Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone and then later on though “damn, I should of said this or why didn’t I say that?”
For me it happens all the time. I detest arguing and I avoid drama in real life. I go all tongue-tied, my face goes beet red, and sometimes I cry for no reason. I just hate confrontation. What is wrong with me?
I’ve been running Young Adventuress for 2 1/2 years now, and boy, have I gotten some mean, nasty and occasionally hilarious hate comments. As of today, I have received 2,704 comments on my blog. I would say 98% are very nice, friendly, civil or at least neutral, and 1% are constructive criticism I can deal with, while once in a while my inbox pings with a whopper of a comment, usually from my best friend: Anonymous.
This is the dark side of blogging that I am struggling to come to terms with, something I am sure all bloggers or anyone who leaves themselves open to criticism have to come to terms with. Dealing with blog hate comments is tricky. How do you accept criticism of your work? How do you deal with negative feedback?
Like this?
How about this?
As a content creator, you put yourself out there for the world to see, read, think and judge you. Of course it makes sense that not everything will be sunshine, roses and unicorns all the time. Dealing with negativity and mean comments come with the territory, no matter how unopinionated white-breaded, and politically correct you write. There is always going to be someone out there who disagrees with you and doesn’t like what you have to say, and you must accept it. I must accept it (this is one of my 13 resolutions for this year).
With Facebook and social media nowadays, the world has turned into some perverted sphere of comments, judgement and pretty much a giant blog run by the gods at Google.
Some of the hate comments I’ve gotten over the years aren’t against what I’ve written, but rather HOW I’ve written it. I’ve written some controversial posts in a controversial style, but let’s remember, blogs are places to share thoughts and opinions! Some people don’t like that I have a personality opinion in my writing, and that’s totally fine, but I have made the decision to have both a 100% disclosure policy on here and be 100% honest with my readers; I like to keep it real yo. I’d like to think that’s why you all follow me, along with my saucy wit, poignant prose, dashing good looks and insider travel tips, of course.
In a weird way I am kinda flattered my blog has invoked strong reactions in people, good and bad, and that so many people take the time to leave me comments.
The Oatmeal, Source
There are too many cookie cutter boring travel blogs out there and I’ve decided to spice things up! My goal with my blog is INSPIRATION (all-caps). I am your friend telling you about Spanish tapas at a cafe. I am a new guy you’ve met at a bar regaling your group with my stories from Egypt. I’m your coworker telling you about my last summer vacation sailing in Croatia.
My goal is to take that little spark inside everyone that says “I want to travel” and BOOM, blow it up and make it happen! Travel inspiration through pure honesty story-telling is what I believe in and what my blog stands for.
But enough about me! What would this long-winded post be without some dirty gossip tagged along at the end? In my signature passive-aggressive move, I’ve decided to share with you all the crème de la crème of hate comments I’ve gotten on my blog or on Facebook. All of these were comments directed at me in public forums (minus #9), and instead of sticking my nose up in the air telling myself, just ignore it like a mature adult, I figured I would go ahead and make a entertaining list for you all to waste some time reading!
Here are the 1o best hate comments I’ve ever gotten on my blog.
Now it’s time for you to share! Dish, what’s the best, craziest, meanest, rudest comment you have ever gotten on your blog? Don’t have a blog? How do you cope with haters and negativity in your life?
The Oatmeal, Source
1. I wrote I missed to-go coffee and Starbucks while living in Spain
“Sit down for a few minutes and drink your damn coffee at the bar like a civilized person. Every time I see a guiri (Spanish for foreigner) with a freakin Starbucks cup I want to smack them upside the head. Do you really have to walk around slurping all the time?”
My response: slurp. slurp. sluuuuuurrrrppppp.
2. I called Giza a dump (and I stand by it!)
“It would take an American to go to Giza, see, poverty and hucksterism based on that poverty and unemployment and pass judgement. You have no bloody idea of the circumstances or causes of that poverty which in turn causes the things you’ve smelled and seen. I’ve been to Giza and it is cleaner, safer and less full of creeps than NY, St. Louis, Seattle or a dozen other American cities I have visited. Glass houses indeed. The Egyptian people, to their credit, continue to welcome Americans, in spite of being the usual rude guests, they are.”
My response: In what world is Giza safer and cleaner and less full of creeps than Seattle? Granted I’ve only been to Seattle once, but not one person oggled my boobs, called me Barbie, offered 500 camels for my hand in marriage all while carrying an automatic weapon. Also dead horse, literally.
3. On my anger post about not being paid by the Spanish government
“If you don’t like it, leave (Spain).”
My response: How I am supposed to leave when I haven’t been paid for 3 months? Are YOU gonna buy my flight back home to America?
4. My most popular post: why I hated the teaching program I did in Spain; the comments for this one are the gifts that keep on giving.
“Without doubt I should be the bigger person and just walk the hell away from this conversation and consign your blog to the bin where it obviously belongs.”
My response: And yet, you’re still here.
5. Even more. Lucky me.
“Ahh, an American in Europe. Could it not be that you expected too much that things would run as smoothly as in your home country? I’m a Brit in Greece and teach English – believe me, what you’ve written here pales in comparison to what’s going on in Greece. But you know what? We all make choices – so I learn from it, suck it up and make the most of my experiences. And I don’t always show the sunny side, unicorn happiness, gold at the end of the rainbow side of living abroad: it’s tough going and lonely at times. Check out my blog: – you might like it, you might hate it ;0) I feature, every Wednesday, a new expat on my League of Expat Writer’s page (LEW). If you think you can kerb the swearwords and would like to contribute, do get in touch.”
