TL;DR

You may be mistaken into thinking that I am an angry grumpy person, just from the evidence presented here on 0ddness. Those that know and love me (which is everyone, by the way!) know that while I rant and rave about stupid things, it doesn't mean I am angry, just bitching like a manly man.

Before the days of blogs and social networking sites, everyone that wanted to chat to everyone else used forums, and before THAT there were newsgroups. All these sites - new and old - are prone to the bane of the internet, that is The Troll.

The Troll is the person that pops up during a conversation, says something shitty, and the conversation spirals out of control with slagging one another off, bitching and moaning and - you get the picture. Trolls, however, thrive on attention, and the best way to deal with one is to ignore it. If you've got a fire going nicely, you wouldn't throw petrol on it to see what happens?

However, there are other idiots on the web, and I have been susceptible to them for a long time. You may have noticed, when I write something out, I write something out. I don't just hit out Point A, Point B and Point C, I explain my reasoning.

My first experience with one of these idiots was on a Newsgroup relating to a Roguelike-game I used to play. Me and a couple of developers were chatting on this thread, and I was asked to list out a post regarding one of the games. Pros, Cons, possible flaws, improvement suggestions - so I did just that.

Out of nowhere, someone pops up and their entire reply was "LOL, TL/DR"  Those eight characters really pissed me off. I had spent ages going over everything, yet someone decided not to read it, just hit me with TL/DR: Too Long/Didn't Read.

Now, I shouldn't respond to these people, but I did, and spent three days bickering with this guy who was adamant postings over a certain size were the bane of the internet, that people had things to do that didn't involve reading through paragraph after paragraph of writing.

To this day, whenever I see the "TL/DR" stamp on a post, I have to bite my proverbial tongue. If you couldn't be arsed to read it, why bother replying? Over the years, it's happened a few more times, but I usually just slap the offender on an ignore list - if I am moderating a group or forum, that person gets banned.

Why? Because I'm an arse.

I like to write. I like to prattle on about whatever catches my attention, or things that are amusing (even if it's just amusing to ME!) I could quite happily sit here day in day out, either waffling on about This, That or The Other, or even doing some sort of writing for a living. At the end of the day, 0ddness is here for my benefit. I write my stuff down because, well, I want to. Granted, I know about three people on the planet read it and enjoy most of the stuff I put on here, but it's mine.

Yes, I agree, this post is kind of all over the place. And that's fine, because I am exhausted and in lots of pain. And I am sure there will be some smart-arse that will comment with "TL/DR!" and so be it. If, however, you genuinely believe my writing is boring, too long, goes no where or whatever, please bare in mind you don't have to sit there reading it.

OK, I think I'll get some painkillers now.