Oooooh! Mandi's Got A Hater!

Hey Everyone!! Mandi here.
So here is deal.  Anonymous comments are freakin LAME.  We all know this right? But the most annoying ones are the ones that are written out of complete and utter spite.  I just wrote a post about 10 Bloggy No No's that I have had to learn from during my time blogging.  And pretty quickly recieved this comment:

Anonymous said...

Love how you say not to be negative when you are pointing out everything everyone else is doing wrong. And yeah, I am breaking one of your "rules" leaving an anonymous comment.

Mandi Says:
Whoa whoa whoa.  Slow the crazy train down and pull it into the Station-o-Common Sense. First off, let me just say my dear, that if you were trying to make me feel bad, you sorta were not awesome at it...womp womp. 
Secondly, the post was not a list of “rules” nor was it written negatively.  You must have overlooked the first line of the post, where I preface it by saying that most of these mistakes are ones that I have made MYSELF.  You also must have missed the part at the end where I warned that any rude comments could end up on Hate Mail, so by leaving me a rude, anonymous comment, you've made yourself the Guest of Honor today.  Enjoy your 15 seconds of fame lady!
I love blogging and I love my readers, so the point that you are CLEARLY missing (that everyone else seemed to get), is that I am trying to share what I have learned so that others don’t make the same mistakes that I have.  This in turn, helps to make my amazing readers' blogs more successful. Please explain to me how that can at all be considered "negative."
Most people are able to resist the urge to be mean or spiteful. You know, knowing that with a little bit of self control (or by simply leaving someones blog) that the negative feelings they have inside wont get wiped up and down blogland like a cruddy diaper.  Since you my dear must not have these flair up sensors, I gladly invite you to spend your time online elsewhere and let Vintage Revivals be a place of positive spray paint fumes.  

p.s. I think you might be allergic to my happiness. (You might want to get that checked...along with the flair up issue. Its no bueno.)

I would also like to thank the readers that stood up for me in the comments, it means a lot ladies!

Viv Says:
Um, so I'm clear... pointing out the proper (or more favorable way to do something) is negative...?  
I only lather my hair once during a shampoo... but the shampoo bottles all say to "lather, rinse, repeat"  are the shampoo companies negative?   If the furniture refinishing experts point out you should lightly sand between coats, but I never do?  Does that make the experts negative..?
Mandi gave some guidelines. She outlined things that she has observed in her own personal blogging experience.  (Which so far appears to be pretty successful, btw. I'd give her a listen when she hands out advice.)   There is no Blogger's 101... no Blogger By-Laws... you learn by experience, watching what other bloggers do or don't do.    She shared, people.  And if you read through the rest of the comments on that post, you'll notice that there are bloggers who didn't know they could enable their email for replies... people who didn't realize that their word verification option was enabled and/or how to change the option... people who didn't know there are many readers out there who actually don't like music playing on a blog... In other words? They appreciated Mandi's help.
My guess is that anonymous does all of these "no-nos"  and is either a) a misguided rebel; b) has serious issues with constructive criticism; or c) is just lame.
Or possibly, d) all of the above...

What do you say?

Today's special! Mean comments and tampons!

Heather is a college student and has a fun little personal blog called The World Is Your Oyster.  A while back, she wrote a post about a funny incident at a local store.  She needed a few, um, personal items including {tampons... shhh}. She wrote this post, appropriately titled Awkward,  about the experience.  She tried to make it clear that it was not her first time buying tampons, and that normally it's not a big deal, but this time  she had to select the right feminine hygiene product in the middle of 6 guys that live in the same building that she does.  She just thought it was funny, how uncomfortable a box of feminine hygiene products can make college-aged boys.


You know what?  Even with a funny, tongue in cheek post, there are still jerkwads out there.


The Jerkwad said:
"Educated decision in the tampon aisle eh? have you never bought them
for yourself before? you've been living away from home for three years
at BYU and you still have to think about this decision? Hhhonestly,
your life could be a lot simpler. Let me offer a humble suggestion to
your predicament.http://www.us.depend.com/

Yours,
Anonymous
P.S. You're welcome"


Heather said:
My sister's reply was my favorite. She said:
"Dear Anonymous,

Don't worry, I'm sure they have Midol in the Creamery as well. You seem to have lost yours, since you've been PMSing all over the internet."


Viv says:
Seriously?  Who leaves a cruddy comment on a funny story?  I love the sister's reply about "PMSing all over the internet." Hilarious.  The link for Depends kind of throws me though.  Are they saying Heather is being a cry-baby...?  That she should use Depends instead of tampons...?  What?  Perhaps the Jerkwad is a guy an needs to brush up on his knowledge of a woman's anatomy...?  At any rate, totally sounds like a person with chronic, raging PMS to me..


Mandi says:
LOL! Now THIS is a funny post. I dont get the depends link either...maybe thats the only way this lady can control her PMSing?  And poor cute Heather, I dare say that most guys in college especially when there are 6 together can be unbelievibly immature, it would be awkward for anyone!!  Hee hee hee, I am still laughing about this!   I am so glad that Jerky McJerkface left a jerky jerk comment so that we could read Heather's hilarious tale.

Ps I just used the word jerk 4 times in one sentence! Yay Me!!



What do you say?

The racist dumpling.

Emily from Decor Chick is one of our favorite bloggers.  She's always sharing some fantastic home decor or DIY tips with her readers.  In this post, she shared how happy and excited she was that her brother was getting married.  Her new sister-in-law, whom Emily adores, is Japanese.  Emily ended her post saying that she sees "a lot of homemade dumplings in my future. :)"


A comment from Anonymous:
dumplings? isn’t that kind of racist?


