Guess who emailed me?

The internet is weird, that's all.

Happy Friday,

Sometimes when you write on the internet, weird stuff happens.

Four months ago, I published a piece called “Why Tim Denning Got Scammed On His Website Design. Twice.”

It was a response to a post he’d written. Twice, he’d paid for website design and got stiffed. So he wrote about the whole mess, and explained why he thinks he got ripped off — and not once, but twice.

(Side note: If you don’t know who Tim Denning is, he’s one of the top writers on Medium, with almost a quarter of a million readers.)

I read his post, back in June, and then went and drank a gallon of coffee.

You know what I hate?

I hate when a total stranger slams down a 2500 word essay in comments. My theory is if you have that much to say to a total stranger, write an article and cross-link.

So that’s what I did. Wrote my own piece and cross linked.

It sucks to pay for something and get stiffed. I don’t care if it’s a dress that fits Barbie instead of the woman who ordered it, or website that was supposed to materialize and didn’t. Suffice to say websites tend to cost a bit more than a dress.

Thing was, his “reasons” were wrong. This is my wheelhouse. I’ve worked in the field for 20 freaking years.

I’m the first to bitch about basement Bobs who think knowing how to use wordpress (or any platform) makes them a designer. Nope. Sorry. Not any more than knowing how to use a knife makes you a surgeon.

Design and decoration aren’t the same. Design serves a purpose and achieves an end result that you set out to achieve. Not that you could tell by most websites, but that’s how it’s supposed to work.

A designer who builds an ergonomic chair that falls apart the first time you sit on it isn’t really a designer. Not a good one, anyway. Know what I mean?

So anyway, the piece got a few thousand views, a few thousand claps and then it died on the vine. Scrolled into oblivion. Or so I thought.

Yesterday, I got an email from Tim about his site. Don’t know if we’ll end up working together, but that’s not really the point.

I replied to his email and then popped over to Medium. In my feed was a post by a woman saying she’s been writing about her family. They just found her profile.

That’s the thing about writing online. Writing itself is solitary and personal, but we never know who’s reading. One of the biggest decisions we need to make as writers is whether or not that matters. What do you think?

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Fresh off the grill…here’s what I wrote this week.

• $125,000 Writing Challenge Pays $5K to 25 Winners, Not Just 4. Lol. Sorry.

• They Say Marilyn Monroe’s Mother Was Insane. I’m Not So Sure.

• Remember The Stanford Prison Experiment? It Was A Lie

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“Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light In The Heart

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Thanks in advance for clicking the ❤ or leaving a comment. Your feedback makes me feel like I’m not writing to a brick wall. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

xo,
Linda