Gotta Love the Internet :(

What is it about the Internet that makes people think they know everything there is to know about you? So much so that they feel they even know your motivation for doing something?

I regularly post on both martial arts and writing forums because these are my interests. But never once, in the thousands of posts I have made, have I ever mentioned my books. (Anyone who follows my blog on a regular basis will know exactly how much I hate the self promotion thing.)

Well, today I joined in on a discussion that interests me a great deal. In fact, it’s a topic that interests me so much that it was a major theme in Sanchin and I mentioned this in my post.

Apparently this was a big mistake. Someone took it upon himself to not only completely miss (or misinterpret or perhaps misunderstand) both points I put across but also to tell me to get a grip with reality and to accuse me of only expressing my views  for the purpose of self advertising!

Such a pleasant lot out there. If that is how people interpret my actions it makes me seriously question their own motivations. Anyway, rightly or wrongly, I removed my original post and I will not be posting there again.

As a relative newcomer to the community on that esteemed website (which shall remain nameless) I’ve been left with a very bad first impression and I won’t be going back. I’ll stick to forums where people actually do know something about me and do know my motivation for joining in discussions.

Okay, so now I’ve had my little rant I’ll try to be fair. Maybe there was a genuine misunderstanding somewhere along the line. My intention was to put my point across and ask questions that would, hopefully, stimulate objective replies but if I sometimes come over as difficult to understand then I apologise.

And maybe people are cynical about the motivations of others with good reason. I have to moderate loads of comments  on my blog with links to completely irrelevant topics – tooth whitening is a really popular one at the moment. I hardly think any of those people are genuinely interested in what’s  on my site or in offering anything of value to the people who are.

In the grand scheme of things none of it really matters. After all, we are all entitled to our own thoughts and opinions.  I guess you could call me naive but I’m just not used to such cynical reactions.

4 thoughts on “Gotta Love the Internet :(”

  1. Emil says:

    There are always one of those Snot-Nosed-Eros-Ridden-Tossers around. Trick is not to take it personally. It does not warrant a response.

  2. Karen says:

    Thanks Emil, I love the way you’re always there when I need a reality check.

    Yup, you’re right, it doesn’t warrant a response. And, with hindsight, it certainly didn’t warrant a whole blog entry. Live and learn, hey?

    At least I did try to be nice and mention the possibility of a genuine misunderstanding but I like ‘Snot-Nosed-Eros-Ridden-Tosser’ so much better 😀

    Anyway, today was a great day. I got my first customer review on Amazon and it was from an author who wrote one of my favourite martial arts books.

  3. Emil says:

    Kurt Vonnegut wrote about Vonnegut “snot-nosed Eros-ridden teenagers.” Tossers, in the world of the Internets, just had a much more relevant ring to it. I don’t know how good your Afrikaans is, but I wrote a few posts about “them” in the beginning when I thought it necessary to respond. There are a few English post in the category SNERT on my blog as well. Maybe you will enjoy them – some of the site that has given me so much grief when I started to blog, are already non-existent, but I did so thoroughly enjoy shredding them with cunning language and psychological analysis. In the end it became mundane, and … well, repetitive, as you will see when reading it.

    Anyway, I must still order a copy of Sachin. It is on my list – I have been catching up on some long-outstanding reading and will need to order a stack of books in Spring. Usually I order between 15-20 per quarter, generally in groups of 5 fiction, 5-7 psychology, 3-5 philosophy and the remainder made up by any other non-fiction related topic I enjoy. This time round probably something on Chinese and Indian history, and maybe a book on genetics. We’ll see. My wife says I must first get rid of a few we have already 😉

    Yip, I will die poor, but a librarian 😉

  4. Karen says:

    I’ve read your SNERT posts, Emil. Weird how some people feel the need to be so pig headed. I think you got the better of them wonderfully though.

    So far I’m lucky not to have run into anyone as bad as Botha and WTF but from now on I’ll just ignore the lot of them.

    You really have a wide range of reading tastes. It shows in your writing too. I generally buy books I want one at a time but I do like to have a splurge on Kalahari.net about once a year. The longer I’m in the UK the more my Afrikaans deteriorates so I like to stock up on Afrikaans books every now and then.

    At the moment Sanchin is only available in Amazon.com but it will be available on all other Amazons and Barnes and Noble. As the book is set in SA I still want to get a distribution package that will get it on Kalahari. net but I need to research that one.

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