Lamaa, and a Reality Check

Blizzard has enacted its mass ban, and the blogosphere is all abuzz with the news. What news, specifically? Lamaa has been banned, an upstanding member of AC, with no botting practices to his name. For the full story, please go to TJ's blog or follow the link here.

I am not against the mass-bans. And I understand there is almost unavoidable collateral damage, but that doesn't mean I can't be supportive of how much it positively sucks. I do not know Lamaa personally, but he's the friend of a friend, of many friends. I have read some things by him on TJ's blog, just little things, but they were funny and I enjoyed them. That this has happened is shameful. And Blizz's customer service track record ain't that good.

What I don't get, and what seems to be a popular trend as the blogosphere grows and encompasses more people and more of the WoW community, is people trying to tell writers what they can and cannot do on their own personal blogs.

No one is forcing you to read this. No one is forcing you to "waste" your time on it. No one is forcing you to write comments, especially unhelpful and completely unconstructive or even accusatory comments on those blog posts you find offensive. Now, I'm not talking about people who disagree with posts. Oh, heck no, I love these people. You have no idea how much I enjoy an intelligent discussion with people who disagree with me. No insults, just a presentation of different sides of the argument. It's wonderful. As much as "hey, great post!" comments make me feel all warm inside, they're harder to respond to with anything other than a "thanks, and thanks for stopping by!" So, really, disagree with me all you want.

Understand what a blog is. It is a personal public journal. What people choose to do with their blog is their business. And yes, they put it on a public forum with public access and allow you to place your comments on it. But being a presumptuous asshole and telling a blogger what they are and are not allowed to do on their blog is like walking into someone's house and telling them how to decorate it. Unless they paid for your advice, all you are is a jerk, just like, unless you paid for an interior decorator or solicited an opinion, the person telling you how to set up your house is plain rude.

Let's get something straight really quick: we are not writing for you. We may be on a level writing for the collective you, but losing one reader because they got all huffy about something is just losing a bit of skin. Maybe it stings a bit, maybe it doesn't. But we slap a band-aid on it and we get back on the bike, and either we get a cool scar to tell a story about or it disappears forever into the back of our minds and we decide we don't care.

Oh, and if you have to do it anonymously, you're also spineless. I at least have a modicum of respect for someone who is willing to claim their shit and not hide on the internet, of all places. If you're too scared to use even a 'net handle, I can't believe you even have the nerve to think some of this stuff in public in case a telepath catches you.

Perhaps it's too much to hope this kind of thing will get through to people, because the people who this is directed at the most are rather presumptuous, AKA so full of themselves they can probably taste their lower intestine.

EDIT: I do want everyone to know this is not directed at one or even a few people in particular. It's a culmination of bad days, WoW forums, and rude people. This is directed at the troll community as a whole.