You better buy life insurance before Gestapo knocks on your door!

In this day and age, when many of the ads we are flooded with promise to “stop malware” and “delete cookies that track your habits”, are you actually at all surprised at the outrage you caused by openly mining a social site for commercial profit?

I can’t say that all of the negative responses were mature, but I would hardly call putting the word “die” at the end of an “I hate people like you” post a death threat.

I worked insurance for several years, and can’t count the number of times my mother’s honor or children’s purity was called into question by someone upset that I had denied their claim. It comes with the territory in certain jobs, and I certainly didn’t make a federal case about it every time an upset claimant told me to f*** off and die.

In a world where people are sick and tired of ads being shoved down their throat in ever more intrusive ways, if you are going to continue to spider people’s personal information for marketing *and then brag about it to those very people*, you really need to grow a thicker skin.

I was strongly on the side of those against marketing blogs for the reason that they dilute the quality of our stumbles. I was angry and I’ve spoken out, but never in a hateful or threatening way. (I’ve since stopped altogether.)

But the “trolls” (I call them “haters”) don’t just dilute the quality of our stumbles: they literally try to destroy our entire *existence* there. They RUIN it ALL. Not just the quality of our stumbles, but the whole point of being at SU to begin with: to enjoy ourselves in whatever way we see fit.

So I’m viewing marketers as the lesser of two evils, and I hope the trolls get what’s coming to them. I hate “diluted stumble quality” (heaven forbid) as much as the next “SU old-schooler”… but I hate trolls/haters 1000 times more. They drive out perfectly innocent stumblers for the sheer purpose of “entertainment.” That’s what they claim in their hater’s group forum, they don’t try to hide it. So for them to give marketers hell for “reducing the quality of their time on SU” is ludicrous. They are the epitome of “killing the joy” of SU. Give them hell. There is a special place there for them.

Sincerely,
caile-girl (who is dubbed a “drama queen” because she dares *gasp!* stand up to the trolls)

Thinks to himself: Now, if only I could remember this stuff when I’m mad.