About 5 years ago, there was an incident in Adelaide where a classroom blog and the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services had a bit of a falling out. It was well documented at the time, so I’m not going to rehash it here, suffice to say that it was a bunfight at the time and as a result there was significant tension between the educational blogging community and the Powers That Be in South Australia.
Like many other bloggers, I expressed my thoughts on it at the time. I spoke to the person who was directly affected by the dispute, as well as a number of other people in the know. Eventually, everyone involved tried to take what they could learn from the situation and we all just moved on. Life is too short to be dragged down by that stuff.
However, over the last few weeks I’ve had some idiot posting abusive comments on this blog expressing (quite forcefully) their opinions on that situation from 2007. They have been abusive and rude to me personally, bluntly telling me that I’m an idiot and I don’t know what I’m talking about, and calling me all sorts of insulting and derogatory names. No need for details, suffice to say that they are just generally being an ignorant asshole.
What really pisses me off about this is that the person in question -who calls themselves “pav” or “pavalot” – is too gutless to use their real name, real email address or real website. They have the temerity to leave abusive comments on my blog, and possibly other blogs too, without having the courage to identify themselves or further engage in a debate about their point of view.
Naturally, I pick these comments up immediately and mark them as the spam trash they are. Nobody cares about the point of view of some ignorant nob who doesn’t even have the courage or common decency to use their real name.
So, whoever you are, I’ll tell you want. I’m happy to slug it out with you in private. You really want to have an argument with me about some incident that happened 5 years ago? I think you should grow up, but hey, bring it on. But do it as yourself, rather than hide behind a made-up email address and non-existent website. You have zero credibility when you do that and I will just keep removing your insulting, ignorant and libelous comments and putting them in the trash where they belong.
PS: I’ve reported your IP address to Internode as well, along with the full digital headers of your transactions. I hope they nail you to the wall.
Gutless Comments by Chris Betcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
hear hear Chris
Well said Chris. I’m sorry you have to put up with this ignorance … the cause of the whole thing in the first place. Education and informed risk tolerance (rather than fear and risk aversion) must surely prevail. I’m still subject to a cybersmear campaign in 2012. With this, I’ve unsuccessfully sought support at leadership, union and departmental level. I have reported IP addresses and hope this has/will help. As you so rightly said, it’s 5 years after we should have taken away what we could learn and moved on. I have departmental documentation that I was never under personal investigation. In some small way this hel
No probs Al. As you know, I’m happy to engage in debate on an issue with anyone, and I have no problem with someone having an alternate point of view. That’s what makes life interesting.
But when this person starts right out of the gate by being a fuckwit and talking out of his butt, well, I’ve no patience for that.
oops … previous comment continued … In some small way this helps but not really when it comes to Bullies. What helps there is to give them no power. To confront them and engage in conflict doesn’t help but I understand where you are coming from. I wish for this person/couple/people to find a way to come to terms with what frightens them, to seek the education and focus to positively communicate with others. Particularly when children who need and want to connect in the 21st Century are/could be involved. In our society it’s great we don’t all agree, but to use vitriolic abuse as a means to interact is abhorent. I don’t want to pursue what happened in 2008 any more and wish that your networks and spaces aren’t attacked either Chris. You offer so much of value. Ah just saw your response to the first half of my comment. Thank you for your support. Best wishes with all the good stuff and ignore the rubbish 🙂
Thanks Al, but I’ll be fine.
I don’t mind a good verbal and intellectual stoush. I enjoy a good argument, as long as it’s well fought, well reasoned and level headed. The moment people start getting all emotionally tangled in their own ideas and become irrational to common sense, I have little time for them.
This person would have been fun to argue with… I could tell by the lack of grammatical structure in their writing… They are either a complete ignoramus or were getting so worked up at defending their own point of view they could barely get a sentence out without fumbling over their own words. My mental image of them has veins popping out of their forehead as they spit and slobber everywhere with their rabid opinions.
Hilarious.