[Random Acts of Meanness]

I'm taking a brief time out from usual Ellen coverage for what may be an abuse my bullhorn...but I will get back on message by the end of this post, because its main topic actually is pertinent. And then I will never return to it again.

FOOEY ON STFUCORPORETTE.

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a tumblr consisting in screen shots of Corporette comments annotated with snarky remarks by the author. I'm not linking to it because I'm writing to express my very lack of support. I just decided that my most recent visit will be my last. I've never enjoyed it or found it funny, but I used to go back once in a while anyway. Desultory curiosity, I suppose, or interest in an obvious counterpart since we can both be considered Corporette parasites. (Oops, para-sites? I swear all these hideous puns lately have been accidental.)

Anyway, since pageviews are a web author's best estimation of impact, I'm resolving to give this tumblr at least minus one from now on. While it's very easy to find it in your browser, I recommend you don't visit the site either.  

Any anonymous internet presence can choose to emit negativity into the ether just for amusement. We're all strangers here, right? So just insult people and hurt feelings, whether targeted toward individuals or groups! Make someone's day at least a little bit worse! Encourage everyone to wonder all the time if they're about to be humiliated on your site, and once they have been, to check back regularly to see how many readers are joining in the jeering! They asked for it, after all, posting things about their lives on the internet! So why not?

Because it's mean. I just don't see a benefit in unfunny ridicule, especially as the sole purpose of your tumblr. (And now Twitter too? Oooh.) If you absolutely must write mockery of earnest people who are debating career dilemmas, self-conscious about their appearances, or struggling with relationship problems, get a pink floral diary with sequins, lace, and a clasp lock, and put it all in there where it can't hurt anyone. When you're done getting out of it whatever you needed to get out of it, you can throw the diary away.

One of the many things I love about Ellen is that she almost absolutely never takes part in sniping or fires back at commenters who attack her. (Yes, I can think of at least one instance, but in my expert opinion that was a different Ellen than our usual.) Ellen has plenty of criticism for the characters in her life, but she only congratulates and compliments other Corporette readers. She's ridiculous, but never a force for harm. She even insists on seeing Corporette as a warm and fuzzy community of "Freinds on this web sight" (my favorite tag here) despite so, so, so many instances of people making fun of her, insulting her, or demanding that she leave--which they're of course entitled to do. When the ABA Journal site banned her, she let some sparks fly, but quickly made lemonade in the form of a pink BLAWG that we all know and miss. Ellen alter-egos have also been supremely tame over the years, making beef only with Ellen herself (if anyone).

So speaking of making beef. I debated publishing this for a while, and I decided to go ahead, but as an ending rather than a beginning. Of anything. This means I am not interested in any catty rejoinder from STFUCorporette or her fans. In fact if anything of such kind shows up here in comments, I will delete promptly, JSFAMO. Consider it a one-off call for kindness, or at the very least non-meanness, in the internet world of idle writing and reading.

Life's too short. Internet people are real. I'm done even hate-reading these random acts of meanness.

Your freind on this web sight,
ELLENWatch