Yesterday, Gary Gygax passed away. Insert losing saving throw joke here. Though, honestly, I didn't realize who he was until I read the article on Slashdot.
What really got me, was a post that Scott Kurtz made over at PVP, a web comic that E has gotten me hooked on. Scott talks about how he got nasty, angry emails because he hadn't posted something publicly about Gygax's death. He felt pressured into posting something, and then got flack about said post.
Umm, excuse me? What kind of gall does it take to tell someone a) they aren't publicly grieving enough and b) when they do something, it isn't enough? What the hell is wrong with people that they think such behavior is acceptable? I understand that geeks aren't known to be the most socially adept folks on the block. But come on.
Where the hell do you get off telling someone else what they should and should not post on their site? Just because someone is living part of their life out on the intarweb doesn't mean it's okay for everyone else to tell them what to do.
I don't understand the tendency of people to be much more rude and hurtful in online situations than in person. Heather Armstrong has talked about this a lot on her site. I can't imagine getting the kind of hate mail that she does. I'd curl up in a ball on my bed and cry. Why does interacting via a screen give people the sense that they can be assholes and it's all okay.
It's not okay. It's so not okay. We have lost our sense of common decency in this digital age. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.
