Hit-and-Run
Years ago, shortly after 9-11, when online message boards were spilling over with fearful posts and dire predictions, I began posting as The Voice of Reason. My posts were more or less the same each time: Don’t panic. The chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are miniscule. You’d extend your life more effectively by being tested for cancer than hoarding Cipro for an anthrax attack that will never come. My posts would quickly disappear in the flow of paranoia on the boards, but occasionally I’d find a reply from someone grateful for my reassurance.
The online world has changed. A reasoned response to an article online has about as much chance of being appreciated as a mini-skirt in downtown Tehran. I do my reasoned posting here on Bud’s Blog … or occasionally (for less weighty topics) on Facebook. Sometimes, though, I read an article online and just have to know what commenters have to say. Astonished at the level of illogic or the lack of the basics of the American language, I can’t resist replying. At these times, I am not being the Voice of Reason. I may say, Do you ever think before writing? or If you can read, you might want to check out this reference. It’s Hit-and-Run … I have no desire for a response. But as I say, the online world has changed. I have a Yahoo ID. A Google ID. I’m signed up with Disqus. I have two Facebook personas and one on WordPress. If I am signed on using one or the other … and don’t notice the check boxes at the bottom of the comment box, my comments may show up in places I’d rather they didn’t.
Recently, some very peculiar posts started showing up on my brother’s
Facebook page. I messaged him about it and he had responded to a survey online … and logged in with Facebook, which activated an App that posted all his comments. Several weeks ago, I commented on an article on religious freedom on Yahoo. Although I never use Yahoo mail, the next day, the indicator at the top of my home page said I had a number of messages and several hundred notifications. I’d been signed in on Yahoo and received a torrent of mail and counter-comments featuring a startling mix of quasi-English, body part vulgarity and religious prejudice … with several varieties of the name of God thrown in for spice. I no longer check my Yahoo mail or notifications. Last night, keeping track of the Laker game on line (it’s not available here in AZ), I posted a Hit-and-Run comment about the coach, Mike Brown, out of frustration (Let’s just say, I don’t love him). It was just frustration and meant to be a Hit-and-Run. Minutes later, I found my comments on my Facebook page. Yikes. If you read about sports online, you know that you don’t want the sports message board crowd following you home. My comments on a recent Yahoo News Blog post about the upcoming election generated a mailbox full of cretinous responses via Disqus.
So, the advice of the day is: Don’t Hit-and-Run. But if you can’t help yourself, be sure to uncheck all those boxes. And don’t log in using anything that leads home.
Explore posts in the same categories: curmudgeonly rantsTags: blogging, comments, curmudgeonly rants, Facebook, humor, message boards, postaday, writing and blogging
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Older Eyes 
March 29, 2012 at 10:26 am
I am a comment fiend, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all where my comments get scattered. But I haven’t had the pleasure of things showing up in my email or on my facebook pages.
I find so many oddities about the Internet though. I read the comment threads on such things as Newsvine and blogs posted on various blog directory sites and the most inane, superfluous, drivel will have hundreds of comments with a goodly number of those written apparently from people that struggle with the spelling of opinion…or opinum as the case may be. Either there are a lot of 7th and 8th graders that are also opinion fiends or there are real idiots out there.
I have always thought it would be fun to start a blog under an anonymous name and just go for shock value to see how may hits you could get and what would go viral if you removed every filter that begs for any type of descretion and remove all traces of being politically correct. it would not only be great fun to write but I dare say that I would have thousands of followers in short order.
March 29, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Yeesh, what hassle. I have never commented on any article I’ve read online simply because, as you said, reasoned argument has no place in that forum. Reading those comments makes me lose hope for humanity. I’m better off sticking to WP. 🙂 I hope you get out from under the deluge safely with all identity intact!
March 31, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Between the copyright on my blog and my Facebook info, I’m probably traceable but it doesn’t concern me all that much. I’ll probably comment a lot less from now on though.
March 29, 2012 at 4:16 pm
oy vey!
April 2, 2012 at 12:06 pm
My younger daughter (and her two small children too) live with me. She and I share my computer and we are both on Facebook and gee, have a lot of the same friends too.
Occasionally, she will leave the computer and her Facebook page will still be open but every now and again, because I am no exactly fastidious in many aspects of my life, I will start reading Facebook stuff, thinking it’s mine and it’s not and I will leave a comment. (To quote that old joke line “And that’s when the fight started…” Actually, we’ve never gotten into any big knock down, dragouts, etc., over my faux pas, but have had to sort out a few things now and again! Thankfully, they’ve all ended fairly well and with good humor.
As to online commenting, I have to have a really, really strong opinion (I know -you mean I don’t already have that?) before I will leave a comment, especially a “hit and run” kind of remark. But I do have a lot of them that float about in my head from time to time. Please hope (and pray) that the majority of them never leak out though!