Joel Smith › Comments

For some it comes naturally and no effort is necessary. :) - Mattb4rd

because they need to feel noticed and important at any expense ... and are generally horrible human beings. - Morgan

http://xkcd.com/386/ Not precisely relevant. But still funny! - David Young

David, I love that one :) XKCD always makes me laugh. - Veronica

+1 david - that is a classic! - Morgan

Because they don't have the balls to be assholes in person so they become typist a-holes online - Jeremy Campbell from twhirl

Half the time they don't even have the cojones to put their email address or contact info. I guess that's good, because it prevents me from replying ;) - Veronica

Relativity. - ·[▪_▪]·

As Mattb4rd said, it's natural and takes no special effort. That's what makes the problem so bad for the rest of us. Secondly, those jerks don't have anything better to do. - Morton Fox

Sad little people, don't feed them and they go away. - Mike Mackley

Just imagine if they took as much energy into doing something nice. *shakes head* - AJ Kohn

Because they are too cowardly to say crap to your face. - Josh Haley

I think it's Michael Wesch who talked about the fame of being abusive in his video on the anthropology of Youtube - Badger Gravling

I think it's because there is a level of anonymity that allows people to believe that they can be someone else online, take on another persona, and act in this way. - Shafiq Jetha from twhirl

I personally think Mattb4rd got it right - it comes naturally to some people. Just ignore em - jerks are jerks. - Royce Mathew

Speaking as a recovering asshole, I'll say that people do it for many different reasons. Sometimes its because a given personality with whom you interact has become a communicative pebble in the online shoe of your life, and you just want to blast 'em. Sometimes it's because you've discovered that you're actually very good at being an asshole, and receive lots of praise for it. And sometimes it's because you're the kind of person that just loves to inflict pain. - Roger Benningfield

Ahh yess. The age old question, this about sums it up: http://tinyurl.com/6mocnn - Percival

I prefer jerks on the internet, in real life they REALLY suck. Percival - priceless! - jcunwired

it's just too easy. jerks. - John LeMasney

Wouldn't you be a jerk too if you never, ever got laid? - Chantal

the internet is full of trolls. come on veronica don't you know this by now? - Joel Smith

If I click like does that mean I like jerks or agree with Veronica? :-) - gfurry

@gfurry It means that you think Veronica is a cutie. - Mattb4rd

Using the Block feature is your friend - Jeremiah Owyang

for the lulz? - Nick Mutton

The internet tries to make the world idiot free, but the world makes a better idiot. Simple as that.. aka Pete's theory on internet "a#$hole /jerk" evolution :)- - Peter Dawson

yea! fuck jerks. - Greg Bond from twhirl

Veronica, just ignore the jerks. Problem with the Internet is that jerks can hide behind their web browsers whereas in peron they can't. Use the power of the "ignore", "block" or whatever means to ignore them. - imabonehead

I'm glad to see everyone still hates Assholes, Veronica , you should post the message and the comments on your blog! . - Percival

Like! - AJ Batac

Oh man, heeeere we go again! - Mona Nomura

Like.. but still a FAIL. Can't be true - Kyle Lacy

Ryan, quit spreading rumors :) - Deepak Singh

I heard Microsoft was buying Ask Jeeves - Outsanity

Who's Ryan? - Mona Nomura

Please download and install an important, unnecessary update to bloat Yahoo Mail... - Tad

Ryan Stewart, Adobe evangelist, Seattleite and overall good guy - Deepak Singh

Then Google buys Adobe, then Snoop Dogg buys Google and changes the name to Gizzle. The end. - Josh Haley

hahaha @Josh - Kyle Lacy

I'd search Gizzle - Kyle Lacy

Dude, if Adobe can come up with $50 billion then I want my cut! - Ryan Stewart

Better than Microsoft. - Jonathan Leavitt

OK ... who started this again???. Hey Ryan ... in this funding marketplace, 50 billion is possible. (Anything is ppossible?!) Ugh ... Remember AOL - Time-Warner :) Honestly, even though I think the rumor was already sqooshed, it might make a pretty good marriage. The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see Yahoo live on it's own. Sorry, no Silverlight here. You need the Flash Player .... - Charlie Anzman

An Apple, Adobe, Yahoo merger would be the best merger. Just as unlikely as an Adobe Yahoo merger. - Loren Heiny

iCann would love an Apple deal. - jcunwired

hmmm... what for? - dario

I thought Mona was buying Yahoo... - Bren -- Designated Driver

Rumors at Gnomedex: desperate attempts to save the conference - Joel Smith

Blocking is not in the spirit of social networking. - pcnerd37

I don't follow her here or on twitter. Refuse to inflate the ego with +1ness - Andrea Baker

Robert, IMHO I'd be more indulgent with people looking to gather their friends more than with those looking for new antennas. But, hey! It's your choice :) - directeur from NoiseRiver

pcnerd: it most certainly is. If we don't stomp down noise then all we will be left with is noise. - Robert Scoble

I was being tongue-in-cheek: it's interesting to see how newcomers interact with rules, cliques, and traditions in an established network. - Mark Trapp

Mark, did you block me? : ) (that s my new silly question:) - Erhan

If I blocked you, you wouldn't be able to comment on my feed item. - Mark Trapp

Why do some people feel they need to brandish blocking someone like a club or some bloody trophy like a scalp. If you feel the need just do it and get on to something that feeds your mind. - Mark Forman

Epic - Czar

I unsubscribed from her this morning. She had only 1 like and no comments since she signed up. Besides, I was tired of seeing her twitter entries here. - Alejandro

I'm always subscribing to you, but after some times, it writes "Subscribe" in your box. : ) What the hell problem, I don't know. : ) - Erhan

I agree with Mark Forman. I prefer it when people keep their blocking activity on the down low. - Mike Doeff

Forman: because I have been participating in online communities since the 1980s. If I don't speak up against this kind of noise it will just take root. - Robert Scoble

Mike when I am blocking jerks I keep it quiet. Here I am trying to change behavior AND start a conversation. - Robert Scoble

Robert: I agree I think that the crowds tend to ruin things.. the internet was a lot more fun in the early days when it was just geeks - Joel Smith

@Robert: haha at first I thought you were rude and elitist but now I see your point - Mona Nomura from fftogo

Robert, I will refer you Leo's quote about 10% of everything being of great quality. If you aren't willing to give people a chance, you will miss a great portion of that 10% under the assumption that it is crap. There are many diamonds in the rough out there if you are willing to spend the time to pick them out of the "noise". Justine has millions of fans and that can't be by pure coincidence . - pcnerd37

like: @bbluesman comment though it is a bit graphic mark ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

Robert, I didn't mean to single you out. This is a good topic for discussion because it seems that there are some very different opinions about the etiquette of blocking. Some people are using it as a noise filter and others are using it as a last resort to get rid of trolls and griefers. Very different use cases. - Mike Doeff

pcnerd: it isn't a permanent block. Only two days. I still see blocked people's stuff in everyone tab anyway. - Robert Scoble