An Open Letter: Thank you.

Earlier this week I posted a post that focused on author harassment of bloggers, if you haven’t yet read it the link can be found below:

• An Open Letter To An Unnamed Author: Stop The Harassment.

The post it self was a follow-up to a post that I had written a month ago about the blogger bashing that had been going on with people calling bloggers ‘not real readers’ and in that post I mentioned author harassment but only touched on it lightly. If you wanted to check that post out the link can be found below:

• An Open Letter To The Uninformed Masses and The Haters.

Don’t worry this post isn’t blatant self promotion of my earlier posts and there is an actual reason behind it!

The post on author harassment was a tough one to both write and to post. The actual writing of it was easy enough in that it hadn’t happened to me personally, but it was a hard subject to tackle as it really shouldn’t have needed to have been written in the first place. Harassment in today’s day and age just isn’t acceptable! I am not the most eloquent writer out there especially when it comes to something that annoys me and so, it was written with my usual distinctive and sarcastic wording.

I also didn’t want to feel that I was crossing over any boundaries, as I just said it hadn’t happened to me personally and had happened to another blogger that I know. I wasn’t sure that it was my place to actually write something, but on the other hand I felt that it was an issue that needed addressing and bringing to light within the blogging community as it shouldn’t be happening. The blogger in question wouldn’t have written the post, I know that and luckily they didn’t disagree with me when they found out that I had written one. To the crazy, weird and outright wacky anonymous blogger, I say thank you for not taking issue with me venting on your behalf.

I didn’t want the post to come across as an attack on authors either, it’s sad to say but it only takes one bad individual to give a whole group a tarnished name, but that is also an unfair assumption as on the whole you are all a pleasure to work with. Authors are wonderful, giving us all, the books and stories that we love regardless of our ages or preferred reading genre, and for the countless hours of joy that they have already given me and for the countless hours still to come I say, simply thank you. 

I also didn’t want the post to come across like it was aimed at just one person and seem like a vitriolic attack on just them personally. Yes, for the most I alluded to a certain author as it was their actions on the blogger who caused me to write the actual post, what they did was reprehensible and they needed to be seen to account for it, but I didn’t want to stoop to a personal attack on them and come across like I was just bad mouthing them for the sake of it, the whole point of the post wasn’t about that author as an individual but authors as a collective who have hassled bloggers, they all need to know that it isn’t acceptable behaviour.

I didn’t want to cause the blogger in question any further hassle due to the post and hopefully there won’t be any, it was my words and my idea. This was my major concern over posting the blog post as it would have been/will be unfair if there are any repercussions, I’m hoping not but if there is the blogger is under orders to tell me and I told the author as such that it was my post, any issues take it up with me – so far they haven’t and I am hoping for all that it is the end of the issue.

We are all different, some of us are happy with confrontation and will write about things that we feel need writing about even if it could cause trouble ,while others want a quiet and stress free time, perhaps due to that we let issues like this stay hidden under the surface as we don’t want to cause ripples by saying anything, after all they are authors and we are just a single small blogger, that doesn’t make any difference, we are all people.

I didn’t want to overstep  boundaries with the actual post and luckily none of you saw it that way, it was an important issue that needed addressing and none of you seemed to think that it wasn’t my place to write the post, for that I am grateful, sometimes those who won’t say anything need someone to say it for them and be their voice and this time I was, the voice of the voiceless! CM Punk WWE reference, got to get one popular culture reference in.

OK, onto the main point of the post and that is to thank you all for the support, the likes, the FB shares, the retweets and Twitter shares from the post but also mainly the comments. I know they meant a lot to the mysterious and unnamed blogger, the outpouring of support and encouragement that the blogger was in the right to bring this issue to light, to the attention of others and to get help with it and while they can’t say it personally, please know that they really appreciate it.

And for me to, the outpouring of support in favour of the post shows me that after struggling with whether or not I should post it, questioning myself if it was my place, asking would it help or hinder, could it cause offence and outrage and even would it make things worse. All the comments in favour show me that I was right to post and that it was beneficial as it has brought an important issue to light.

So, without any of my accustomed sarcasm, from both me and the anonymous blogger, from the heart I say to you all:

Thank you!!!

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