Open letter to a forum bully (Page 4 of 4)

One of my other vices, besides Joe, is gaming. I pulled this off that forum, written by the designer. A minor celebrity, but his words ring true. We staunch supporters of Joe are indirectly connected with his celebrity and can receive invective by association. I quote Mark Rosewater, chief designer of MTG, a collectible card game. Here is what he had to say:

"This same scene happens time and again. I have friends or family members who are bored at work, Google my name, and dive in. Eventually, and usually it's not that long, they run across someone who's very aggressive in his or her dislike for me. The next time they see me, they go, "Did you see..." and fill me in on whatever tirade they read. As they repeat what they've read they start to get very defensive of me. How can I put up with that? How can they say the things they're saying? Do they even know me?

I then have to explain what it's taken me years to come to understand. There are good and bad sides to celebrity. Yes, there's the adoration, but there's also the venom. One of the side effects of celebrity is that you become fair game for whatever people want to say. Much of what will be said will be untrue, but some will be completely true. Some will be unfounded, some will be exaggerated, some will be brutally honest. Being a celebrity means you have become a target for all sorts of things; things you can neither control nor stop.

To heighten matters, I make an effort to read what people have to say, for good or for bad. I'm not ashamed to say I'll Google my own name to see what people are saying (and for some reason people still think of the Internet as being something private as opposed to something public—if you write about me, there's a decent chance I've read it). The lesson I've learned is that you have to have a thick skin. I've learned to take in stride the things that infuriate my friends and family. On top of that, I've come to realize that all the information is important, even that which attacks me. Every post is trying to say something and I try to look behind the language for the message."

Rick