

Ask HN: How do you feel when the Internet insults you? - hoodoof

So easy for the Internet to be negative to your comments&#x2F;blog posts&#x2F;tweets&#x2F;whatever.<p>How do you feel when you are the target of negativity or attack or insult?<p>Do you take it on board, does it hurt your feelings at all?
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b6
One of my basic life strategies seems to be: either don't do something, or do
it and don't be sorry. I use this all the time, for all kinds of things.

For example, I'm not insightful when it comes to dressing myself. Recently I
wasn't sure whether it would be OK to wear black socks with shorts. I thought
about it, and decided it was OK, so I do it. Someone might try to give me a
hard time about it, but it wouldn't sting unless they thought of something I
hadn't.

Or when I write something online, I try to think about how I would talk if the
readers were in the same room. I try to be compassionate and fair. I try to
think whether what I'm saying is just. Often, the draft doesn't survive the
process because I realize I'm just angry or want to be snarky. But if I re-re-
read it and I'm OK with it, then I say it, and whatever happens will happen.

Maybe someone will catch me in an error. Then I'll feel bad and apologize
sincerely and try to do better, but try not to beat myself up too much.
Everyone makes mistakes. No big deal.

If you form the habit of asking yourself whether what you're doing is OK, I
think it vaccinates you somewhat against both shallow criticism and self-
doubt.

------
ausdevthrowaway
I made a pull request for a plugin I used frequently. They didn't like my
changes so I deleted my pull request. For that I was accused of not being open
source, so I deleted my GitHub account. Then they mocked me further. I almost
killed myself! I still haven't created another GitHub account.

~~~
wlkr
Not being aware of the situation I cannot comment on the bulk of your post,
other than to say that I hope you are OK now?

I'm always cautious about pinning anything I do online to an identity - HN is
actually about the only site I use where I post under my own name. Largely
this stems from not wanting to make mistakes and avoiding any possible future
public repurcussions. I truly wish anonymity was more embraced on sites like
GitHub. For instance, I think the ability to hide your identity from others
when submitting a pull request would strongly encourage people to contribute,
which could only be a good thing.

