Wow--my very first Spill.com discussion, and already I made enough enemies there to feel like just closing down my frikking account...
My God, what a bunch of jackasses!
User-names aside, for the sake of my point, I'll would like to preface this...'Piece', 'Rant', or 'Whatever', by stating first how much I love the reviews--and so, the actual 'Spill.com' crew (the guys who make this site).
MOVING ON, though--the Community there has got to be worse than the worst of Youtube commenters.
If you have a heart, and/or soul, just enjoy the reviews, and keep away from the 'members'--it's worse than if the staff of the 1970s New Yorker magazine got cybernetically-crossed with the Kardashians, Paris Hilton (and Perez, for that matter), and throw in some 'reality' TV while you're at it--and, and the trolls--the ever-encroaching, far-reaching, ever-knowing, online, internet trolls. The 'Troll Community', so to speak.
My adulation for the guys who make this site won't be hampered any at all by the trolls who constantly circle like a massive school of Great Whites, to jump on some 'poor, idiotic noob' swimming through, who upsets anyone's group sensibility enough to make 'em all go absolutely, freaking, rabid.
As quickly as if I'd stumbled across a pack of rabid, wild dogs, my throat was torn out in a mere hour's time, after a group of guys decided I 'didn't even know' what I was posting about (even though I they'd all jumped right in, because my post was the first about a new movie that simply looked good to me. I mean, I might go see it; I never indicated at all that I was any kind of 'personal devotee' of the producer, or the director, or knew the history of remakes of the film...I just started by saying 'it looked good'.
Within an hour...I was reeling from the bloodbath that had become my naive little post.
Was it worth tearing my throat out over your sensibilities? Hope not.
Maybe some 'missed thread observations'? Some 'misunderstood' social observations? At best, some freakin' well-made movie comments made by me, that were jumped on by said 'hounds' the nanosecond one of them decided you just didn't feel like Googling to understand my references...for a bunch of erudite little professionals, I'd already spent half that first hour unraveling around five negative, carping, all-too-personal comments directed at me, fending you off by even-more-naively by posting even more in-depth references, more comparisons, etc.
At around the 45-minute mark, things had gotten really ugly--not one personal comment at all, made by me, yet every single resulting comment--around 15 of a total of 20--were directly aimed at me personally...again, by random strangers, all who shared one randomly-picked, agreed-upon, goal--to tear me asunder.
My God, what a bunch of jackasses!
User-names aside, for the sake of my point, I'll would like to preface this...'Piece', 'Rant', or 'Whatever', by stating first how much I love the reviews--and so, the actual 'Spill.com' crew (the guys who make this site).
MOVING ON, though--the Community there has got to be worse than the worst of Youtube commenters.
If you have a heart, and/or soul, just enjoy the reviews, and keep away from the 'members'--it's worse than if the staff of the 1970s New Yorker magazine got cybernetically-crossed with the Kardashians, Paris Hilton (and Perez, for that matter), and throw in some 'reality' TV while you're at it--and, and the trolls--the ever-encroaching, far-reaching, ever-knowing, online, internet trolls. The 'Troll Community', so to speak.
My adulation for the guys who make this site won't be hampered any at all by the trolls who constantly circle like a massive school of Great Whites, to jump on some 'poor, idiotic noob' swimming through, who upsets anyone's group sensibility enough to make 'em all go absolutely, freaking, rabid.
As quickly as if I'd stumbled across a pack of rabid, wild dogs, my throat was torn out in a mere hour's time, after a group of guys decided I 'didn't even know' what I was posting about (even though I they'd all jumped right in, because my post was the first about a new movie that simply looked good to me. I mean, I might go see it; I never indicated at all that I was any kind of 'personal devotee' of the producer, or the director, or knew the history of remakes of the film...I just started by saying 'it looked good'.
Within an hour...I was reeling from the bloodbath that had become my naive little post.
Was it worth tearing my throat out over your sensibilities? Hope not.
