How do you behave?

I need to talk honestly to you all.  I really need and want to know what kind of blogging etiquette there is and what you follow?  We’ve had a squabble on here over a stupid joke.  This has happened to me one other time and it was the same thing, over a joke with a woman who I wouldn’t have wanted to hurt for the world.  But I did and I apologized and through emails, she did say she was feeling insecure and like everyone was talking about her but come on, I don’t know her.  I know nothing about her just like I know only the things about you that you tell us.  How could I know things like this?  She turned it into “her” and it wasn’t about “her.”

I guess really, I’m getting tired of being a referee and tired of the same old arguments with the same people involved over and over. I have the same types of people in my real life and I don’t see most of them unless I have to.  You know the kind I’m sure.  The ones who are self centered and only want to draw everything back to them.  No matter what you say, they know someone who did it better or had it nicer.  

Then there are the arguers.  The ones that no matter what anyone says, they want to argue.  You can even agree with them and not mean it just to avoid the whole scene and wouldn’t you know, they changed their minds and now disagree with what you said even though yesterday, this is what they told you.  

Or you have the person who’s a reformed smoker or drinker who can’t stand anyone having a social drink or smoking a cigarette like they’ve lived their whole life like Mother Theresa.  How can you win with a person like this?  There really is no winning because these kind of people just must not be happy and that’s why they want to make everyone else suffer.  You know the kind of tension there is in a room with a person who’s like this and it’s FROSTY.

Then you have the sarcastic ones.  The snarky smart alacks who make a joke out of everything or just act flip all the time.  Then the one time it’s is a joke and everyone is fooling around and having fun, then they’re serious.

I’ve gone to many, MANY commercial blogs.  They tend to get really nasty at times.  They do tend to have the highly volatile subjects that turn your everyday nice guy into the wicked witch of the west.  They bait everyone with circumcision, breast feeding vs bottle, stay at home moms vs working moms, public schools vs private schools and all kinds of subjects like these.  I honestly feel these types of blogs bait us.  They want the hits so they post these kinds of posts to get you to keep coming back and to get people to fight so the comments go through the roof.

But on a personal blog, like ours, I almost feel like it’s our home.  If you went into someones home would you tell them their furniture is ugly or you hated the music they were playing?  Would you be totally rude or would you act polite? I’m not talking about lying. I’m talking about being kind to someone in the privacy of their own home.  Don’t you feel like your blog is yours and you can write about things that you want and expect not everyone to agree with you but to be kind about it?

I just can’t understand how anyone can take a joke and turn it into a war.  Here is the definition of joke.Main Entry: ¹joke 
Pronunciation: 'jOk
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin jocus; perhaps akin to Old High German gehan to say, Sanskrit yAcati he asks
1 a : something said or done to provoke laughter; especially : a brief oral narrative with a climactic humorous twist b (1) : the humorous or ridiculous element in something (2) : an instance of jesting :KIDDING <can’t take a joke> c : PRACTICAL JOKE d : LAUGHINGSTOCK
2 : something not to be taken seriously : a trifling matter <consider his skiing a joke — Harold Callender> — often used in negative constructions <it is no joke to be lost in the desert>

I seriously considered taking the jokes off our blog but I’ve talked to a few people who’ve sat me down and said “it’s your blog, do what YOU want to do.”  I do like having a joke and I think most of us need a chuckle sometimes.  If I’m at someones blog and I don’t think something is funny, I just don’t comment.  Likewise, if it’s a subject that I either don’t know what to say, or really don’t have anything worthwhile to say.  I will give my opinion if it’s asked for or if it’s like our blog, answer, or try to, the post that’s there that day but jokes are just jokes.  They aren’t intended to hurt anyone and really, if you don’t appreciate that kind of humor, why would you make a big deal out of it?  

I guess to me, it’s like this.  There are millions of blogs.  Why go to the ones that bother you and you never seem happy or you always disagree with everyone there?  Why torment yourself?  I know my blog tastes change and a lot of the blogs I used to go to, I don’t go to anymore for one reason or the other.  Either my tastes changed or writing styles changed or people just seem to change sometimes but I’ve never been rude about it nor was I ever rude to the blogger.  I just kind of disappeared.  Face it, people come and go sometimes.

I guess the bottom line is, if you don’t like our jokes, TOUGH.  This is our blog and we plan to do what we want to do and what makes us happy.  Jokes aren’t intended to be taken seriously nor are they intended to be torn apart and analyzed.  If you don’t care for one, please just take them for what they are, jokes.