Just like in the real world, the Internet is filled with many different personalities. You have your rich snobs, your emo kids, and then you have the people who complain all the time.

There are some rather spiteful people out there, but I firmly believe that everyone should be entitled to their opinion, however unpopular. At the same time, I also firmly believe that if you’re going to voice your opinion, you should at least have the gutzpah to put your name behind your words. That’s why the comment form in this blog is open to all visitors, so long as they put in a name and an email address (I will never spam you). Naturally, there are going to be people who take advantage of this open forum. Many are spammers, but Akismet can peg those off without too much trouble. Others, however, have much angrier motivations.

Yesterday, I said that I was not alone in being a young Canadian living at home. According to the survey, 50% of Canadians aged 20-30 are still living at mommy and daddy’s place. And then, a comment came in from an anonymous visitor:

Speculation about a drop in real estate prices is wishful thinking. You might as well stick a Dildo up your ass and wish for the tooth fairy to buy you a house.

The first sentence is perfectly fine. It states an opinion rather clearly. The second statement (pardon his French) adds nothing to the discussion and I personally think it detracts any credibility from the speaker. It’s juvenile, really.

The anonymous visitor goes on to say:

You can start saving money by skipping those Dot-Com-Poser lunches and countless restaurant outings. After all, a little bit helps. It did for me…

So, now I’m a dot com poser. I find that interesting, because I never did fulfill those arbitrary dot com mogul criteria. I’ve never claimed to be rich, though I do feel that I am fortunate to make a decent living as a freelance writer. I guess those “poser lunches” would refer to my weekly bowl of pho (I’m actually going later today) or the massive $60 burger I had earlier this week. What the commenter forgets is that these are not “poser lunches” as much as they are an opportunity to hang out with some friends and have some good conversation. My initial motivation to attend dot com pho was to network with John Chow, but the attendees are now my friends and I value their company.

I put up a post about sell out bloggers several months ago. These are people who sell their opinions, souls, and blogs to the highest bidder. I pointed out a guy named Lemuel Jopio (“Lemmy”), whose blog is filled with PayPerPost sponsored posts and nothing more. Apparently, Lemmy used to friends with John, Stephen and the rest of the “dot com” crew, but they have since fallen out of favor. Based on a bit of analysis, we have come to the conclusion that the anonymous commenter is most likely Lemmy.

Over at Stephen Fung’s blog, the same “anonymous visitor” left equally spiteful comments, again signing those words as some variation on “U-R-A-Dot-Com-Poser”. This was a few weeks back, and what’s worse, this guy goes on to attack Stephen’s charitable ways. He actually put Mr. Fung down for donating to charity. That’s… despicable.

On that note, let me open the forum back up to readers. Depending on how you frame it, I could be classified as a dot com poser. If that’s what you want to believe, that’s fine by me. But I’ve got to ask you: is it worse to be a poser who puts his name and reputation out there (i.e., me) or is it worse to be an “e-thug”, hiding behind a keyboard and posting anonymous hate-filled comments? As Russell Peters once said, “Be a man. Do the right thing.”

Lemmy, if you’re reading this, you need to stop being bitter and just let go.