(no subject)
A large part of me is surprised that I am even bothering to post or get worked up at all about something so completely trivial, but apparently I am.
Recently on LJ, a friend of a friend send out a mail to people on LJ that was unsolocited. Some people reacted negatively. These reactions ranged from mildly annoyed to completely disproportionate. Some compared this thing that she had done, which she did not intend to offend anyone, to the activities of professional spammers. One of them, in doing so, broke LJ terms of service, though he withdrew the relevant material when this was pointed out to him.
Reacting to an overreaction is not without irony, but I want to make something clear. My concern is not the original incident, which was trivial and bears no significant resemblance to professional spamming. This friend of a friend apologised. She did so clearly, publicly and in detail. That must have taken guts. I applaud those who were originally offended and reacted graciously to this apology. We may have different views on the significance of the incident, but they did the decent thing there. I have a different view of those who reacted with less grace, and I would like to express it here.
Even my life, privileged and sugar-coated as it is by any reasonable standard, has some problems. Real genuine problems that I worry about and wonder how to solve. If I had been emailed as you were, this would not have been one of them, to put it really rather mildly.
Get a damn life. You have offended good taste to a far greater degree than the original action ever could have done.
And yes, if you are not on my friends list, you cannot comment on this post, public though it is. Boo hoo. You have plenty of other places that you can spill more virtual ink on this if you wish.
Recently on LJ, a friend of a friend send out a mail to people on LJ that was unsolocited. Some people reacted negatively. These reactions ranged from mildly annoyed to completely disproportionate. Some compared this thing that she had done, which she did not intend to offend anyone, to the activities of professional spammers. One of them, in doing so, broke LJ terms of service, though he withdrew the relevant material when this was pointed out to him.
Reacting to an overreaction is not without irony, but I want to make something clear. My concern is not the original incident, which was trivial and bears no significant resemblance to professional spamming. This friend of a friend apologised. She did so clearly, publicly and in detail. That must have taken guts. I applaud those who were originally offended and reacted graciously to this apology. We may have different views on the significance of the incident, but they did the decent thing there. I have a different view of those who reacted with less grace, and I would like to express it here.
Even my life, privileged and sugar-coated as it is by any reasonable standard, has some problems. Real genuine problems that I worry about and wonder how to solve. If I had been emailed as you were, this would not have been one of them, to put it really rather mildly.
Get a damn life. You have offended good taste to a far greater degree than the original action ever could have done.
And yes, if you are not on my friends list, you cannot comment on this post, public though it is. Boo hoo. You have plenty of other places that you can spill more virtual ink on this if you wish.