Full Moon

I am not superstitious, but there are times when I wonder if the moon affects our psyches.  I swear all the online crazies came out this week.  (A friend assured me that the off liners were just as nuts, as well.)  What made me reach this conclusion?  Three different people went after me this week: one on Twitter and two on Facebook.  Why?  Who knows?!!!

I have been living in the virtual world for over twenty years.  I started on Prodigy, spending most of my time in the genealogy forums.  I moved to AOL and became a regular in the News Room chat room.  There I honed my skills.  If AOL chat rooms are the wild, wild, west, the News Room was no man’s land.  You had to learn to be tough quickly.  We debated politics, religion, OJ and Bill Clinton.  It was no holds barred.  The majority of the people were wonderful.  We had intelligent discussions and although they could become heated, we never held grudges.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for everyone.

There were those who didn’t understand that it was appropriate to agree to disagree.  They became angry, rude and abusive.  Teens would engage in virtual assault, causing chaos with disruptive software applications.  My friends and I would gang up on the snerts and drive them from the room.  One group invaded the room and blocked us all.  It got so bad that we moved to a private chat room where we had better privacy controls.

I learned a great deal during my time on AOL.  It came in handy this week.  I am involved in a number of news discussion groups on Facebook.  People get along fairly well.  Every once in a while someone will get their nose out of joint, but I ignore them and move on.  This week I had to put all my skills to use dealing with someone who didn’t like the way I posted my messages.  The person went after me.  We were in a talk show discussion.  Everyone was happily debating today’s topic, except one person who felt I needed instruction in discussion etiquette.  My tweets and Facebook postings are used on CBS, NBC, an independent network, two radio stations and a major newspaper on a regular basis.  I know what I am doing.  She was out of line.  If I wanted, I could have gone after her and torn her to shreds, but it would have been disruptive.  I took the high road instead.

The best way to deal with online crazies is to IGNORE THEM!  Facebook has a wonderful feature.  You can block anyone and everyone.  All you have to do is go to your privacy settings, search for the crazy and block them!  The cool thing is they have no idea that they are being blocked.  You simply disappear from their sight.  They disappear from yours, as well.  Both of you can still participate in the groups and discussions.  Everyone else can see you.  It is a win-win.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot you can do on Twitter.  I watched a nasty fight in a television show’s Twitter feed yesterday.  One woman went after another.  The victim felt vulnerable.  My best advice is to remain calm.  Don’t engage the crazy.  In a few words, state that you are terminating the interaction and deleting any further tweets that appear on your feed, then do it!  Have no further interactions with them.  As far as you are concerned they do not exist.  If you have a good reputation, you have no need to worry. 

If they continue to go after you, it will be obvious to everyone they are nuts.  Remember we are living in a virtual world.  The crazies are only as real as you are willing to make them.

July 5, 2013

By the way, Twitter has a blocking feature.  Just use their help feature and it will walk you through it.