Ok, as usual, BBB felt like posting something that irritated him about a game that used to bring enjoyment to our lives, but lately has been bringing nothing but frustration and reflections about whether this is really how we want to spend our free time.
And before I start my actual post, I want to make it clear that this is ALL me. BBB is at work and has no idea what I’m about to say or that I’m posting at all. But since this blog is part of my life too and affects my family daily, I get to have an opinion (even if someone will then complain about the blog having too many “guest” posts and tell us they are leaving in disgust – yes, that has happened recently.)
So here goes.
Instead of people who didn’t agree with his Noblegarden post just moving on or politely sharing a different opinion or possible solution, the majority choose to send (and continue to send) comments that were vicious, ugly, filled with name calling, and several who announced that because this blog no longer focused on druids and had lost all of its “former glory”, they would be moving on and hoped BBB was happy to know that he had lost readers because he a) needed to grow up b) needed to stop whining, c) needed to only write about druids and not hunters, guild stuff or anything RL or d) he was ___ (fill in with an objectionable and childish name calling word of your choice since we pretty much received them all)
So once again, people seem to have the impression that this blog OWES them something. That BBB is REQUIRED to spend all of his free time doing druid research and posting long step-by-step instructions about how to gear/spec/play a druid so that someone else who plays a druid tank or dps doesn’t have to do any research or think themselves about what makes sense for their class. They can go to a blog and get instructions on what to do instead and that it should be this blog.
And while BBB does sometimes do those types of posts, he also said LONG ago and has said frequently, that this blog was about anything he wanted to do write about. Maybe one day it’s about a hunter, another day it’s about a guild leadership issue that we’re having, or about something in RL that he felt passionate about to share. We receive many emails and comments from people telling us they enjoy that type of post. That his story days are their favorite times. That they don’t even play WoW anymore, but they stop by to check things out and see what’s on his mind. Those are the people that this blog is here for. You are the people that BBB keeps writing for.
For those who feel that you are owed a certain type of content, that feel they have to right to offer “constructive criticism about content” (their term for nastiness about being entitled to different posts) or who feel the need to be vicious and nasty, I have a simple solution for you – GO AWAY and DON’T COME BACK. You are not who this blog is for and if you write to say that BBB has just lost a reader, know that we are generally not sad or upset. Instead we are thrilled to know that yet another person who feels it’s ok to be childish and demanding has left and won’t be commenting any more.
At the time this blog was started BBB, friends of ours were the ones that thought he should start a public blog since they were having so much fun with a yahoo group that was started among themselves where he’d share stories or rants or RL stuff. So he started the blog and as he wanted to write posts, he realized that there wasn’t really anyone out there writing specifically about feral druids and he personally did SO much research and figuring things out so that he could better himself as a tank that he’d share that with others in case people were looking for help OR could make suggestions to him. People began flocking to the blog and he somehow ended up the official “Big Bear Butt Blogger” and then got recruited to write for WoW Insider for the feral perspective. He wrote fantastic, long detailed class column posts that were not the norm for that publication and people loved it. What they don’t know or often care about is that those posts for which he was paid very little, took, in some cases, 5 or 10 hours of writing and research for a single post. Instead of logging on to play the game, he would be spending hours doing math and linking to wowhead stuff and not enjoying the game that he was writing about because he’s naturally an overachiever who felt people deserved the best information; the information that he couldn’t find when he started.
However, over time, game play changes for everyone. He started playing other types of classes and learning things about those (hunter, shadow priest, etc) and being the genuinely helpful person that he is, wanted to share that information here too. Then we had guild issues and ended up forming our guild and we thought, “hey people might have advice along the way” so we wrote posts about that too. And being a person who served in the military and has strong knowledge and passion for American history and issues, BBB would occasionally share posts in that area too. And then since he’s led a crazy life (in the past), he thought he’d share some personal stories that had made that original group of friends suggest the blog in the first place.
That’s what this blog is about. Anything that BBB feels passion about at the moment. If that’s not what you want, go find it somewhere else. Or even better, if you can’t find it, do it yourself. Start your own blog and get to say what you want whenever you want in whatever manner you want.
But don’t come here and feel that you have the right to be nasty, name-call or just be a jerk to my family. In the past, we’ve literally had people get so wound up about a post, that someone took the time to figure out where we live, posted a google map to our house and the park where our son plays and say maybe someone should stop by and have a talk with us. Yes, an actual threat to my family because of opinions about a virtual world and how they didn’t like what BBB said about something about that pretend world.
I’m all for free speech and I don’t and won’t censor opinions because they don’t agree with us, but there’s an adult way to share a difference of opinion and for the most part, we’re not seeing it happen in that way lately. If you share something in a hateful, nasty way in the space that we PAY to have here and you threaten, demean or hurt us, we (ok, I because I’m much less tolerant about stuff like that than BBB is) WILL take away the ability to make comments and/or will yank this whole blog from the internet entirely. You don’t get to hurt my family and call it “constructive” commenting. You just don’t.
And if that offends someone and they leave the blog forever, delete it from their RSS, and move on, well then, I’m ok with that. I totally am.
Cassie
PS – Yes, I’ve used my moderation abilities and I’ve locked comments on the other post because we get the point — lots of people disagreed, some did it politely, others didn’t. But it’s a dead issue. BBB long ago moved on from his frustration about the event (like by the time he had posted the issue) and it’s time others do too, instead of just stirring up the hate and venom for weeks to come.