20 Comments
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David Perlmutter's avatar

Rude people ruin everything....

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Linda Caroll's avatar

They sure do. lol

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Dakota Duncan's avatar

You are so right! The concept of not being a self-centered jerk is quite simple. You’d think more people would have it perfected.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

lol. You'd think, hey? But no. Someone should write a book called How Not To Be A Jerk. The key to success would be letting people buy it anonymously and have it sent to someone else. The secret sending would make it go bestseller. lol

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Dakota Duncan's avatar

Oh! I like it! I think the title will need to reworked so the person picking it up and reading it does not realize they are the jerk that needs educating. Maybe along the lines of “Why is Everyone Around Me So Stupid?”

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Joy DeSomber's avatar

I love that idea! I imagine the person who receives some outrageous number of that book, all sent anonymously, by unique and different buyers, at different times, to the same person. But then I think, “Nope, someone that bad still wouldn’t change.”

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Henya Drescher's avatar

I have a different approach....I kill the rud-ders (not a word) with kindness; that gets them each time. There's no rebuke, no bad feelings. And. I'm a better person for it. Because I made myself feel good. I rose above it...Whatever that IT means. Who knows how that person woke up that morning, or if they are in bed with long Covid and they use their miserable moment to lash out? It has nothing to do with you and all to do with them. There's nothing in your postings, ever, that should elicit rude responses. What has to do with you is how you choose to take it.

There is my speech for today. :))

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I wish I had even half of that patience!

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Linda Caroll's avatar

lol. Some days I do. Other days I don't look.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

It's totally true. And that's exactly how I reply, when I have the wherewithall to do it. That we should have to, though, is the real issue.

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Henya Drescher's avatar

The good comes with the bad when we put our souls out there for others to meddle with or cherish them.

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Dennis's avatar

So true. Rude people harsh my mellow. It's an on going struggle.

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Martin Edic's avatar

I’m actually surprised I don’t get more rude comments, given that I write about controversial subjects like US politics, climate, and global events. I have no problem blocking them when I do get them. I’ve got a pretty thick skin which helps.

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Angela Treat Lyon's avatar

If I'm feeling good, I don't bother to reply to them.

If I'm not, I rip them a new one for being rude.

If I'm feeling who-cares, I delete them (on FB anyway).

The thing that gets me worse is reading other people's posts and someone has highlighted Every. Single. Line.

I hate that!

Go on, high light one or two lines - that's what HIGH light means, right?

Emphasizing the top points of a post?

It does not mean ALL light!

(muttering to self, grabbing coffee...)

And why anyone would be rude to you is beyond me. I've never seen a single thing to be rude about.

Tell them to go eat dirty socks or something.

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Jim the Geek's avatar

As my late friend Joe used to say, "It doesn't take all kinds, but we've got 'em!"

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Joe Luca's avatar

What's the old PR adage (I think it's PR) - Any press is good press, because it gets your name out there. For me it's any comment is a good comment because it means someone's reading what I'm writing. I've written a few things on Medium that prompted some "negative" stuff but not too bad at all. I responded to almost all of them. That's not my peeve.

My peeve is silence. Medium provided me with an interesting test in March. I wrote an article and posted it through a Pub I work with and it was out there for about 72 hours before it got boosted. So, I got to compare my usual first 72 hours on Medium with the next 72 hours after people actually get to see it.

The first 72 hours 15-20 views with a few nice comments. The next 72 hours, over a 1000 views and some of the nicest comments I've gotten on Medium - 99% from people I had never heard of before. It was a massive boost to my ego and my analytical mind because it finally gave me insight into what my writing could produce if given the chance.

Yeah, silence is my peeve as a writer. As a normal human being hanging on a Saturday morning - silence is kind of nice.

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Kelly Eden's avatar

It used to upset me a lot more. Now I find it mildy amusing. Some people must walk around really angry with the world and with far too much time on their hands.

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Fairy Tales's avatar

One yucky comment is too many for you to be experiencing! Bleh. Too bad there isn't an AI colour-code/mood ring for comments that Substack generates so you can decide whether to read them at all. What would happen if you didn't reply? I imagine they're just not worth your time.

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Tree Langdon's avatar

What a brilliant use for AI.

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Tree Langdon's avatar

yup, rude comments are very high on my list. I also don't like people who obviously didn't read my article, yet feel entitled to post links and ask for follows. That behavior doesn't do much for my opinion of them or their writing.

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