I'd look at Homestuck.

The funny thing is a board we both read is proving your point exactly.  I've seen better quality trolling from FGC Stream Monsters- it's truly pathetic.

 

My main reaction has been to lose a lot of respect for people I thought were reasonably intelligent. 

If one were motivated, we could take a random regular poster of pretty much any forum and take what they've written over a period of time to create whatever narrative we wanted.  I would expect most intelligent people would realize this. Especially if they realized that a person had a financial motivation to create that narrative.

I say mean things sometimes. I say mean things to customers. I say mean things to employees. I don't do it often but I do do it. I've publicly posted things that are vastly worse than anything I've been accused of in private emails. The difference, of course, is that people have the opportunity to understand the context of those posts because they're public. People can read the whole thing.   

By contrast, a troll can take one post and scrub out the context and string together unrelated things into a narrative.  I used to expect people to be smart enough to put the pieces together themselves. But they don't. 

When I was younger, I used to care about what "the community" thought.  The piling on from Elemental (one of a dozen successful projects in 2010) started to make me realize that there really isn't such a thing as a "community" anymore on the Internet - at least when you're on a public forum.  By this past September, any last vestiges of caring stopped. I realized that many of the people whose opinions I respected really weren't worthy of respect. I had a different vision of them in my mind than what they really were.

Getting back to the topic: The Oatmeal cartoon really hit home with me because it took me years to have the revelation that I don't owe anything to these people. That was what he was getting at. I wish I had learned that lesson years ago.

 

on Nov 21, 2012

Alstein
If I wanted trolls and things that did not make any sense, I'd look at Homestuck.

 

The funny thing is a board we both read is proving your point exactly.  I've seen better quality trolling from FGC Stream Monsters- it's truly pathetic.

 

 

Arrrgh. You made me visit QT3 and see the thread of the damned. They actually linked to this thread and then someone said that this place is an  "echo chamber". The lack of self awareness over there is hilarious.

One guy finally pointed out the obvious: If Brad were a bad guy, there would be lots of former employees over the years bad mouthing him. Has anyone ever heard of anyone who used to work at Stardock who has had anything bad to say?

on Nov 21, 2012


Hostile work environment:

on Nov 21, 2012

Mmrnmhrm
Hostile work environment:

I've met some of those peeps....

 

 

....and survived...

on Nov 21, 2012

 

You know what your problem is? You just are NOT speaking your mind! Why don't you tell us how you really feel?! Anyway, well spoken NEVER let anyone stop you from expressing yourself. 

on Nov 21, 2012


Quoting Alstein, reply 17If I wanted trolls and things that did not make any sense, I'd look at Homestuck.

The funny thing is a board we both read is proving your point exactly.  I've seen better quality trolling from FGC Stream Monsters- it's truly pathetic.

Arrrgh. You made me visit QT3 and see the thread of the damned. They actually linked to this thread and then someone said that this place is an  "echo chamber". The lack of self awareness over there is hilarious.

One guy finally pointed out the obvious: If Brad were a bad guy, there would be lots of former employees over the years bad mouthing him. Has anyone ever heard of anyone who used to work at Stardock who has had anything bad to say?

I try not to read that kind of thing.  Nothing good can come from it.  In the thread you refer to, I did naively think that I could walk users through that particular cluster but it was clear that they had already bought into the whole load of nonsense.

Remember, Xan, there are people out there who think I watch Glenn Beck or set bees off on my coworkers and park my Porsche across handicap spots.  Anyone who buys into something that obviously and easily false (in the second two cases, staged humor) is not going to be able make any sound judgment of something complex like a court case.  When it gets thrown out, I doubt any of these people will apologize. They'll rationalize it somehow because that's what they do. They can't help it.

In the whole, the Internet is a wonderful thing. But is also a place that can bring out the worst in people. 

on Nov 29, 2012

I see Draginol is still spanking them trolls for being trolls after so many years. Been a while since I have been on Joeuser but it seems things are not that much different around here. I see a lot of familiar faces still around.

I love Stardock products. Was a bit mad a while back when I wasn't able to get my hands on programs I paid for thru ObjectDesktop because my subscription had expired and could not renew it at the time. But that's OK, I know it was my foul up so I paid the price for my own stupidity at the time. I still love Stardock products and look forward to buying ObjectDesktop again once I have my new PC with Windows 8.

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