HUBPAGES: HATE CRIMES ON LINE

Usually when we speak of hate crimes, we refer to crimes or hate speech directed towards a particular group. Most of us are familiar with hate crimes and speech against those who are different from us in race, sexual preference, religion, or nationality. It is possible to commit a hate crime; however, against someone who is not a member of a minority group. It is even possible to commit a hate crime on line, as I discovered yesterday.

The world is full of people, and as writers we encounter them all. Many of us have opposing opinions and viewpoints, and never is this more evident than in the average day of a writer. While I tend to avoid conflict 99% of the time, occasionally an offensive comment is made to one of my writing posts. My first impulse is to strike back as I feel my blood pressure begin to rise, but I then must ask myself if I want to go on record with an angry comment, and the answer is always a resounding no. A few times I have reacted, only to return to the site shortly afterwards to remove my own comment, and sometimes the comment that provoked it as well. This usually resolves both the issue, and my state of anger. Sometimes; however, it is not that easy.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH AN ON LINE HATE CRIME

Yesterday I received a comment on my demand Studios hub. The initial comment not only disagreed with my views on demand Studios, but also insulted me personally, causing me to feel anger. I defended my stand on the site, and considered the issue a thing of the past; however, the offending hubber would not cease coming to my site, bashing it, and leaving highly offensive comments on it. I finally entered a comment defending my position as that of many, as evidenced by my other hub comments. My comment apparently offended the individual to a point at which he or she declared all out war on my demand Studios site, and me as a writer, intending to control the flow of my hub comments, and change them from positive to negative.

I began getting a series of hub comments disagreeing with my stand, but the obvious difference was in the number and type of comments I was receiving. While the demand Studios hub has been a very popular and highly rated hub, it generally receives from 8 to 15 reader hits a day, and 99% of its comments have been very positive. Suddenly it was receiving close to 300 readers in a single day, and all comments posted were negative, and many of an extremely insulting nature. While most readers were voting the hub up, and not leaving comments at all, I began to suspect something was going on out of the ordinary, as the hub is a full year old, and not generally subject to that much attention.

I suspected my hub was being linked to an unfriendly hub or posting where people who knew little or nothing about me were directed to visit my site with negative comments. Because this was not a natural flow of comments, but biased ones, I soon began denying all comments to the site unless they were from a confirmed fan or someone I knew, and deleted all comments made by the opposing party. When this did not stop the flow of angry writing, I posted a question to the hubpages community requesting information on how to report another hubber to the hubpages team for harassment. Almost immediately, I received two responses sending me links to the forum I suspected existed, and sure enough my hub link was included in the forum thread of a hate filled hubber whose main purpose appeared to be sending negative comments to my site.  I actually avoid forums because I have found them to be argumentative and negative, and this one certainly fit the norm.

ALMOST LIKE A TRAUMATIC EVENT

The sudden surge of angry attacks was emotionally draining to say the least, and left me in a state similar to that of a traumatic event. Since the hub has existed without problems for a full year now, it is obvious the hub is not the problem, but the intent of this single particular hubber, obviously provoked by the first hubber who seemingly has some serious control issues. I spent most of yesterday denying hub comments inspired by this deranged individual rather than by my writing, as the hub has received mostly positive reviews and comments before. This situation also turned something I usually enjoy receiving, hub comments, into something I resented having to deal with at all.

THIS IS A HATE CRIME

While I am not naming anyone involved in this hub, I consider this behavior, and anyone who followed this negative link to my site guilty of a hate crime against me. I do not want your comments, neither am I interested in comments or opinions inspired by hate or control tactics. I know of one individual who has already been flagged by my on-line friends, but this was not even the user name of the initial hubber; therefore, I suspect more than one person may be targeting my hub for negative comments.  I did visit the site of the person I was linked to on the forum, and noted that she recently began following the original hubber who left a rude and insulting comment on my site.  I know neither of these people, and am amazed they find my freedom of speech as threatening as they appear to do.  If writing makes me feel angry, I tend to leave the sight with no comment, and avoid the writer's hubs afterwards.  Never do I harass and discuss that individual with others.  Free speech is the right of every American, and should be the right of all people.

I HAVE NO INTENTION OF CHANGING MY HUB ABOUT DEMAND STUDIOS OR BACKING DOWN FROM MY INITIAL OPINION OF THEM

Haters and those who left negative comments on my hub inspired by the negative writer on the forum, you have attempted to intimidate the wrong person. I still stand behind every word I wrote in my original hub, and have no intentions of backing down to your threats or attempts to wear me down. At least one of you has been flagged, and I'm about to ask people to flag anyone else they discover who is using a link to try to control the flow of comments to my hub about demand Studios. In the meantime, absolutely no negative comments will be accepted to the site, as I believe them to be biased and mean spirited. I have a right to freedom of speech, and the constitution of the United States grants me the right to write about anything I please. I do not have to ask your permission to do so, nor do I have to accept your comments. I now approve all comments to that site before they appear, so you will get no attention at all from your harassment, and no one will see your comment. I also will not even bother reading it before it is deleted. This is how I deal with attempts to control my behavior or writing. I reject them.

FANS AND FRIENDLY HUBBERS, PLEASE READ THIS REQUEST

If you see any hubber who is linking my demand Studios site to his or hers, or to a forum with negative intent to do damage to my image or the image of my hub, please flag it immediately. I do not want hate groups controlling the direction of my hub traffic, nor the comments I receive. In fact, I'd rather these people not visit my sites at all. I sincerely thank anyone who has already flagged such sites, as these types of people are not only destructive to me, but are the types who will also target other writers.