I came across a post in a nail polish FB group recently that got a very big reaction. In this post someone was asking what peoples blogger pet peeves were.
This is not my first encounter with posts such as this. I've seen a lot of similar posts and discussion on this on FB groups, Twitter, and even a blog post in my 2+ years of blogging. A majority of the time I've seen posts like this and comments about this it causes hurt feelings, insecurities, and incites doubt into bloggers.
Some of the pet peeves included things like bad lighting, click to read more things, busy backgrounds, blurry photos, press release posts, and clean up issues. These are totally understandable, and I can agree. These were not the posts that bothered me. The responses that bothered me were the ones that included words like grungy, jacked up, scary, and disgusting to describe some people's nails, cuticles, or paint jobs on their blog that bothered me. Sure, it's an open forum, and everyone is entitled to so what they will, but it struck a chord with me.
What struck a deeper cord was when someone responded to the thread saying they were scared to start a blog now based on these comments. That really hurt me. That's when I said something. This is a hot button issue for me because of my own experiences and with experiences other bloggers have shared with me over comments like this. I don't want any potential or new blogger feel inferior because of mean posts by a bunch of people who would rather bring people down than build people up. Am I just overly sensitive to this? Probably, but I care about how posts like this affect others and the blogging community. There are 1,700+ people in that group, and I'm sure there were quite a few people who this post negatively impacted. It's one thing to say I don't like blurry photos or bad lighting, it's another thing to say someone's nails scare and disgust you on their blog in public forum.
Almost every blogger has had not some less than stellar paint jobs, cuticles, and nails some point in their blogging life. When that stuff is attached with such negative words like I mentioned above it is hurtful, not constructive, and outright mean spirited. What I'm sure may have not been recognized is many bloggers work very hard on their blogs. They have a lot of heart and dedication, but sometimes they don't have every perfect element, and even if you don't name names to call peoples work scary, grungy, jacked up, disgusting,and scary is just mean. There are less offensive ways to describe discontent.
Sadly, I was in the minority in this discussion. Most people found no problems with the post and found it constructive. Their defense was no one named names. Still, that doesn't fly with me. I honestly think people found me and some others who disagreed to be as someone even said "holier than thou". I was not trying to be holier than thou. I just genuinely care about peoples feelings. I'm good at keeping my mouth shut, but when someone says they're afraid to blog because of peoples nasty comments I will always stand up for that. I never want someone's desire or passion for blogging to be stifled.
All I can say is it is the internet, and people can say whatever they want. I shouldn't expect any different, but I'm not going to keep my mouth shut when I feel something is just wrong. I'm not trying to be superman. I'm trying to just do what I feel is kind and caring to others.