Maybe some 'missed thread observations'? Some 'misunderstood' social observations? At best, some freakin' well-made movie comments made by me, that were jumped on by said 'hounds' the nanosecond one of them decided you just didn't feel like Googling to understand my references...for a bunch of erudite little professionals, I'd already spent half that first hour unraveling around five negative, carping, all-too-personal comments directed at me, fending you off by even-more-naively by posting even more in-depth references, more comparisons, etc.
At around the 45-minute mark, things had gotten really ugly--not one personal comment at all, made by me, yet every single resulting comment--around 15 of a total of 20--were directly aimed at me personally...again, by random strangers, all who shared one randomly-picked, agreed-upon, goal--to tear me asunder.
If I'd have known I'd be that lucky, I'd have bought a lottery ticket.
Again, what a bunch of rabid dogs, feeding off people who've barely started using the site.
Again, what a bunch of rabid dogs, feeding off people who've barely started using the site.
No 'friendlies' here--just a small group of sociopathic mad-men, all slaking their own thirsty egos on my open throat. Just a quickie--I was done in an hour, luckily able to close the discussion-turned-open wound, before things got any worse.
In 60 minutes, my inbox had been peppered with some of the most personal, taunting, hate mail I'd ever received--from any source on the internet, ever (even--shudder--Youtube).
The closest thing I'm familiar with, to what I experienced tonight, is watching TV shows depicting gang initiations. One misspoken movie reference...ONE, single, solitary missed historical reference, or just maybe that I didn't know your 'fave' genre as well as you think you did, and they hijacked my post and turned it into my own personal blood-bath, as relentless as a bunch of sitting-at-home, living-off-mom-and-dad, hopelessly, terminally, unemployed, egotistical, megalomaniacal, socipathic droogies, all bent on trying to get 'this guy, whoever he is' to take what we say personally enough that maybe we can get him to commit suicide.
I've seen what guys routinely do in their constant critiques of the Spill.com crew themselves, and I gotta hand it to 'em for putting up with this shit as much as they do, without just cutting heads in the manner I would.
In 60 minutes, my inbox had been peppered with some of the most personal, taunting, hate mail I'd ever received--from any source on the internet, ever (even--shudder--Youtube).
The closest thing I'm familiar with, to what I experienced tonight, is watching TV shows depicting gang initiations. One misspoken movie reference...ONE, single, solitary missed historical reference, or just maybe that I didn't know your 'fave' genre as well as you think you did, and they hijacked my post and turned it into my own personal blood-bath, as relentless as a bunch of sitting-at-home, living-off-mom-and-dad, hopelessly, terminally, unemployed, egotistical, megalomaniacal, socipathic droogies, all bent on trying to get 'this guy, whoever he is' to take what we say personally enough that maybe we can get him to commit suicide.
I've seen what guys routinely do in their constant critiques of the Spill.com crew themselves, and I gotta hand it to 'em for putting up with this shit as much as they do, without just cutting heads in the manner I would.
I routinely check in for the reviews, here, because they're done in the most professional, well-produced, humorous, 'buddy-style', stylistically-and-artfully-rendered manner I've ever seen...I do NOT, however, 'check in' for a bunch of stark-raving lunatics to jump down my throat and take turns beating me down verbally because--again--they couldn't figure out 'what the hell I was talking about'.
I'm using my blog page on Spill.com to post this now, so I can personally ensure nothing more is said of my character by 'some random, inane, self-important, jerk-off' with the internet skills to...well, click, point, and piss some random stranger off to no end.
I'm using my blog page on Spill.com to post this now, so I can personally ensure nothing more is said of my character by 'some random, inane, self-important, jerk-off' with the internet skills to...well, click, point, and piss some random stranger off to no end.
Ever thought--maybe it's me? I can say that, because I do...lots of times...the difference between me, and 'who happened upon me tonight' being, I use that thought to make sure I don't do what was done tonight--as in, verbally assaulting some person online who I have no idea who they even are, or what they do, or know, or anything.
Sign of the Times
It's sad, but the internet has become such a haven for such behavior because of many things I'm not being paid to go into here, but among them are some things with some pretty negative connotations, like the group mentality (and so, group-think), the gang mentality (or, a bullying mentality), narcissism, sociopathic behavior, and so on.
