Okay–I”ll blog about it.
I’ve been hit.
A forum troll on amazon.com found my book pages and started posting false reviews–and, even worse (because the review was an obvious personal attack–and obviously fabricated!) started voting down all of the legitimate reviews for my books using different identities. Enough negative reviews, and those good reviews go away–and there I am, fucked large.
As a whole, we’ve decided to ignore this person on the forum–you don’t feed a troll, and it starves. (This one tried to have a conversation with itself in the middle of one of our discussions. Rather pathetic, really.) But the thing is, I’ve finally learned enough about this medium to learn things like that–you know, don’t feed forum trolls or blog trolls because they bloat and fart and become truly disgusting creatures, crapping on your feet? What I haven’t learned is WHY people do it.
How sad does your life have to be to obsess about wrecking someone else’s life like that? My books were doing fairly well–I was starting to hope that the income from them would make my part-time transition go a little more smoothly this year. If nothing else, it would help fund the copies I need to bring for my signing in September, and the publishing of Bitter Moon II–not to mention school clothes for the kids, school supplies, dentistry, surprise car repairs… you know, basic living.
Now? I mean, most folks are smart enough to read between the lines with a forum troll–but not everybody. I wasn’t, when I first started out. This person assaulted my credibility, (claimed all of my good reviews were written by ‘sock puppets’–while using sock puppets to trash them–colonic invasive procedures are too good for this troll, I”m telling you) attacked me personally in the review, and now is endangering my income from this small business venture I’d managed (against considerable odds) to make successful. And I just want to rant and scream and kick something–I mean, what was the point? What has this person ever given to the world besides venom and worthlessness? When has this person ever ventured honest sweat and tears for anything? What has it made, created, or blessed with their words, presence, thoughts or deeds? What is its substance that they think this is a reasonable thing to do?
I don’t know. I know that before I blogged about this, I contemplated how gratifying it would be for the troll to read the blog, and I almost didn’t open the page.
But then I thought, “Fuck. Him. Fuck him.” I have pictures of my children on this blog, I have pictures of my husband, of my cats, and of my knitting. I have proof of a life beyond my books, and of real heart and soul and substance IN my books. If this one lame-assed brainsickly cockroach wants to try to crawl into my life, let it see what it is violating. It is violating a real person, with children who benefit from my success and suffer with my failures. It is fucking with a real income and a real, if tenuous, thread of storytelling that comes from a genuine writer, with genuine credentials and genuine intentions. I fuck up, I succeed, I apologize, I work my ASS off–and if I’m the person this troll wants to fuck with, then let it come fuck with me for real.
You want some food, motherfucker? Bring it on–I’ll feed you myself.