Decor Chick says:
Racist? Ummm, not so much. Doesn’t great chinese food come from the Chinese/China? And doesn’t great Italian food come from Italy, and so on and so on? She happens to make the most mouth-watering dumplings I’ve ever had. Don’t be jealous please.


Viv says:
I'm cracking up over this.  What a pot sticker stirrer this person is!  
I am half Italian, half Redneck.  I make an excellent lasagna and fab baby back ribs.  If someone mentioned they were looking forward to eating them, I would take it as a sign that they enjoyed my cooking, not that they thought I was some Guido (ette?) who somehow meandered through Texas.    


Mandi says:
When I saw Em's post I was totally JEALOUS.  Obviously Anonymous is too.  Comments like this that are soooo lame make me want to lash out violently. 

Oh my gosh, I just got the best idea!  When my Bro-in-law gets married I am SO going to say to the girl, "I see a lot of Burangos in your future."

For those of you jumping to conclusions about what a Burango is, let me clear it up.  Its a burrito at our resturant. 

Get your minds out of the gutter.

What do you say?

Yeah, I stole your stuff... You should consider it a compliment.

Stay with me. This only seems complicated:

Our friend Becca has a blog called The Texas Darlings where she writes about adventures with her sweet family and life in general.  She also recently started a new blog called R We There Yet Mom? inspired by her love of travel and vacations.  In order to help promote R We There Yet Mom? Becca started a Friday Linky Party called Friday Day Dreamin', where she asks people to link up an inspirational travel photo.

Becca (as R We There Yet Mom?) went to visit one of the participants and saw that in addition to linking up a photo, the blogger had also copied this post about facebook from The Texas Darlings and pasted it into her blog word. for. word.  There was no credit to or link to her original post anywhere.  Just one blogger stealing the work of another.  She apparently did not realize that Becca was the author of both blogs.

As politely as she could, considering the circumstances, Becca left a comment asking that the blogger take down the plagiarized material.

Becca wrote a post about the theft and received the following comment from the thief:


The Thief Says: First off let me say. There is a lot of unnecessary word slinging going on for something that was merely innocent. I have blogged for 2 years and yes with no comments as my 3 blogs are mostly for my family and close friends. Not so much caddiness from strangers like this. I understand now that you may be upset but also from the other side you should see it as a compliment as well. I totally agree with every single word you said and not sure I could have written it or said it any better myself. However, good call out on the “Guest Writer” thing I have never done that but for sure will learn how.  
I honestly didn't mean to offend anyone nor make a bunch of blogging enemies. I enjoy reading your blog and think by far you do a really nice job and we do think a lot alike. I would have called someone out too for borrowing my idea. Hell come up with your own. But really Christian people don't do that and it is stealing are you kidding me? Come on people I am a hard core Christian and by far never really thought of it as "stealing" easy on stones you throw around and the judgments one makes. It is a blog and we are grown adults here to share stories about life and make connections. Not rally around like a bunch of hateful little high school girls in the hallway at school slinging hateful words. Sorry that so many of you were so offended that was not the intention. I was only passing it along and sharing with my friends those exact same feelings that most of them do not even blog and have no clue who Texas Darling even is.. so I thought there was no real harm.

Becca Says:

I wish that I could see it as a compliment - and I would, had you just asked permission to use my words.  As I mentioned previously, I work very hard to maintain an enjoyable blog for my readers.  I do not take kindly to someone "stealing" them.  You.stole.them.  You did not "borrow" them.

As for my friends' reactions - I am overwhelmed with gratitude to their response.  As a community of bloggers, THEY supported me in a time that I felt very violated.  I do not see their remarks as "catty" & "high school", but as friends defending someone.  All of their comments were valid and worded much nicer than they could have been.

Yes, I agree that we are all adults.  But most adults that I know DO NOT steal.  And most adults that I know, apologize when they know they have done something wrong.  You did neither.    

In posting about it on my blog, I brought awareness to blogging etiquette.  My hope is that this is a lesson for many that stealing words from a blog, pictures from a website, facebook statuses, etc. may not be a criminal act, but it is defiantly a immoral one.

Viv Says: 

I'm a Christian.  I never heard of this thing where we don't say anything if someone does something wrong.  I've always heard "thou shalt not steal" and "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  I have never heard "thou shalt sit there and quietly ignore the theft."

It's obvious that this blogger has no idea as to how to behave in the Blog Land, and certainly doesn't recognize the earmarks of plagiarism.  Ignorance is no defense.  Did she go to school?  What if it was an essay she copied from another student?  Would her defense be, well, that teacher didn't even know that student...?  Lame, lame, lame.

Seriously? The victim should be flattered that she was the victim...? Ridiculous.
***Updated to add: People! Anyone who thinks that Becca over-reacted is not thinking clearly.  Plagiarism IS theft.  It IS stealing from someone. Whether you steal a dollar or you  rob a bank, stealing is stealing.. Becca was polite in her request that the blogger remove the plagiarized post.  The fact that the blogger was unapologetic is a problem.  I am assuming since the blogger can read and write, that she must have some education... if so, she would have learned from an early age that it is bad to copy someone else's work and pass it off as your own.***  

Mandi Says:
Wow.  This is caaaarazy. One of the worst things that you can do is post something that belongs to someone else and not give them credit.  I have a hard time understanding why our blogger should be happy about them using her content without a link back.  Maybe the hater didnt know that its against all etiquite but her defensive response just makes it all the worse.

Moral of the story.  Dont jack other peoples crap.  And if you do at least put it on a private blog so that no one knows...


What do you say?