This is a first for me.

I received my first ever Internet flame today.

Ali, Jo Ann, and I had returned home after attending the UK-Vandy basketball game. Vandy won the game, which kind of took the shine off of my day.

I sat down at the computer to check my email and a few of my regular haunts. For some reason, I decided to check my Statcounter log (something I rarely do). I noticed six entries in a row, all from the same referrer source.   The URL was from the San Francisco Bay Craigslist.

I was curious why people would be visiting my blog from such a place, so I clicked on the link.

Here is the text of the message in case it has  already been deleted.

please help me (capitola)

---

Reply to: pers-265507811@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-01-20, 12:46PM PST

write these people and help shatter their goofy east coast addiction to themselves and not each other.

Or is that my bnitter west coast attitude?

either way...allan seems like a moron with a camera and camera people suck chuck.,

http://www.allanthinks.com/allanthinks/

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Posting ID: 265507811

My jaw dropped when I read this. I've had Internet accounts since 1986 and this is the first time such a thing has happened to me.

I been around long enough to know that the Internet is full of angry, unhappy, and troubled people who take delight in flaming and harassing others. But as I said, I've managed to avoid this sort of thing for 21 years.

In the couple of hours since I discovered this, I've received 34 hits from Craigslist. None of the visitors have left a comment, so I guess none of them took offense to my writing or photography.

So, welcome newcomers! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find something of interest here, and I hope you continue to read my weblog.

I emailed the poster of the message and politely asked them why they had posted it. I doubt I will receive a reply.

Comments

[rebecca]

as someone on radioparadise said, maybe this will add some new alanthinks appreciators!

it totally sucks that miserable, or jealous, people are just wiling to spread their negativity.

i am sorry this happened to you. you're a very talented photographer, as i hope you believe and know, and one of the kindest people i've ever "met". plus, ali's awesome, and that's a testament to who you are, too. :)

[token]

Maybe to generate traffic to their site?

[Allan]

The message was posted in the Rants & Raves section on Craigslist.

Whoever posted it (anonymously) did not link to any site other than my blog.

[Joolie]

That's just confusing. Who would bother? And why is this person so embnittered?

[marybeth]

I don't consider Kentucky to be "east coast"...at least not until all my evil plans for global warming come to fruition. The really sad part is that the rest of the ad/rant makes even less sense.

[Tsaria]

that's pretty funny that the poster on craigslist made exactly the same spelling mistake as Joolie...

[musik]

you're doing great if you've been on the net since 86 and this is your first flame ;)

but anyways, there is a little saying i came by which comes in handy at this moment (to the flamer) which is... 'what you say about others is a reflection of yourself...'

peace, love and mung beans from sunny aussie land!!

[Karan]

Maybe it was posted by the bitacle people.

[Allan]

LOL!

[The CEO]

Well, I'm not going to be solicitous like everyone else. I'm going to complain like hell. My jelly bean order is late, my 5 pound chocolate order is late, my single malt scotch order is late. And my bitacle is embrittered too. So if you'd give me that address at Craigslist, I'll go file my grievances and twisted hemmoroids there now. Damn spell checkers.

[bhd]

I'm probably bnitter. In fact, I'm sure I'm bnitter. Or maybe it's Bittner, the name of a classmate in grade school. In any case, this bnittered one is full of good wine and laughter from an evening with friends. But I say "Fuck you cheekwipe!" to the cheekwipe who bnittered your day with bnitterness.

Heh. It's the wine talking. Or the pasta. Or the salad. Or the lemon squares. Who the hell knows.

[Katherine]

I never understand why people take the time and effort to do this kind of thing. I've only had a few comments telling me was I was a b1tch of whatever (since they were on posts where I was having a rant I kind of expect that). But this is just pointless.

I'll admit to having to look up Kentucky on a map (before I met up with you both, just so I had a kind of picture of where you live) but even before that I knew it wasn't east coast.

[Mist 1]

Flamers are a joy. I've been there.

[bothenook]

dang. is all you need to increase site traffic is to have someone post an anon. rant on craigslist? i'm so there. i haven't had many visitors lately. could be that i'm just not that interesting, ubt it could be that i haven't pissed some pinhead off enough to have him flame me.
guess there are morons everywhere big al. don't let small minds and miniscule photography skills (my guess) harsh your buzz, dude. keep snapping pix, and keep posting. gives me something to judge my stuff by. you set a pretty high bar.

[ally bean]

In the last month or so it seems to have turned into open season on personal bloggers. You are one of many who has suddenly been flamed for no reason except that the someone can do it.

Trolls are everywhere.