What's WITH people these days?
Today was a bit strange. I was reviewing the statistics for my Web sites and noticed a significant amount of traffic from a large and fairly well known online community/forum that I hadn't visited for a couple of years. Traffic to my sites from that forum means that people there must be posting links to my content. Thus, I have readers there, and I always feel that I owe my readers my support. So, off I went to see if I could offer information or support to anyone there. I registered and created a forum "signature." In that signature, I included my name, profession, email address, and Web site URLs. Since I don't charge anyone for information, support, or advocacy, in every other forum, that would be acceptable. But not on that forum. At least not to a couple of very verbal ladies (well, women) who immediately took affront to my signature. One of them felt the need to reply to every post I made and scold me for "advertising." If I were new to forums, I wouldn't be surprised. If these women had approached me nicely, I wouldn't be so sad. I don't know if I'll continue posting there or not. A couple of other members have sent me very nice private messages, but who needs that kind of stress. Sigh. You may wonder why I'm posting this. I really do have a point. If you're a member of a forum somewhere, I hope make new members feel welcome. There's always room for new people in our support groups.