I'd like to make a larger observation here about the nagging criticism that's out there--with some basic, ironic, constants:
- people who criticize others on the 'net do so over the most baseless, worthless things
- they act this way most often because they have can do so with anonymity
- they will likely never even meet personally--and look the person in the eye, who they've treated so malignantly online
- apathy--public apathy about anti-social behavior is at an all-time high, with no remorse about it whatsoever
- after all is said and done, nothing is ever done about it
- many times, it's a 'pearls before swine' thing--the offenders take the info they want, then begin mistreating the very person who brought it to them
- nobody learns anything--the unprincipled, undisciplined, anarchic tendencies of these people allow this to go on, and most often, they're right back at it within minutes--or even seconds
- they could be anybody--often, some of the worst offenders are local, even regional, or national--public, 'respected' figures, with jobs that involve some degree of trust and respect from their constituents, or even communities--they're doing this as a 'release'; venting hatred on randomly-chosen 'others' feeds their egos, even allowing them some respite from the day's worries; making this problem highly cyclical and repetitive
I learned a oodles from my very first post on Spill.com tonight--some pretty negative things, actually. Foremost, that the 'community' is populated by some ridiculously hateful people...and even more of the kind who just say benignly 'unhelpful', uncaring things in passing (ridiculously, because they go out of their way to type these things). Frankly, the nature of this type of person is potentially harmful enough that they should wear signs saying stuff like 'I'm hateful', or 'I'm narcissistic', or 'I'm a basically shallow, resentful person'--each sign with the subtitle "And I'm Here to Make Sure You See That, Too". Just really, really unnecessary stuff, all said.
I'm probably not going to post on Spill.com again--like any ranting manifesto, the more I think about it, the angrier I get, because it was just so unnecessarily rude, obnoxious, and hateful.
'Unfortunately', I practice enough self-restraint, and am considerate enough of others, that I won't be able to repay these jerks for acting the way they did--so, I'm left with the mere technical constraints the site itself offers to every community member, to keep this from ever happening again.
I'm starting by using my 'Spill.com' blog to post my 'little rant'. The blog page seems to have the only settings that will keep idiots from 'starting on me', and 'not jumping off'...ever.
So, I really hope this won't happen to me, ever again.
The world really may be going straight to hell, guys, but there really isn't any reason to make it any worse.
If you can't say anything nice, just don't say anything at all, means about 1000% more when taken in the context of the availability of digital, and now, social, media, and our 'access' to each other. We're sure as hell not acting really 'nice' these days.
It would be wonderful if my experience tonight was just an unnaturally, unfortunate, and outrageous one, where I just happened to meet 'the worst of the worst' members of the 'Spill.com community', in my very first post...but I'm amazed at how quickly my topic was turned into something so extremely ugly and personal against me...it really was stunning...so, I don't know what to think, yet.
The 'members' who ran me up the flagpole so disrespectfully tonight, did so as a group, progressively. First, came one negative comment; then, within a minute, another, then another, and so on, until I'd received over 20 of them, all forwarded to my actual regular email inbox, too.
When I posted back nearly apologizing for 'wronging this guy', I made a big mistake--I took way too submissive an attitude toward a group of mindless, rude, jerks, who were already chomping at the bit. The others jumped in, and within a quick hour, things had 'transgressed' to the point I was feeling like a kid who makes CNN for getting beat-down by an older school kid.
When I posted back nearly apologizing for 'wronging this guy', I made a big mistake--I took way too submissive an attitude toward a group of mindless, rude, jerks, who were already chomping at the bit. The others jumped in, and within a quick hour, things had 'transgressed' to the point I was feeling like a kid who makes CNN for getting beat-down by an older school kid.
What Good is Your 'Film Knowledge' When You're a Jerk?
Sadly, it might not even help this bunch.
You may not like the way somebody talks, or how you perceive their demeanor, or even their character--but then again, you may be so wrong that you have absolutely no idea, and regardless, you have no right to disassemble another human being's personal character publicly because you're so small you feel the need to build yourself off their ruin.
