Sunday 13 April 2008

I don't belong here

My blog sits on a few different aggregators with different focuses. I think about my audience when I get up on my soap box for the regular weekly rant. When you put yourself out there and share what you think, you are bound to get people disagreeing with your views. That's ok. Discussion is good. Challenging your views is good for personal growth.

What is a bit of a shame is that since getting my blog added to my work aggregator, I have experienced large amounts of abuse, personal insults and nasty behaviour. My reaction has been to not publish negative comments and trying to mostly ignore the tirade of criticism coming my way. Most people comment anonymously and without adding any value.

Yes, this blog is not about refactoring, Ruby on Rails or the latest thing Martin Fowler said but I thought I talked about things that people might be interested in. It's what interests me. Obviously not.

Next week I will look at removing my blog from PlanetTW.

7 comments:

Portuguesinha said...

Ola,
I enjoy your blog very much particularly within TW Planet, I am quite sure this is the case with most of the TW community particularly the Geek Girls out there. I don't know Damana very well, but she comes across as a true Amazon Warrior full of passion and true to herself. Since when do you care about silly comments from cowards unable to put their name behind their opinions?
We have all those lovely ladies attending your events for a reason, they respect your opinions and enjoy you straightforwardness. What better place than ThoughtBlogs to express your views?
Diversity of opinions is what TW is all about, so please don’t give up.

Ines

Jason Yip said...

I started getting anonymous troll comments on my blog maybe about a week or two ago. I turned off anonymous commenting and lo and behold, no more trolls.

The moniker Anonymous Coward is apt.

Nick said...

Hey Damana,

I enjoy reading your postings too! I don't want you to remove them from TW Planet either. You could however be more selective on your target audience.

On my own blog I have a category for TW which gets aggregated on TW Planet, all other posts are kept separate. So I have the choice of whether to include TW Planet readers or not.

You should relish in the criticism and comments that you are getting. It shows that your thoughts are stimulating discussion. And if your comments rub some people the wrong way then feel good about that too. Some people like John Dvorak make a living out of it.

Cheers,
Nick.

Frank Carver said...

I subscribed to planet TW a month or so ago, and found several new (to me) bloggers with interesting viewpoints when I did, yours included.

However, the feed is so busy and so eclectic that I am thinking about unsubscribing from the planet TW feed and subscribing directly to some of the individual blogs instead.

Good luck with whichever direction you choose, but please don't stop blogging your mind.

mike said...

Yes ... you don't belong here ...

and my name is Mike Suarez by the way ...

Ange said...

hey damana,

i really like your blog - which is why i've subscribed both to it and thoughtblogs.

the fact that you've feel it might be necessary to remove yourself from thoughtblogs to avoid the crappy behaviour of others is so disappointing! conversation, discussion, rampant ranty arguments - they're all good fun, but there is a line and the kind of feedback you're talking about definitely crosses that line.

please continue being the brave amazing woman you are, online as well as off.

:)

ange

Damana Madden said...

Thanks guys. I'll stick around :)

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