A further note: The medium here is the internet. Not only is it the internet, but a journal, not by far what I would even consider to be a public high-traffic blog, on the internet. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you do not spend much time on the internet, so I would like to offer you some advice. You should probably be more familiar with internet etiquette if you are truly interested in media in your future, and if you are heavily serious then I advise not only etqiuette but culture. I covered a few etiquette notes above, but here are a few notes more on the culture side, since that is significantly more informal.
Since this is a public journal, others can comment on my entries. I am warning you of this because it is common for commenters to post in reply to you with image macros and other things to make fun of you; this would be because, in the context it is in, your comment is seen as too serious. As I said before, in any other places an anonymous comment would be ignored or deleted as spam, but as I hold a special place in my heart for the education Carroll gave me, I hope you find this note to be educational to you. The internet is a fast-paced thing and comments are often direct and there is little time to deal with offense; the general ideas are that 1) if you are offended you will stop reading/visiting and 2) if you would continue to visit that you "lurk" long enough to learn the culture of the place. As I said before, these messages will often come at you brief and offensive so they get straight to the point: phrases such as "lurk more" and "stfu" are common.
So, as a warning, you will probably get spammed with rude comments and macros here; the Internet, as a culture, does not take lightly to harsh comments, and it is a form of entertainment to pic-spam and "troll".
Now, you may be wondering, what gives someone the right to act so rudely? Well, obviously other than freedom of speech and obviously other than your lack of etiquette which I have already pointed out, it stems from the fact that the internet is a strange cross between a printed newspaper and a gossipy lunch table. There are many places of serious news, but there are also many websites where the cultures are much more relaxed. This stems from the fact that they are either social or personal in nature and that millions if not billions of comments are posted every day across the internet. You reach a point of saturation at which the noise is much greater than the signal, and it becomes apparent that very few comments should be taken with such heaviness, especially as it takes no great skill to post something.
Now, each internet user often find a social community in which they feel most comfortable; for some facebook or myspace, for some Second Life, for some 4chan, for some subject-specific forums, and so forth. In particular you have stumbled across livejournal, a network of personal blogs that also encourages a community of comments and group blogs. It is therefore not hard to comprehend the rudeness you would most likely receive, as it is much like forcing yourself into someone's home and threatening them to do something pointless like rearrange the living room. It is to be expected that people will defend themselves and their home.
I can understand that as a media group you are concerned someone will find this and get a bad impression of you; however I already told you how it was misread and how it does not particularly apply to you, yet furthermore it is highly unlikely that anyone would take so seriously a comment to be found in so un-serious a source. It is much like gossip; one must have a strong enough self-esteem that a small piece of bad gossip does not send you into a depression. (Just a comment for you to ruminate on; you do realize there exist people who entire profession it is to criticise politicians, the government, the media, and the whole world? And do you also realize that contradictory news, whether or not it is completely accurate, is more likely to push papers? Simply some food for thought)
Furthermore this is far from one of the least or most serious places on the internet, and if a comment on someone's personal blog is so offensive there are many places I can advise you to stay away from, if you would like.
part 3
Since this is a public journal, others can comment on my entries. I am warning you of this because it is common for commenters to post in reply to you with image macros and other things to make fun of you; this would be because, in the context it is in, your comment is seen as too serious. As I said before, in any other places an anonymous comment would be ignored or deleted as spam, but as I hold a special place in my heart for the education Carroll gave me, I hope you find this note to be educational to you. The internet is a fast-paced thing and comments are often direct and there is little time to deal with offense; the general ideas are that 1) if you are offended you will stop reading/visiting and 2) if you would continue to visit that you "lurk" long enough to learn the culture of the place. As I said before, these messages will often come at you brief and offensive so they get straight to the point: phrases such as "lurk more" and "stfu" are common.
So, as a warning, you will probably get spammed with rude comments and macros here; the Internet, as a culture, does not take lightly to harsh comments, and it is a form of entertainment to pic-spam and "troll".
Now, you may be wondering, what gives someone the right to act so rudely? Well, obviously other than freedom of speech and obviously other than your lack of etiquette which I have already pointed out, it stems from the fact that the internet is a strange cross between a printed newspaper and a gossipy lunch table. There are many places of serious news, but there are also many websites where the cultures are much more relaxed. This stems from the fact that they are either social or personal in nature and that millions if not billions of comments are posted every day across the internet. You reach a point of saturation at which the noise is much greater than the signal, and it becomes apparent that very few comments should be taken with such heaviness, especially as it takes no great skill to post something.
Now, each internet user often find a social community in which they feel most comfortable; for some facebook or myspace, for some Second Life, for some 4chan, for some subject-specific forums, and so forth. In particular you have stumbled across livejournal, a network of personal blogs that also encourages a community of comments and group blogs. It is therefore not hard to comprehend the rudeness you would most likely receive, as it is much like forcing yourself into someone's home and threatening them to do something pointless like rearrange the living room. It is to be expected that people will defend themselves and their home.
I can understand that as a media group you are concerned someone will find this and get a bad impression of you; however I already told you how it was misread and how it does not particularly apply to you, yet furthermore it is highly unlikely that anyone would take so seriously a comment to be found in so un-serious a source. It is much like gossip; one must have a strong enough self-esteem that a small piece of bad gossip does not send you into a depression. (Just a comment for you to ruminate on; you do realize there exist people who entire profession it is to criticise politicians, the government, the media, and the whole world? And do you also realize that contradictory news, whether or not it is completely accurate, is more likely to push papers? Simply some food for thought)
Furthermore this is far from one of the least or most serious places on the internet, and if a comment on someone's personal blog is so offensive there are many places I can advise you to stay away from, if you would like.