To say unkind things about someone, with absolutely no cause, for no reason, and to no end--especially over the medium of the internet--just goes beyond the pale. Beyond that, since you've likely not only not walked a mile in that other guy's shoes, but as in so many cases these days, would not even be willing to do so, or even learn what those miles involved, you just have no right to say what you're saying, ever.
To say unkind things about someone, with absolutely no cause, for no reason, and to no end--especially over the medium of the internet--just goes beyond the pale. Beyond that, since you've likely not only not walked a mile in that other guy's shoes, but as in so many cases these days, would not even be willing to do so, or even learn what those miles involved, you just have no right to say what you're saying, ever.
So, if you're a film giant (mentally), good...enjoy that. But there's no really no place for a naive opener that quickly turns into a carping, group, gang-style beat-down of someone who might even have enough heart and soul to have potentially become a friend, had conditions been more suitable (and you not behaved like you did), with such a level of immediacy!
If this sounds bad...it is. It felt really bad, too.
I don't expect any more from other members from now on--I'm a real, live, human being, and I've never said anything intentionally, or carelessly, mean or disrespectful toward anyone else using Spill.com, so I hope to keep my account open to do what I enjoy doing here--watching their awesomely fun animated video film reviews.
We basically need to quit carping, trolling, angering--basically, hating--each other, online, regardless of where it starts happening, because it's too easy to let this stuff get out of control due to the ease, availability, and immediacy of the new digital medium that's enabling this type of thing to happen.
As for me, I tried defusing the stuff in my post, but when three of you had heaped on me, I had enough, and closed, then later, deleted it.
I don't expect any more from other members from now on--I'm a real, live, human being, and I've never said anything intentionally, or carelessly, mean or disrespectful toward anyone else using Spill.com, so I hope to keep my account open to do what I enjoy doing here--watching their awesomely fun animated video film reviews.
We basically need to quit carping, trolling, angering--basically, hating--each other, online, regardless of where it starts happening, because it's too easy to let this stuff get out of control due to the ease, availability, and immediacy of the new digital medium that's enabling this type of thing to happen.
As for me, I tried defusing the stuff in my post, but when three of you had heaped on me, I had enough, and closed, then later, deleted it.
I don't have a fraction of the commitment, the talent, the resources, or even the resilience it takes to keep doing the reviews the 'Spill.com Crew' keeps putting out, with all the negative feedback I see their own members giving them. It's just relentless!
Anyone who fails to recognize the value of Spill.com for the vanguard internet media resource it's becoming--truly groundbreaking fun, insightful, entertaining, and valuable stuff, just doesn't even need to be here, anyway.
I don't visit the site enough even if I'm here an hour each day, but I keep seeing all these people making such pointedly-negative comments about each video movie review! It gets worse all the time!
I wonder how many of these 'self-appointed' world-wide critics have ever even tried making a simple flip-book, much less a masterfully-scripted, story-boarded, fully-animated, [smoothly-and-professionally]-produced, edited, published, censored [just seeing who's reading this], and syndicated production of any type, of the caliber these little gems are made.
Probably 'nobody'.
Yet they're lining up, flooding every review page with snarky, snide, 'pseudo-professional' critiques, of these guys' work, using the very same, FREE, Spill.com accounts, to say the most negative, petty stuff I've ever seen on any site--as if they're 'friends' of the Spill.com team. Wow--with 'friends like these', you know...
Ridiculous criticisms like, 'you guys coulda done this', or 'I could've done that better', to 'that's just not funny, I woulda done this', and my personal fave 'you guys are slipping...this isn't your best work'', and 'I thought that last guy's comment on this review was better than the actual review'. Yeah, right.
I read those, and snicker at the pure hubris, but never saw it coming to me, until my single, first post, tonight.
Of course, this post isn't to the Spill.com crew themselves. No...this is to the jerks who went after me so relentlessly and ardently tonight, over nothing.
Hope you didn't hurt your fingers while personally degrading me--my carpal didn't flare up, so I typed you this little 'critique' of my very own.
