blog commenters are a g.i.f.t.

This sort of G.I.F.T., that is. (y’know, if that strip weren’t so accurate, I wouldn’t refer to it so darn much)

I was just taking a little break to catch up on my RSS feeds and I saw the following headline over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Does the iPhone shaft the blind? Short answer: From what we’ve seen (no pun intended) so far? Yes. However considering the recent release and internet buzz, it does seem like a headline designed to drive traffic to TUAW. Not that it isn’t a valid concern and certainly food for thought, but at this point I’d say it’s too early to tell. Especially for a writer that, aside from needing glasses for clear vision, isn’t blind and therefore doesn’t know all that much about alternative interfaces for what we consider everyday items.

Still it’s the tone of the comments that really gets to me. There’s a resounding “Who cares?” coming from the majority of people chiming in. With “OMG this is a stupid blog post!” holding a close second. The latter answer is pretty common, and seems to always resist being defused with a simple “Then why did you bother reading it AND making comment?” It’s the former answer that I’m sure is only coming by the grace of internet anonymity. I mean if these people were chatting with friends, or at a party and it came up as the subject of conversation, would they really blurt out such an insensitive statement? Then again due to social insulation of mostly surrounding ourselves with people that act and think as we do, I suppose they might, but in my circle of friends such a remark would be a conversation killer (I hope). Add to this that I’m sure a lot of people making comments are web developers, many of which have to be concerned about usability, so it’s not all that far-fetched to take a step outside your status-quo for a second and give another point of view a little thought before dismissing it as unnecessary.

It’s probably just me though, this is riding on the coattails of my annoyance with a fellow co-worker that uses the term “that’s so retarded” a little too much for my taste. I don’t know exactly why it gets on my nerves, a least a little bit of it stems from being plain ol’ vague english, but like many other common-use terms, I just can’t stand that one and see no reason to use it myself, and unfortunately I let it cloud my opinions of others that do use it.

Hm, yes, this would be the cranky part of being sick… pay me no heed.