Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Well That Escalated Quickly

I like messing with my posts' titles, apparently. Like this one, hah. Most of the time, they're extremely formulaic, but I like formulaic, because I myself am very systematic. Anyway.

Most of you are familiar with the current situation that I'm in. I wrote a post for Armchair BEA's "Topic of Choice" portion, on Friday, about book conventions in general. Things were fine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday... but not Sunday night, and not Monday. Things blew up.

On Sunday night, a slew of comments appeared on my posts. Several people were very irritated, angry, upset. That night, I didn't respond to any tweets, any comments, anything that seemed overly emotional or negative or mean or anything. I "hid" the comments, because I didn't want to see anymore of them. Bad move, apparently. I turned off my Internet connection for the night, did two nights' worth of Physics homework, and went to bed.

I didn't join the Internet all day on Monday either. I think several bloggers took my silence badly. I thought I was doing an "adult" thing, by avoiding the direct confrontation with specific people. I didn't want to be angry with anyone, or engage in any conversations on Twitter. Several bloggers tweeted many, many tweets at me, and TONS of bloggers retweeted those tweets, and here I am getting like 200+ Twitter notifications in a span on minutes. Like woah O_O

I wasn't going to add fuel to the fire. But sadly, my silence was taken as me ignoring everyone. I truly apologize for that - that was sooo not my intention. I was doing the "adult" thing by not fighting with anyone, or engaging - or so I thought. On Sunday night, I already knew that I would write a post and publish it, addressing things. I had taken down the comments of the offensive post at the time.

On Monday, I went online for the first time around 6:00 pm. And saw another blogger's posts, an infinite amount of comments, tweets, and messages, some directed towards me, some talking about me but not mentioning me directly, but all were very, very negative. The first thing I did NOT do was respond. In fact, I started crying. A lot. I hate crying. I seldom cry. But it was messy. My family thought something really serious had happened. 

I don't want pity. I'm not looking for people to feel sorry for me. I just want people to know that I was truly HURT. Everyone else was angry, upset, but I was HURT. Was anyone else brought to tears? Was anyone not able to breathe, looking at all of the cruel, nasty, horrible messages sent directly to them? I got so much negative messages and comments and tweets, directly to me. 

So, the post. The post was not directed at anyone who reads my blog, anyone that I follow, anyone that follows me. I had hoped that no one would take things personally. I specifically stated in the post that the post did not apply to everyone - in fact, it applied to a very few people. The post was observational. I'm sorry if I insulted anyone personally - THAT I did insult people. That wasn't my intention. My intention wasn't to act entitled, snobby, b****y, attention-seeking, or whatever other things people are saying. I didn't want to insult everyone or anyone - that was not my intention. I don't want to seem hypocritical, or like I'm holding double standards. Because I'm not any of those things, and I'm not holding any standards to anyone.

I honestly should NOT have to apologize for stating my opinions, especially on my blog. However, I didn't want my opinions to make people burst blood vessels, so I'm sorry that I said anything at all. I don't do opinion- or discussion-based posts, and I won't be doing them anytime soon.

I'm sorry that I didn't privately and publicly respond to everyone tweets, messages, comments, and so on. To be honest, last night, and this evening, I just didn't want to see them. I had already had this post drafted, and I knew it would be published today (Tuesday), but the blogosphere wanted me to give an immediate response. I have school - summer classes. Physics in four and a half weeks - not a pansy class, and FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS. I have homework. I have exams. My academic life is a hell of a lot more important than people's feelings - people that I barely know, honestly. Whatever. I'm sorry this post is NOW GOING UP - I just did not have the emotional and mental capacity. I'm sorry. I've emailed and messaged several people, but to everyone, I am truly sorry, about the entire situation.

