Posted 11:11 AM by Anonymous

The Anonymous Assclown Factor

Closely related to Raymond's topic Getting Regular Visitors to Your Site is the Anonymous Assclown Factor. This term was first coined (I believe) by Pjammer, but I'm borrowing it because I think its a nifty term.

Inevitably as your site becomes more popular you are going to have undesirable elements frequenting your site. The Anonymous Assclown Factor can be defined in the following way: The popularity and hit count of your website is directly proportional to the number of complete morons that frequent your site leaving negative comments and/or guestbook entries, a.k.a. anonymous assclowns. These people were most likely lacking in familial affection when they were younger. Now they use the "king maker" abilities of the internet to ruthlessly stalk people and assert power anonymously to cause hurt in an attempt to make up for a lack of meaning and power in their own lives.

I first experienced this a few months ago and my initial reaction of course was anger. However, sage advice from many of my friends online convinced me that the best way to deal with anonymous assclowns is to ignore them and quietly send an email to their ISP if you feel it is warranted. Giving them the attention they so desperately seek only exacerbates the problem.

So, while we are talking about building popularity of your website lets not forget some of the negative aspects of it. They can be mitigated but they are frustrating nonetheless.