So You’ve Offended the Internet, Now What?

If you haven’t noticed, the internet is a big place. While I wish it were only here for max cat photos and True Blood gifs, it is not.

OH GOD JASON ILU BB

Much of what I write here are going to be my observances on things and such because that is the only way I can relate to anything – by being egocentric. Just, you know, bear with me. I have an actual point, I swears it.

The internet, much like real life, is full of people. While that can be awesome, people are, in my experience mean and I don’t like the vast majority of them. I do, however, like all of you here on Buzznet because you are all speshul snoeflakes but, I digress.

The power of the internet is that it is very dialogue heavy. People get to post things and then you get to post things. Hopefully, LoLz are exchanged and maybe you’ll actually walk away from all those TARDIS gifs having learned something. Maybe the internet can be your chrysalis and you will emerge from your time here a more awesome person/butterfly.

So. What exactly am I going on about? Let me tell you.

Buzznet is no stranger to the Drama Llama:

Go ahead, pet it. You touch that llama. We are going to be BFFs with it.

We have had instances on our beloved site that have been, well, all the suck. Words were said, people got offended and then s**t got KUH RAY ZEE. It happens. It’s the internet. You can be offended. You can state your case. I can’t tell you how to react to things because:

a) I am not your Daddy. b) I don’t pay your bills.c) I don’t know what words/situations are going to trigger you.

The flip side to that is that people can post whatever they want to Buzznet. OMG SHOES. OMG NATIVE AMERICAN HEADDRESSES. Yeah. That’s kind of what this post is about. Before I could write this post, I needed an example to write about. I have been waiting for one and like magic, it appears.

So let’s talk about what happened here. Basically, one person posted something that was offensive to someone. The offended person said why they were offended (rather politely might I add) and then well, yeah. Nothing really crazy happened but the comments were deleted for whatever reason. Whatever. It’s that OP’s choice to do whatever they want with their blog.

It wasn’t until 0630 this morning that AnraTheBadAngel made some sense to me:

Allow me to quote: “If you try hard enough you make everything out to be offensive to someone.”

NO KIDDING. Of course people are going to be offended by things. You know why? BECAUSE WHAT YOU POSTED IS PROBABLY OFFENSIVE.

Since this is Buzznet, we welcome any and all dissent. Why? Because we want to challenge your current ideals. We want you to question the things that you like.

“But Rich, I JUST LIKE WHAT I LIKE!” Well, sometimes liking something “just because” isn’t good enough. You are better than that. Have a reason. Think. Don’t just follow something without cause or because it’s cool.

If you post something on Buzznet and people are offended, stand back and look at what you wrote. Take what these people are telling you to heart. Sometimes people just want you to learn from something and realize that what you did probably wasn’t the best way to do something. That’s ok. We all make mistakes. We might sometimes say the wrong things, use the wrong language. It’s what happens after you are corrected that counts. Realize that there are other people here and that sometimes they get offended. Understand someone else’s point of view for a change.

If you are going to point out someone’s ill use of __insert something here__, please do so constructively. I know sometimes things get heated but you know what? Let us try to be civil with one another and actually get some sort of dialogue going before the mud slinging starts. We aren’t going to change anything by being unkind to one another.

You might think that one blog is trivial but it isn’t. Imagine that something positive came out of your interactions. One person can change the mind of many and hopefully that is what we can do during our time here.

The internet is full of all kinds of horribles. Trying to affect change is a Sisyphean feat, especially on the internet. Hopefully, we can make our place, our Buzznet, the place where kindness, understanding and compassion get carried into the real world.

I could say more, but you get the general idea. Happy posting and I love you all. Here’s a gif of a bunny:

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