I tweeted that I was expecting a backlash of opinions about the post before the post went up, but there was no way I could have expected this. I didn't. If I had known, would I have published the post? Absolutely not. There is a reason why I don't do discussion posts on my blog - and while I'll never do them

So. I really am sorry, everyone. You don't have to forgive me. You don't have to like me. You don't have to agree with me. Have your own opinions! Disagree with me just for kicks! Post your BEA haul pictures all over the Internet! Do whatever makes you happy! I just ask, please, stop tweeting, messaging, commenting with horrible, cruel things directly to me. This isn't one person I'm talking about - this is many people, which is what is surprising and killing me. Although, I suppose if that kind of thing makes you happy, then I can't contradict myself, can I? O_O

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

12 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry this happened to you! I didn't see any of the negative comments/tweets/etc. (and I certainly didn't take part) but I hope it doesn't happen again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Zareena! I hope it won't as well. Like, seriously.

      Delete
  2. so sorry you had such a negative reaction, but I am curious on why you took down the post. Stand by your feelings in what you wrote and keep up the post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might end up putting it back up, I honestly feel like I did nothing wrong, even if I was VERY honest. Thank you, Jennifer!

      Delete
  3. I'm not really sure what happened overall, but I am sorry you had to deal with this. It's one of the huge negatives about the book blogging community, and it honestly makes me ashamed to be a part of it. Don't apologize for having an opinion. I mean that's sort of what book blogging is all about right? We get into this to share what we think about books, bookish things, and life. I'm really sorry all of this has upset you, and I wish you all the best with your schooling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It definitely is a shame that people act like that. Honestly, I already kissed a** to save face, but I'm not sorry. It's too bad, really. And hopefully I kicked that test's butt! We'll see though, heh. Thank you so much for the encouraging thoughts, Michelle!

      Delete
  4. I think the backlash is so many ways of overkill... everything starts snowballing from someone that felt offended by a post, and chose to take it personally. Too personally, really.
    I can understand disagreeing with a post and an opinion but reacting like it was a personal attack and reacting calling someone so many negative things... does that makes us any better than the one we were so offended by? Well, clearly NOT.
    Your post might have been too bluntly honest, but I think it raised some good points, but it was clearly not meant to be offensive and demeaning to other people.
    The problem? Someone read it, felt terribly offended for whatever reason, and started talking about how horrible it was and more people read it with expectations of it being horrible and offensive, so they read what they expected...
    A big clusterfuck for sure, with too many people hurt and offended and you being the one getting the worst backlash ever. I'm so sorry to hear so much negativity has been thrown your way.
    *big hugs*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pili, you are an awesome friend! You've put up with so many chats and angry rants... thank you. Thank you so much. I'm glad that you see things from both sides, and ultimately, you see what was wrong with the situation overall. I'm so over their attitudes! They can't hurt me at this point. I'm angry that I let them hurt me at all.

      *HUGGLES*

      Delete
  5. *HUGS* <3 I adore you sweetie. I have yet to read that other blog post of yours (A) But even so. It is NEVER okay for anyone to start talking shit about someone. Like people did to you. I'm so sorry sweetie. It sucks. And it hurts. And I know. So well. Hoping you are feeling better now. <3 And I want you to continue sharing your opinion about things and discuss things :) I love reading your opinions about things. I may not agree with every opinion out there, but I love reading it all :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carina, you are a fabulous person, you know that, right?! See, it's totally okay to disagree, I'm fine with that! It's not like I'm the authority on all things books or whatever! But you didn't go around attacking me, creating posts about me, harassing me on all of my social media accounts! That's real maturity and humanity right there, thank you. Thank you for supporting me and my blog - I really appreciate it, girl. You're fantastic! <3

      Delete
  6. You shouldn't feel bad, it was your opinion and others can go and suck it. Hope you feel better and have some ice cream for me!! *HUGS*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really shouldn't have felt bad, should I? I see that now. I shouldn't have even apologized, for that post specifically. In public or private. Whatever. What's done is done. And I definitely did just eat ice cream though... ALL THE SUGAR :D

      Thank you, Ellie!

      Delete

I love comments! I will always try and reply to your comments, as well as leave some comment love on your blog! :)

Also, this an award and tag free blog. While I am flattered that you would think of me, I really do not have the time to follow up. Thank you!