[KindDragon]

> Everyone wants to help each other. And people are far kinder than you may think.

I want to believe that. When I was a student, I built a simple HTML page with a feedback form that emailed me submissions. I received exactly one message. It arrived encoded; I eagerly decoded it and found a profanity-filled rant about how terrible my site was. That taught me that kindness online isn’t the default - it’s a choice. I still aim for it, but I don’t assume it.

[netule]

I’ve found that the kinds of people who leave comments or send emails tend to fall into two categories:

1. They’re assholes.

2. They care enough to speak up, but only when the thing stops working as expected.

I think the vast majority of users/readers are good people who just don’t feel like engaging. The minority are vocal assholes.