My response: God, gag me! Can someone fetch me a glass of water? I’m choking on all the condescension here. And what’s with the whole American thing? Get over it!
6. And my personal favorite.
“2 reasons why I hate this blog post: 1. Too much caps lock 2. too much bold font”
My response: THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENT!! 😀 😛 🙂 —->I’m guessing you don’t like emoticons either 🙁
7. On my guide to the regions in Spain I included a funny map of Spain according to Spaniards
“Wow, I find you chart incredibly insulting, and what’s worse, you seem to genuinely find it an accurate or humorous representation of Spain.”
My reply: In a 3,000+ word comprehensive guide page and THAT’s what you focus on?!
“Just one word of advice for all this crying, nothing is good enough for your spoiled generation. You want your asses licked before and during flight? Go deeper in your wallet and fly with national airlines for 2-300 EUR! You want to fly for 50 EUR? LEARN how you should do it and nothing special or bad will happen to you. Still not satisfied? Take the bus”
My response: Do you work for Ryanair?
9. Worst thing I’ve ever written: “ghetto” (sarcasm)
So ages ago I wrote a post about a village in La Rioja, Spain called Laguardia…”not to be confused with the ghetto airport in Queens, NY”
Holy s*** batman, I got a longwinded, conceited email from some girl about how it’s NOT ok to use the word ghetto anymore and how I seriously offended her. She took it upon herself to patrol the blogosphere, trolling for the “g” word offenders. Ok, in my 3 years in Spain, I guess I had been living under a rock because apparently “ghetto” now has a stigma attached to it (poll in, readers, does it?) and I missed it. I immediately deleted it from my post and my vocabulary but also sent back an email apologizing saying I understand where she was coming from but also tone it the hell down! Nobody likes preachy people! Apparently I didn’t kiss enough ass and this chick took it upon herself to write an entire article about how I am a racist blogger, copying and pasting select phrases from our email exchanges and painting me in the worst possible light ever, luckily not by name.
You haven’t made it til you’ve got a hate club, right?
10. I’m leaving this one up to you guys, just try not to make me cry
**Runner up!
I just remembered a great one from one of the threads about the teaching program and how it sparked such a controversy. One girl actually told me to just forget about it, drop it, and I quote:
“shit or get off the pot, ya dig?”
Er. Um. WTF? Do people even say that? How would you respond?!?!?!
*Disclaimer: this is all for s***s and giggles, I really appreciate all my readers and I value all of your comments, the good, bad and the ugly. I love you guys, keep it coming!
Liz xx
About the author
[…] has been a bitter pill to swallow with both my personal and virtual lives. Whether I am getting hate comments on my blog to snide remarks from people who I once thought of as friends, there’s always […]
Hi Liz, I’ve been lurking on the Young Adventuress blog and facebook page for a while, but this post just made me feel so much better that I had to comment. I steamed for DAYS after someone commented on one of my blogs calling me “racist.” I kept coming up with lists of reasons why that was ridiculous (many of which involved pointing to my multi-hued and multi-cultured friends), but decided ultimately that crazy people don’t deserve responses. I hit “delete” on the comment and moved on. I’ve also had people grump about my attitude as a bride blogger, but those always make me laugh. There are plenty of bride blogs where everything is rainbows and sausages – that’s not why anyone should come to mine. Sadly, I can’t seem to raise anyone’s ire with WanderFood. Kinda miss it.
This has been one of my favorite posts so far!
Most of the comments were hilarious and a bit uncalled for…but at the same time made me slightly self conscious…I use caps and bold letters..even italics and underlined words sometimes on my blog posts LOL! My blog posts however don’t really have any negative comments..however, my youtube account I get them all the time on this video I posted in response to a Latina who was complaining that “blacks don’t get with latinas” ..guess she wanted an African American guy..and couldn’t get one…but I mentioned how in my experience, I thought it was strange that a black guy wouldn’t be interested in a Latina, and that in my experience, if there’s any hate, it’s the other way around…latinas not wanting to date blacks because of long issues in Latin America when everyone wants you to date “up” and mejorar la raza…by marrying white and rich! Not black! and I got/get a shit ton of hate comments….some talking about me…as a ugly black fat (enter expletive) and I need to shut up..it’s ridiculous…
Oh, and on the word ghetto…not trying to be offensive or “racist” but in my experience, a lot of white people I know use the word ghetto extremely out of context….like for example as an adjective of something negative, ghetto is a place…and usually bad stuff happens (not always, but not everyone there is bad, scary, violent etc, it’s a lot of corruption there)..but when you describe something using that word…outside of what “the ghetto” is..especially if you’ve never lived in the ghetto…people are gonna look at you funny…and maybe even get offended…thinking “what does this white bread white girl know about the ghetto?” they might not think you even have the right to say it…..there’s also the stigma because ghetto is usually a term used NEGATIVELY to talk about minorities especially Latinos and African Americans. Saying something is ghetto is never a good thing, and when you’ve never had the word thrown at you, or your people…you may not understand people’s sensitivities when someone just throws the word around because your hairdryer broke, now it’s “ghetto” or something ridiculous like that….
Bloody hilarious. This is probably the third or fourth time I’ve read this post but I enjoy it so much I keep coming back!!