I don't spend much time on Gawker, I'm usually over on the Consumerist, or on Jezebel.... But really it's the same everywhere, on every blog I see, certain people bitching endlessley about not being entertained properly. I've taken to calling it the "Culture of Contempt". Not only do people constantly complain and take joy in posting insults directed at the writers trying to entertain them, but they have nothing else to contribute, not just to the comment sections, but they have nothing to contribute, other than contempt, to internet culture as a whole. They find it quite easy to pass judgement on those who offer original content because they have no original content of their own to offer. I wonder if they even understand what original content means.

These are just your average idiots, unfortunately they are connected the same way non-idiots are. For those of us who aren't idiots, we know how to post a critical comment without, for the most part, being needlessly cruel. I learned years ago that if you have to point out something that someone has done wrong, you'd better first point out something they did RIGHT if you don't want to sound like a complete ass.

"Wow, that's an interesting story... I really like the angle you went with, very original... 1 thing though...(insert criticism here)"
compared to
"Wow, you suck, you misspelled a word you idiot"

I wish, if it were possible, that there was a penalty box of sorts... if you post an asshole comment, that comment gets moved to the "asshole box". Instead of simply deleting the offending comment (which only protects the offensive poster), or suspending their account, move it to the asshole box, so that we can go take a look at who has been stupid lately.

Commenting on Gawker is like playing online video games. In the online video games you assault the characters of the other players. On Gawker you assault the character of the other players.

I'm not a mean commenter. I'm nice! And I like your posts.