Blogging Etiquette

As a new and upcoming blogger, I have taken an interest in blogs that my friends have created. This leads me to the point of my current blog. I know that blogs are casual and not necessarily subject to the normal rules and regulations of writing. But there is a certain etiquette which needs to be taken into account with reading, reviewing or critiquing someone else’s writing, be it in the intense context of workshop or the laid-back environment that a blog allows.

Interlude.

A close friend of mine is spending the semester studying in the magnificent, rustic town of Florence. To enable her to show all of her friends what’s going on in her life across the big pond and also to stay in contact, she started a blog that basically consists of her day to day events in Italy. Recently, she visited a food festival in Florence and created a post on her blog that explained and showed her and 2 friends eating large, Danish pretzels (these pretzels dwarf the normal human head, no joke, picture available).

In response to her latest entry, this is what the oh-so-clever pen name “anonymous” wrote:

Anonymous said...
You're a couple of porkers eating 3 BIG pretzels. Keep it up!!!!! You'll look like a GIGANTIC pretzel soon.
YOUR WEIGHT-WATCHER,

I would like to take this opportunity to say that everyone, no matter what the writing context is, should respect each other. And the nerve that this character had to write under “anonymous” really gets my goat. For all of you that have sat through my rant, I thank you and hope that, even if you are not a guilty party, take this nugget of respect to heart.