Anyone who fails to recognize the value of Spill.com for the vanguard internet media resource it's becoming--truly groundbreaking fun, insightful, entertaining, and valuable stuff, just doesn't even need to be here, anyway.
I don't visit the site enough even if I'm here an hour each day, but I keep seeing all these people making such pointedly-negative comments about each video movie review! It gets worse all the time!
I wonder how many of these 'self-appointed' world-wide critics have ever even tried making a simple flip-book, much less a masterfully-scripted, story-boarded, fully-animated, [smoothly-and-professionally]-produced, edited, published, censored [just seeing who's reading this], and syndicated production of any type, of the caliber these little gems are made.
Probably 'nobody'.
Yet they're lining up, flooding every review page with snarky, snide, 'pseudo-professional' critiques, of these guys' work, using the very same, FREE, Spill.com accounts, to say the most negative, petty stuff I've ever seen on any site--as if they're 'friends' of the Spill.com team. Wow--with 'friends like these', you know...
Ridiculous criticisms like, 'you guys coulda done this', or 'I could've done that better', to 'that's just not funny, I woulda done this', and my personal fave 'you guys are slipping...this isn't your best work'', and 'I thought that last guy's comment on this review was better than the actual review'. Yeah, right.
I read those, and snicker at the pure hubris, but never saw it coming to me, until my single, first post, tonight.
Of course, this post isn't to the Spill.com crew themselves. No...this is to the jerks who went after me so relentlessly and ardently tonight, over nothing.
Hope you didn't hurt your fingers while personally degrading me--my carpal didn't flare up, so I typed you this little 'critique' of my very own.
Please start showing more respect to anyone you meet--online, or not (there's an outside, too, complete with real-live little old ladies who you could start this 'new mindset' by how you treat them, then work your way down to people maybe one second older than you, who might just be so damn tired we're fighting just to care anymore.
Like I said, I'll try and make sure I use the website's settings to avoid the living hell out of the guys who piled on me toinght--but inevitably, as Yoda himself said...
"There is another".
Yup, or there will be, anyway--I'm sure Spill.com has dozens (likely, hundreds or even thousands) of new members, every week, who eventually start logging on as a way to find out what movies they might be able to justify plunking down anything from full-price, to the .99 video rental, to see.
After a month, they'll begin commenting on other peoples' comments on the site, and then, eventually, one will trickle into the turnstile of those who might even make 'Baby's 1st Post' [A-HEM!].
After a month, they'll begin commenting on other peoples' comments on the site, and then, eventually, one will trickle into the turnstile of those who might even make 'Baby's 1st Post' [A-HEM!].
Try not to take their heads off when they make that first typo, or asinine comment, or dumb, or unintelligent, or sappy, or infantile, or murky, or unintelligible, overtly religious, or socially-unconscionable, or politically-incorrect statement, or whatever it is that gets you mad enough to just start railing on them, humiliating them, even infuriating them, pummeling this total stranger with one personal, reckless, insult after another, because you're so cool, and so, everybody else surely must deserve such treatment, since they don't match your impeccably-high, personal standards of 'net-etiquette (and standards of personal & professional conduct, I'm sure).
Because...why? Because somebody else did it to you? Forgive me, I just don't understand.
I'm writing this, so when 'we' see 'this guy' doing the same admittedly idiotic stuff I did tonight (under some personal stress you have no idea of knowing, BTW), maybe somebody else will jump in and stop the b.s. before it gets as bad--or, God-forbid, as personally-degrading--as it did tonight. (BTW, it takes a lot more character to be 'this guy', rather than the 'group-mentalitied', mean-spirited type I endured tonight).
Whenever you want to be that guy, hope and pray there's not 'another you' (what you were tonight, anyway) who will take the bait, and jump right into a fray where the hapless prey didn't even know what hit him, basically making big growling noises and ripping somebody apart for reasons unknown, or maybe just to prove yourself to be something more than you were/are, or maybe, could ever be.
Just keep it fun, friendly, and interesting--I'll be watching myself much more carefully in the future, to keep my offenses down--I hated the hell out of this, tonight--it ruined my entire night, and certainly my first experience posting anything for discussion on Spill.com.
