Do you work hard at being rude, or does it just come naturally?

[jrk]

Do you bathe and change your underwear, even brush your teeth and put on the strongest deodorant known to man or womankind, yet still exude such an unpleasant smell, judging from the reactions by certain members of the EP community to your presence, that they publicly snub you?

What am I talking about? What's this rant? "Has she been drinking too much coffee again?" you ask.

Well, here's the question, call it a hypothetical (hell, you can call it a hypodermic if you like):

If members have their content filters set to hide opinions by those members that they block, does this make the comments those members leave invisible, too? I honestly don't know the answer to this question because I don't use the content filters, and I couldn't find any information regarding this point in the FAQs.

I'm just curious, because if my comments have not been rendered invisible by content filters, then I can only assume that certain members are just downright rude when they respond to each and every comment on their reviews except mine.

I have no trouble accepting the fact that people might choose to block me. Irrational behavior never surprises me. And since blocking is such an easy, private, and safe thing to do, it must certainly appeal to people who choose to live easy, private, safe lives. Public rudeness, on the other hand, does tend to surprise me, particularly when it is displayed by people who seemingly work so hard at appearing to be caring, God-fearing, community-minded, for-the-children, public-spirited types.

So, do you think these folks are just naturally rude, or is the use of the content filter to blame? Or perhaps I should change my underarm protection, ya think? Any answers?

[hypotenuse]

I honestly don't know. Sometimes people answer me, sometimes not. I have heard that some people answer only those comments which require an answer instead of an acknowledgement.

For instance - someone reviews bluejeans. You ask - Do these jeans come in purple as well? They answer either yes or no. The ones saying - great job! Don't seem to require an answer.

I know that personally my answering comments, or leaving them for that matter, sometimes depends on how far behind I am at school. The further behind I am, the less likely I am to answer.

In conclusion.

I dunno.

Lynne - who does NOT think that jrk needs to shower more often.

I work hard at not being scatterbrained. It's one of the few areas where I succeed.

I know that I'm really bad about responding to comments. I find that I usually reply to comments the first day and then get distracted afterwards.

Perhaps clueless people like me just need to have someone kick them in the shins a few times to remind them how important it is.

[nicholmere]

I usually have my filters set to not show me members blocked by the community. If such a member writes, rates, and comments then I will see nothing of their activities. They don't even show up on my block list either. In fact if they trust me (oh joy) then they don't show up on that list either.

Sometimes I see a comment in response to one left by a member blocked by the community, the responder wouldn't be using the same filters. If I'm curious then I'll temporarily change my settings to allow me to view members the community blocks. Then my WOD goes up by one, the people who trust me goes up by one, I can see the original comments, the member's rating ... etc. Usually the comments are enough to remind me why I don't bother with members blocked by the community and I reset my settings.

I don't have my settings set to not show me members that only I block, but I assume it works the same way.

Even if a member doesn't reply to you, your comments will still be there for everyone else to see.

In the BTDT mode, I once left a comment answering a question posed in a review. Mine was the first, and most detailed, comment (even had a web link). It was polite - trust me A few comments later another member gave a similar answer. The author responded by saying thanks to member X she now knew the answer. My comment was never acknowledged by either X or the author. My rating happened to be lower than X; you think that was it?

[Redlass]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I rarely respond to comments. I get a warm glow when I read them--and I love getting them, but it's always felt uncomfortable to respond unless there is a direct question.

I'm pretty sure content filters do block out comments. There are a couple times I've seen people respond to comments on other people's reviews where I couldn't see what they were responding to. I once tried turning off my filters and sure enough, there were comments there that had been filtered out.

[jrk]

From what nicholmere and Bridgette have said, I'm going to assume that it's not a talent for rudeness but rather content filters to blame here. And if Lynne says I don't need to shower more often, then that's good enough for me.

Just to clarify so no one starts getting defensive (you haven't offended me, Grace, in case you were wondering ).

I don't respond to every comment either, and it's usually because I either forget, don't know the comment is there, am short on time, don't think the comments require a response, the party's over, or because I'm a scatterbrain. Take your pick.

It also doesn't tend to phase me in the least when members do ignore my comments while responding to CERTAIN others. But when my comment is the FIRST comment (not a later one) on a review, AND tends to be the only comment that says something more substantial than your typical "nice job" type comment, AND it accompanies a VH rating, AND it is courteous, well then it strikes me as more than a tad rude when I see all those other comments getting a warm response while the comment I took considerable time to write gets snubbed. Kind of leaves me wondering, ya know?

So I feel better now. I'll just assume I'm on yet another WOD. Yeah, that feels much better than being publicly snubbed.:p

[Grouch]

Regarding comments: What Bridgette said.

If there's a question posed to me in the comment section, I try to respond (but like other certain persons here, I can get rather scatterbrained at times...). Personal e-mails to me at the address posted on my profile page, however, nearly ALWAYS get a response. I love communicating via e-mail and prefer it over the back-and-forth in the comments section (though some people do that and it suits them just fine). The same goes for when I leave a comment on someone else's review--if you've posed a question to me in response to something I said, the chances are good that I'll never see it because I rarely revisit the comments section.

[amykhar]

see? With T it just comes naturally

Amy

[quasar]

I've found it to be very cyclical..right now I am responding to most comments I get unless they are unbearably rude personal attacks (those I ignore). At other points I just replied to direct questions...I think it's a reflection of the phase of the moon...

I rarely go back to revisit the comment sections of other people's reviews. I have to be very interesting in what's going on to make a note to go back. It's happened maybe 5 times total.

Janice

[jrk]

I'd rather (with advance apologies to the slickster) stuff my nose up a porcine crotch.

T - you swore me to secrecy about this fetish of yours, and now here ya go blabbing it in public. Guess you wanted exclusive electronic rights to revealing your sexual preferences, eh?

And Amy's right, nobody should delude themselves into thinking that the stellar rudeness of which you are so capable could ever be an acquired skill. Ya either got them genes or ya don't.

And threats? Aren't nastygrams enough for this Epinions-weary soul to endure? Now I have to contend with threats to break my writer's block? Is there no level to which you won't stoop, T? Uh-oh, I feel a rude response brewing, scrap that last question.